Textile-related papers, talks, exhibitions and books

A new paper by OATG member Chris Buckley has been published in Asian Archaeology.

“This paper presents a new map and account of the emergence and spread of spindle whorls in archaeological sites across southern China and southeast Asia. Spindle whorls are evidence of intensive yarn production, and hence of weaving. In the past two decades a considerable amount of new data on the presence of spindle whorls in the archaeological record has come to light, along with improved dates for existing sites.” – Chris Buckley.

A free copy of this fascinating work can be downloaded here.

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A special exhibition dedicated to weaving with banana fibre (bashofu), is currently taking place at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Osaka This exhibition is entitled Kijoka’s Bashofu Story and will run until 19 December 2023.

A short video of the banana fibre exhibition.

The exhibition features the work of master weaver Toshiko Taira, and you may find this article about her by Toshie Tanaka of interest.

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Next a reminder of an exhibition still showing at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. Textile Masters to the World – the global desire for Indian Cloth runs until 31 December and “spotlights the historic global impact of textile production in India, and its role as evidence of trade and cultural exchange between India and regions such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Europe from the 14th to 19th century.” – ACM website

An overview of the exhibition. Image © ACM Singapore.

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OATG members Chris and Angela Legge have an exhibition of Central Asian Ikat of the Nineteenth Century in their Oxford gallery until 21 October 2023, featuring some really stunning textiles. Open Thursday to Saturday and by appointment.

An Uzbek silk robe, currently on display at Legge Gallery in Summertown, Oxford.

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The next OATG event takes place this Thursday 12 October at 18:30 BST in Oxford. Our speaker will be collector and writer Jonathan Hope, and his subject is Some observations on historic Javanese batik. He will show a series of images of batik being prepared and worn in central Java and will discuss the significance of certain traditional patterns and he will share some memories of travelling in Java over a period of almost half a century. He will also bring some textiles from his extensive collection to show attendees.

This event is of course free to OATG members. Non-members are welcome to attend for a small donation. Please click here for more details and to register.

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A new exhibition devoted to Syrian textiles will open on 14 October 2023 at the Katonah Museum of Art, in New York State, and will run until 28 January 2024.

“Stories of Syria’s Textiles: Art and Heritage across Two Millennia highlights textiles’ outstanding contributions to Syrian culture during antiquity and the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as today……. In the exhibition’s first section, which focuses on the ancient cities of Dura-Europos and Palmyra, ancient textile fragments will be displayed with sculptures that depict people wearing luxurious clothing with intricate embroidery and silks from China: together, these objects evoke and attest to Syria’s role at the western edge of the Silk Routes in antiquity. The second section features clothing designed and created by skilled artisans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These textiles reveal the social and cultural traditions not only of elite city residents in Aleppo and Damascus, but also of desert nomads and villagers living in the Syrian countryside and mountains.” – museum website.

Woman’s coat, probably from Northern Syria, late 19th-early 20th century. Photograph courtesy of the Museum of International Folk Art.

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The next event to be hosted by the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California will take place on Saturday 21 October 2023 at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 1800 BST. This is a Zoom talk by author Sheila Fruman and her subject is Pull of the Thread: Textile Travels of a Generation, based on her new book of the same title.

“Sheila Fruman has concentrated on nine intrepid travelers from the 1960s up to now, who, in their youth, combed the streets and bazaars of Central and South Asia finding, researching, collecting and selling antique woven ikat and embroidered Uzbek textiles and robes, Kashmir shawls, Anatolian kilims, Turkmen carpets and many other textile treasures to interested Westerners.  This generation of dealers and collectors all made important and even essential contributions to their fields, publishing books, staging exhibitions, and often gifting items to major institutions such as the V&A and MET.” – TMA/SC 

Pip Rau in her Islington shop in the 1980s

One of these intrepid travellers was Pip Rau. I never had the chance to go to her shop, but did visit a wonderful exhibition of her Central Asian ikat textiles – twice!

This Zoom talk is free, but you do need to register for it here.

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On Sunday 22 October 2023 at 11am OATG member Walter Bruno Brix will be giving a talk at the Museum of Folk History in Vienna as part of the re:Pair Festival. His subject is Mottainai – don’t waste anything!

