the eighth part of the exhibition is devoted to royal patronage. what you see first is the section on robes of honour. they've been a huge motor for the production of luxury textiles in iran. in order to be a proper ruler, the ruler had to have very large stocks of luxury textiles. because it was the custom that, when people came to court, such as an ambassador or a vizier who's done a very, very good job for the ruler — the ruler would present them with a special robe which would be placed over their shoulder. robes of honour were either sold off because they were so valuable, or they were recycled into other objects. we've isolated two in the v&a collection —