Non-Verbal Language of Peshkir Motifs in Turkish Culture: a Case Study of Peshkir Collection in A.r. İzzet Koyunoğlu Museum

Abstract

Traditional textiles have been essential items of daily life for centuries, reflecting the feelings and thoughts, tastes, and cultural identities of societies. Among the traditional textiles, a peshkir is a type of napkin or towel used to wipe the mouth during meals and for drying hands. It also has an important place among the traditional textiles in many parts of Anatolia, where young girls and women embroider their feelings, longings, and love through motifs and colors. With the structural change in society, peshkirs have been replaced by industrial productions and surviving examples are being donated to ethnographic museums or purchased for private collections. In Konya, a city in Turkey, the A. R. İzzet Koyunoğlu Museum is one of the museums seeking to keep the tradition alive. In this article, it is intended to underline the importance of peshkirs in Turkish culture from a design perspective considering their decorative features. This case study focuses on eight peshkirs from the A. R. İzzet Koyunoğlu Museum, which were selected from a broader collection of 30 peshkirs. While the sample size is modest compared to the hundreds found in other collections, these particular pieces represent an unpublished segment of the museum’s holdings. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.