“Repairing has a long tradition in Japan. Especially with textiles, which are valuable because they had to be made entirely by hand. Obtaining the fibers, spinning the threads and weaving required a lot of time. So it’s understandable that every little scrap of fabric was used and every piece of textile was repaired and recycled. Pants and jackets, even entire garments, were lined with other fabrics and sewn through with small stitches to make them warmer and more durable. Today, sashiko is mostly only known as a decorative technique; it was originally used to make textiles last longer. The word ‘boro’ means shreds in Japanese.” – museum website

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Selected textile events – please note registration for one of them ends today.

Apologies for the short notice for some of these events. I’m heading off to Indonesia soon and rushing to complete everything before I leave!

The Fashion and Textiles Gallery at the ACM (Asian Civilisations Museum) in Singapore has now reopened. Textiles Masters to the World: The Global Desire for Indian Cloth features a display of stunning textiles and garments that were produced in India and traded to regions in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe, and Japan from the fourteenth to the nineteenth century. Find out more about this exhibition here.

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The Textile Society (UK) is offering awards of up to £5,000 for a textile related project within the museum, archive and conservation sector.

“The Museum, Archive and Conservation Award is designed to support textile related projects within a museum, archive, or conservation studio for an exhibition, publication or conservation project that will help achieve greater awareness and access for the public.

The Textile Society invites applications from all museums, archives and conservation studios with accredited or provisionally accredited status.

Priority will be given to applications from small to medium sized institutions with an annual turnover of less than £750,000 per year.” Please note that the closing date for applications is 1 May 2023. More information of how to apply, and details of the projects undertaken by past winners can be found here.

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I haven’t come across the tradition of barkcloth in Uganda previously, so was interested to hear of this online talk hosted by WARP (Weave A Real Peace). It takes place online this Saturday 15 April at 1100 ET, which is 1600 BST.

“For more than 700 years, the legacy cloth, lubugo (barkcloth), made from the mutuba tree (ficus natalensis) has been used to clothe Ugandans, bury the dead and mark sacred ceremonies in Uganda. In 2005, it was designated as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO to be preserved and protected. Today, it is inspiring contemporary artists, designers, scientists, scholars and researchers locally, regionally, continentally and globally. It has an exciting future but faces several challenges, such as deforestation and the passing away of the elderly skilled masters without their children continuing the tradition. The Bukomansimbi Organic Tree Farmers Association (BOFTA) and a global group of collaborators are working together to strengthen Uganda’s barkcloth industry and preserve this tradition for future generations.” – WARP

Click here for more details and to register for this free talk.

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Another event taking place the same day, but this time in-person, is the latest programme from the TMA/SC (Textile Museum Associates of Southern California). Janet Seward will talk on the subject of Guatamala Dress: Diversity and Evolution, followed by a Show and Tell of textiles from her collection.

“Isolated villages in the rugged mountains of Guatemala have each developed their own wildly different, yet still traditional clothing. Woven on backstrap looms for over 2,500 years, the costume of each town continues to evolve, and at one time instantly signaled a person’s origin, and their economic and marital status. There are preferred colors in each village and sometimes a complete change of design between an everyday huipil (blouse) or a ceremonial one from the same place. The huipil, the most recognized piece outside of Guatemala, is a tribute to womankind’s capacity for innovation, her joy in individual creativity, her pride in her traditions and her display of admired skills as well as her wealth.”

This event begins at 1000 PT, but registration closes at 1700 PT TODAY, so don’t delay!

All images © Janet Seward

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Next Wednesday 19 April ORTS (Oriental Rug and Textile Society) will hold an in-person event in London. Dr Benjamin Hinson of the V&A will talk on Collecting Late Antique textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum: Greville Chester, Gayet, Thomas and friends.

“The Victoria and Albert Museum holds one of the world’s largest collections of Late Antique and early Islamic textiles from Egypt. Parts of the collection’s history, and the figures responsible for helping to form it, are well known – others much less so. This talk will outline some of the key individuals, but also several of the lesser-known, who donated or sold Egyptian textiles to the V&A in the 19th and 20th centuries.”

This talk is free for members, with a charge of £7 for non-members, and takes place at the University Women’s Club in Mayfair. Click here for more details.

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Sunday 23 April is the date for the annual Textile Society’s Antique and Vintage Textile Fair in Manchester – not to be missed!

“The Textile Society celebrates Manchester’s heritage as the powerhouse of British textile design and manufacture. The Manchester Antique & Vintage Textile Fair is the hub for all passionate collectors of textiles. It was the first antique fair to specialise entirely in historic textiles, and it has remained a key event in the textiles calendar since 1992. From world textiles to mid-century modern, from Art Deco to vintage fashion, the fair is an exciting and abundant source for objects and ideas, wall art or wearables, the beautiful or the kitsch.”

I’ve found some wonderful things there in the past and highly recommend it. Full details can be found here.

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Also taking place on Sunday 23 April is an online presentation hosted by the International Hajji Baba Society. The speaker is Austin Doyle and his subject is Shahsevan Pile Rugs and Bags.

“The Shahsevan are well recognized for the brilliant colors and fine weaving of their sumak production, but their pile weaving has been difficult to identify, much less to attribute to particular Shahsevan tribes. The Shahsevan originally had a nomadic life-style and it was surmised that they had little need or ability to weave heavier pile carpets. The pile weavings attributed to them were often small and crudely designed pieces.

The Shahsevan were not a monolithic tribal grouping and included members of Afshar and Turkicized Kurdish groups, both known to be prolific pile weavers. It also appears that some Shahsevan groups were only semi-nomadic through much of the 18th and early 19th century, and interacted closely with village groups in the Caucasus, Karadagh, and other parts of northwest Persia. Austin Doyle will review the structural characteristics, colors, and design features that may indicate Shahsevan production or influence, and will discuss pieces which might tentatively be assigned to particular areas or subgroups of the Shahsevan.”

This free online programme begins at 1300 ET, which is 1800 BST. More details and registration can be found here.

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Finally the next OATG event takes place on Thursday 27 April 2023. This will be an online presentation by independent scholar Thweep Rittinaphakorn, better known to his friends as Ake. His subject will be Frontiersmen of the Crossroad: The Fusion Style of Shan Chinese Dressing.

“Chinese Shan costumes, particularly those of females, are a crossbred fusion between the tradition of Tai apparel and Chinese style adornment and adaptation. The most outstanding items among the repertoire are the female festive skirts. They provide a stunning sight to those who have seen them. They have profuse, eclectic, and gaudy decoration, incorporating different material and embellishment techniques, unlike any other kind.

Relying on photographic evidence taken at the turn of the century, old books & early traveling memoirs, plus current dressing practice and physical material evidence drawn from private collections, this talk will first provide an initial backdrop of Chinese Shan culture, then dive deep to discuss their dressing style, accoutrements, plus embellishing technique and the materials used.”

Ake is an independent scholar whose work focuses mainly on textiles and arts history of mainland Southeast Asia. He curates The Siam Society’s textile collection and is a regular speaker to the Siam Society, Thai Textiles Society, and The Bangkok National Museum Volunteer group.

Examples of festive tube skirts used by Chinese Shan ladies from Dehong area, Yunnan with sumptuous decorations of silk satin panels, miniature applique trimming, and embroidery panels.

Please note that this programme begins at the earlier than usual time of 1630 BST, as our speaker is in a different time zone. Full details and registration for this event can be found here. It is of course free for OATG members, but there is a small charge for non-members.

Ake is also the author of Unseen Burma: Early Photography 1862-1962, published by River Books. This is a record of photographs from his amazing personal collection.

“When the British colonised Burma, they brought with them the latest technology in cameras and photographic reproduction, and since these were introduced to Burma as early as the middle of the 19th century, the country is richly catalogued and photographed. The new technology was first popularised by western practitioners (Germans, Italians, and, of course, the British) and upper-class patrons, but then spread to the mass market. “

It is already available in Thailand, and you can see some of the pages here. It will be available internationally in late May/early June.

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Female anthropologists, textiles and carpets from India, Indonesia and Persia, an exciting textile fair and curating opportunity…..

On Saturday 10 September experts from the World Textile Day team will descend on The Guild Hall in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, for a one day pop up textile bazaar. They will bring with them a range of amazing textiles for sale from around the globe. They will also be happy to look at any textiles or pieces of costume you bring in to help identify what it is and where it comes from – they may even offer to buy it!

Experts confirmed are:

• Martin Conlan of Slow Loris Textiles – an absolute authority on the minority textiles of southwestern China with stunning indigos, embroideries and fabulous costume pieces.
• Susan Briscoe well-known author, teacher and expert in Japanese textiles.
• Tanya Byrne of The Running Stitches with beautiful kantha work scarves, throws and quilts from northern India.
• John and Joan Fisher with a stunning collection of applique and quilting from Egypt.
• Diane and Jim Gaffney of Textile Traders with their 40 years of experience in south east Asian textiles – particularly in the batik and ikat of Indonesia and the indigo and natural dyes of Northern Thailand.
• Magie Relph and Bob Irwin of The African Fabric Shop with an amazing array of West African wax print plus textiles from the traditions of all the corners of the Continent.

Entry is free and the event runs from 10 am to 4 pm. More details here.

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On Saturday 17 September batik expert Sabine Bolk will give a talk at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore on Developments in Batik history in the 19^th century, imitations, and other influences from abroad. This is in conjunction with the current exhibition Batik Kita: Dressing in Port Cities.

Detail from a batik Belanda (Dutch batik) inspired by images seen in European fairy tales and magazines. “Slamet Pake” is urban slang of “Selamat Pakai”, meaning “enjoy wearing”. Kain panjang (detail). Central Java, Pekalongan, 1920s. Batik tulis. Cotton, synthetic dyes. ACM, T-0811.

Please note this is an in person event and is not available online.

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Also taking place on 17 September is an online talk as part of the Textile Museum’s Rug and Textile Appreciation sessions. The subject this time is Carpet Masters of Persia, and the speaker is Hadi Maktabi, the author of The Persian Carpet: The Forgotten Years, 1722-1872.

He will present “a detailed overview of the urban workshop tradition in Persia from the Timurid era to the 20th-century revival. This virtual lecture will cover all major weaving centres and explore the distinct characteristics of workshop structure and organization in each”.  – TM website

Detail of a wool carpet made in Isfahan by the workshop of Agha Ahmad Ajami circa 1900, depicting an ancient Persian queen called Pourandokht.

This free talk begins at 11:00 EDT, which is 16:00 BST and you can register for it here.

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Now to a hybrid talk, which will take place in person in Oxford, as well as on Zoom. On Wednesday 21 September anthropologist and author Frances Larson will talk about her book Undreamed Shores: The Hidden Heroines of British Anthropology.

“In the opening two decades of the twentieth century, at a time when women were barely recognized at the University of Oxford, five women trained at the Pitt Rivers Museum and became Britain’s first professional female anthropologists. Between them, they did pioneering research in Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Siberia, Egypt, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and the pueblos of southwest America. Through their work they challenged the myths that constrained their lives. Yet when they returned to England, they found loss, madness and regret waiting for them.” – PRM website

Maria Czaplicka, author of Aboriginal Siberia: a study in social anthropology. © Pitt Rivers

The talk begins at 18:00 BST and you can register for either the in-person event or an online ticket here.

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Also taking place on 21 September, but this time in Canberra, Australia, is a talk by Toolika Gupta, the Director of the Indian Institute of Craft and Design. Her subject is Sherwani: The influence of British rule on elite Indian menswear.

She will explore “the history of Indian menswear fashion by looking at the changing trends— clothing preferences, popular garments, and style—during the British rule. She traces Indian menswear from the 17th century to the early decades of the 21st century narrating how the flowing jamas and angrakhas of the earlier era changed to the achkan which was followed by a more tailored sherwani during the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries.”

Painting of last Nizam of Hyderabad accompanied by men some of whom are sporting sherwanis. Source: Wikipedia

This talk takes place by Zoom at 18:00 local time, which is 09:00 BST and 13:30 in Jaipur. More information and a link to registration can be found here.

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On Saturday 24 September the San Diego Museum of Art will host an online talk by Sylvia Houghteling, Assistant Professor of the History of Art at Bryn Mawr College. Her first book, The Art of Cloth in Mughal India, was published earlier this year. The subject of this particular talk is Cultures of Cloth in Mughal South Asia.

“In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a vast array of textiles circulated throughout South Asia in the lands ruled by the Mughal Empire. Made from rare fibers and crafted using virtuosic techniques, these exquisite objects animated early modern experience, from the intimate, sensory pleasure of garments to the monumentality of imperial tents. This lecture tells stories of how textiles crafted and collected across South Asia participated in political negotiations, fostered social conversations, and conveyed personal feeling across the breadth of the Mughal Empire.” – museum website

Persian courtier (detail), ca. 1615. Opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper. Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, 1990.457.

You can find out more about this lecture, for which there is a small charge, and register for it here. It begins at 10:00 PDT, which is 18:00 BST.

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Some rug and textile groups have really come into their own during the pandemic. One of these is the New England Rug Society (NERS), who have an excellent programme of online talks, and a newsletter called View from the Fringe.

On Saturday 24 September Walter Denny, author of How to Read Islamic Carpets, will give a webinar entitled What the Hell Is That? – Encountering Unknown Carpets in Private and Museum Collections and the Marketplace.

“One of the pleasures—and frustrations—of studying and enjoying carpets is encountering the unexpected or the unknown. Yesterday’s close encounters with alien carpets have often morphed into today’s basic knowledge. In this illustrated lecture, Walter Denny will discuss his experiences with “wild cards” that have continued to appear, with disconcerting frequency, during his fifty-six years of studying, photographing, and analyzing carpets in private collections, museum collections, and the marketplace.” – NERS newsletter

Kilim fragment © Walter Denny

The webinar begins at 13:00 ET, which is 18:00 BST and you can register for it here.

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I was contacted recently by Jill Winder, Associate Curator (Decorative Arts & Artefacts) at the University of Leeds – the home of the International Textile Collection. They are looking to recruit a Project Collections Officer to catalogue a significant collection of Indonesian textiles.

Double ikat from Bali. Coleman Collection

This collection was previously loaned to them by a member of the OATG. Closing date for applications is 23 September 2022 and you can find out more about it here.

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A selection of upcoming textile events

PLEASE NOTE Subscribers who usually read this blog via their email may need to click on the blue title to access it through our WordPress site instead to enable them to watch the video.

A new exhibition opened a couple of weeks ago at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. Entitled Batik Kita: Dressing in Port Cities it shows batik as a shared southeast Asian cultural heritage. It features over 100 textiles from overseas as well as from local lenders and of course the ACM collection.

This article from The Straits Times is well worth reading for background to the exhibition.

Cotton batik tulis sarong bukitan of daisies with racing green kepala and badan in salmon pink with latticework isen isen filling.
Java, Pekalongan, 1930s – 1960s © ACM

The London-based Muslin Trust works to protect, preserve and promote Bangladeshi heritage fabrics. One of the most important among these is jamdani, which was used to make saris and stoles. It is so light that it has been described as woven from air. For several years they have been involved in a project called Bringing Jamdani to England. Part of this involved interviewing women who arrived in England in the 1960s and 1970s. “Their sense of self and belonging were expressed through the ritual of wearing a Jamdani sari; to reconnect with the culture they left behind”.

The V&A collection includes a jamdani stole, which was purchased at the Great Exhibition of 1851. This stole has never before been on display. This short video features extracts from the BBC2 series Secrets of the Museum, focussing on this stole. We learn about the history of the jamdani trade, and watch as 171 years of dirt are removed from this precious weaving before it is finally revealed to a group of Bangladeshi ladies from the Muslin Trust.

In complete contrast the new exhibition at the V&A showcases Africa Fashion.

Kente cloth from Ghana, made 1900-1949. These cloths were traditionally woven by men using a small double-heddle handloom.

“Starting with the African independence and liberation years from the mid-late 1950s – 1994 that sparked a radical political and social reordering across the continent, the African Cultural Renaissance section looks at the long period of unbounded creativity……The Politics and Poetics of Cloth considers the importance of cloth in many African countries, and how the making and wearing of indigenous cloths in the moment of independence became a strategic political act…..The first generation of African designers to gain attention throughout the continent and globally can be seen in the Vanguard section.” – Museum website.

Nelson Mandela commemorative cloth made in 1991.

The exhibition is now open and runs until April 2023.

The next OATG event will take place on Saturday 16 July, when Yulduz Gaybullaeva will discuss Uzbek headdresses as an integral part of heritage. Dr Gaybullaeva’s thesis was on The history of Uzbek women’s clothes of 19^th-20^th centuries, and her presentation will include skullcaps, shawls and paranjas from museum collections in Uzbekistan.

This is an online event and as it will begin at 15:30 BST we hope that many of our international members will be able to join us. It is free for OATG members and there is a small fee for non-members. Click here for more information and to register.

 Uzbek bash orau headdresses. ©Yulduz Gaybullaeva

Also taking place on Saturday 16 June is a talk by Alberto Boralevi as part of the Textile Museum Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning series. The subject he will be addressing is What is a Jewish Carpet?

“Alberto Boralevi began his research on rugs and carpets with Jewish features or Hebrew inscriptions in the 1980s, when they were mostly overlooked both by carpet scholars and specialists in Jewish art. There are several difficulties for considering Jewish carpets as a specific group, since fundamental differences in origin, age, design and technique can be found among them. Boralevi defines Jewish carpets as any carpet or rug with a Jewish design, Hebrew inscriptions or any other feature that could prove that it was woven by Jews or commissioned by a Jew or for a Jewish purpose.” Museum website.

Mamluk Torah curtain (parokhet), Egypt, c. 1500-1550. Museo della Padova Ebraica, Padua.

This online talk will begin at 11:00 EDT, which is 16:00 BST and you can find out more about it and register here.

From Indonesia to the Arctic, Greece to Iran, Russia to the Indus Valley and more!

PLEASE NOTE Subscribers who usually read this blog via their email may need to click on the blue title to access it through our WordPress site instead to enable them to watch the video.

There is just so much going on in the textile world at the moment, that this will therefore be quite a long blog,,,,,

OATG member Lesley Pullen is the author of a new book examining the way textiles were presented on eighth to fifteenth century Javanese sculptures. “The equatorial climate of Java has precluded any textiles from this period surviving. Therefore this book argues the textiles represented on these sculptures offer a unique insight into the patterned splendour of the textiles in circulation during this period. This volume contributes to our knowledge of the textiles in circulation at that time by including the first comprehensive record of this body of sculpture, together with the textile patterns classified into a typology of styles within each chapter.” Patterned Splendour has a large number of detailed illustrations, which should provide an invaluable resource for the reader.

A new display was revealed at the Fashion and Textiles Gallery of the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore on 5 April 2021. It is based around the theme Fashionable in Asia and a good overview of the themes covered and some of the textiles on show can be found here.

According to the museum’s website “Early fashion theorists excluded the non-Western world. They saw dress of “uncivilised” people outside of urban Europe as static and unchanging, hobbled by tradition. Seeking to challenge Eurocentric misconceptions, with the latest display in the Fashion and Textiles gallery, we re-centre on Southeast Asia, where indigenous fashions moved at their own pace and with their own standards – but were no less fashionable!”

Image courtesy Adriana Sanroman, From Birth to Death: The Silk Flower Industry in Mexico, Session 1A.

The 2020 Textile Society of America Symposium Hidden Stories/Human Lives had, of necessity, to be held online. The advantage of this virtual format is that the TSA were able to record many of the sessions. Those recordings have now been made available. The subjects are incredibly varied – the silk flower industry in Mexico, inscribed textiles from Egyptian burial grounds, the white Haku of Peru, Hmong dress in China and the ‘Mamluk’ quilt cover, to name just a few. There are over seventeen hours of recordings – enough to satisfy even the most devoted textilian! The easiest way to work out which parts may be of most interest to you is to go to the pdf of the full programme here. The programme is listed on pages 19-27, followed by the abstracts for each paper. Simply identify the talks of interest to you and which session they were part of. For example “Materials and Making of Ṭirāz Textiles” was the third paper in session 2A. This should help when deciding which recordings to watch first.

Next Thursday, 6 May 2021, Dr Moya Carey (Curator of Islamic Collections at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin) will be the speaker for an online event hosted by the Hajji Baba Club of New York. The title of her presentation is Safavid Dynastic Vision: Shah Tahmasp’s Commission of the Ardabil Carpets. The pair of Ardabil carpets were woven for the Safavid dynastic shrine in northwestern Iran. Today they are celebrated as masterpieces of sixteenth-century design and technique,. One of the pair is in the V & A Museum and the other is in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. “Remembered together, the pair offer a rich context for Safavid Shah Tahmasp’s visionary intentions, for himself and for his dynasty’s sacred tomb complex in Ardabil, northwestern Iran. This talk examines Iran’s political conditions in the year 946H (1539-40, the date woven into each carpet), and the likely dynastic significance of the two hanging lamps that form each carpet’s central axis.” – Hajji Baba website. The talk begins at 11:00 EDT, which is 16:00 BST. To attend the meeting please compete the RSVP here.

One of the ceremonial robes which will be displayed during the exhibition

On 8 May 2021 a new exhibition entitled The Spirit Wraps Around You: Northern Northwest Coast Native Textiles opens at the Alaska State Museum in Juneau, Alaska. “This exhibit traces the history of the sacred textiles known today as “Ravens Tail” and “Chilkat” robes. Two dozen robes will carry the story of Native weaving among the Tsimshian, Haida, and Tlingit of Alaska and British Columbia, representing both ancient and modern ceremonial robes made by Alaska Natives and First Nations. Woven from the plush white fur of mountain goats, these robes were seen by early Euroamerican visitors to the northern Northwest Coast when they contacted First Nations and Alaska Native people. Their use was confined to sacred ceremonies, where dancers wore them to display the crests of their clans. Robes were also used as diplomatic gifts to other clans and tribes. In the 1900s, only a few weavers carried these unique tradition into the 21st century.” – museum website. The website mentions a couple of lectures. I have checked with the museum and there will be limited attendance with online registration opening soon. The good news is that they also informed me the lectures will be recorded. More information when I have it!

Cushion Cover, Crete 17^th-18^th century. Linen, cotton and silk. EA2004.6

The next OATG talk will take place on Thursday 13 May 2021 at 18:30 BST. The speaker will be Dr Francesca Leoni, Assistant Keeper and Curator of Islamic Art at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The subject will be Drawing with Silk: Greek Island Embroideries in the Ashmolean Museum. This talk will explore the visual richness and technical sophistication of 18th- and 19th century Greek embroideries, as well as their debt to the many artistic traditions that flourished around the Mediterranean. It is based on the exhibition Mediterranean Threads – Greek Embroideries 1700 – 1900 AD, which Dr Leoni curated. An online interactive version of the exhibition is available here.

Dr Leoni has also written a very interesting article for HALI, explaining how a discovery in the Ashmolean Museum’s archives threw fresh light on an important area of British textile collecting – the acquisition of Greek island embroideries – and led to a new exhibition and catalogue.

OATG members should now have received their invitation to this talk, but still need to register for it. It is also open to non-members for a small donation. Click here for more details.

Valance. Nineteenth century, Olonetskaya province. Russian State Museum (Boguslavskaja 1975 fig. 22).

On Saturday 15 May 2021 Andrea Rusnock will give an online talk on Russian Folk Embroidery, hosted by the San Francisco School of Needlework and Design. Andrea is a Professor of Art History and will be discussing “Russian embroidery at the end of the Imperial period, when middle-class women increasingly created their own needlework, aided by a proliferation in pattern books, and, at the same time, there was a renewed interest in folk embroidery.” This talk takes place at 10:00 PDT, which is 18:00 BST, and you can register for it here.

The Chintz: Cotton in Bloom exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London is due to open on 18 May 2021 subject to government guidelines. This exhibition has been organised by the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, where a version of it was on display in 2017. “

The complicated technical craftsmanship required to fix bright dyes to cotton, devised across centuries and using complex chemical formulae, meant that for many years Chintz was a closely guarded secret, or preserve of the elite. However, by the 18th century chintz had become more widely accessible. The lightweight, washable, gaily coloured and boldly patterned cottons eventually became a sensation throughout England and across Europe. These developments resulted in the intricate, colourful flowers of chintz fabric being cherished and preserved by generations.

Chintz: Cotton in Bloom showcases some 150 examples of this treasured textile, originating from all around the world; from mittens to wall hangings and from extravagant 18th-century sun hats to stylish mourning dresses.” – FIT website. For more details and booking please click here. You may also enjoy reading this short blog about chintz by Emma Sweeney.

© TRC Leiden

The buteh/boteh motif often appears on chintz, so I thought it was worth sharing the link to this talk by Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood of the Textile Research Centre, Leiden. Many thanks to Cheri Hunter of the TMA/SC for this information. Gillian recently did a Zoom lecture for the Fowler Textile Council, examining the global history of the paisley pattern. The recording of this talk can be viewed here. If you want to know more about this motif it is also well worth visiting the website of the TRC Leiden, which has an excellent online exhibition on the subject.

Stone statue of the Priest-King discovered in Mohenjodaro. He is believed to be wearing resist-printed ajrak cloth.

Those with an interest in early textiles will want to sign up for this talk, Cotton & Colour: A Deep History of Indus Valley Textiles, hosted by the Royal Ontario Museum on 18 May 2021 at 16:00 EDT, which is 21:00 BST. From the earliest evidence of cotton (7,000 BCE) to the importance of fibre arts in the emergence of early urban centres, ROM botanist Deborah Metsger and archaeologist J. Mark Kenoyer will explore the rich and diverse history of textiles in the early settlements of the Indian subcontinent. Click here for more details and to register.

Young woman’s outer parka, Kalaallit, Greenland – before 1860s. © British Museum

The British Museum exhibition Arctic: Culture and Climate has now ended, but the good news is that the museum have now made a virtual tour of it available. You can take your own route, or go to specific sections – the parka above is from the ‘weather proofing’ section. Clicking on the lower case ‘i’ gives additional information. Highly recommended!

Finally, readers will know from my previous blogs of the devastating impact Cyclone Seroja had on the tiny eastern Indonesian island of Savu. I know some of you contributed to the appeal for help, and thought you would like to see that the first load of roofing material has now arrived. This had to be transported ashore by small boats as the jetty is still blocked by a capsized ferry.  If you would like to help please go to the Tracing Patterns Foundation website and ensure you click Meet the Makers – Tewuni Rai as the destination for your donation.

Events: Textile events in London and Singapore

Lots of exciting textile events happening soon!

22 – 30 June

It’s going to be a busy week in London with the Handcrafted Heritage events celebrating Indian textiles at The Bhavan in West Kensington, which is the largest centre for classical Indian arts and culture outside of India. A free exhibition and sale will showcase heritage textiles including Benarasis, Patan Patolas, and Dhakai Jamdanis and vintage silver jewellery.

On Wednesday 26th and Saturday 29th June there will be a workshop devoted to patolas. The tutor for this workshop will be Shri Kanubhai Salvi, a master weaver and holder of the UNESCO Seal of Excellence Award. His family have been producing these double ikat textiles in Patan for many generations.

Photo courtesy of Patan Patola Heritage

Also on 26 June (but in the evening) there will be a screening of the fascinating documentary Legend of the Loom, which tells the story of Bengal muslin and how the trade in it flourished and then declined. The screening will be followed by a conversation session with its producer Saiful Islam. An excellent review of this film by Hannah Sayer can be found here.

 

21 June- 8 September 2019

Opening shortly at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London, is an exhibition entitled Weavers of the Clouds: Textile Arts of Peru. This exhibition ” explores the processes and practices of both historic and contemporary Peruvian costume via garments, textiles, photographs, tools, illustrations and paintings, dating from pre-Hispanic to present day.”

Photo courtesy of Fashion and Textile Museum

There will be a panel on the opening day discussing Peruvian Fashion with several of the designers whose work is featured in the exhibition along with its curator. Attendance at the panel is free with an exhibition ticket, but places must be booked as numbers are limited.

Contemporary designs by Mozhdeh Matin, who works with artisans and champions Peruvian textiles and techniques

24 – 30 June 2019

HALI London – this is a series of events to celebrate the 200th edition and 40th year of HALI. These include a fair with twenty of the best international dealers in attendance, a 6-day tour of Great British Collections, two symposia – each with twelve lectures, and a whole series of miscellaneous events. Full information can be found on their website. Please note that several of the events have already sold out – so act quickly if you want to book for those that are still available!

Selected highlights:-

The exhibition at Francesca Galloway’s gallery entitled Textile Splendours From The East. “The gallery will present a plethora of textiles from Asia, including a magnificent Sogdian costume, a delicate Ming period needle loop embroidery, Indian chintzes for domestic and export markets, as well as textiles made for spiritual pursuits.”

One of the items featured in Francesca Galloway’s exhibition

The other event that really stands out (of those that are not already sold out) is the visit to the Karun Thakar Collection. Participants will go to Karun’s private residence where they will be able to view his extraordinary collection. This includes Asian textiles ranging from 14th century Indian Trade cloths to folk textiles and costumes from Central Asia, Japan, Bhutan and Afghanistan; African textiles—predominantly narrow loom weavings from Ghana, Nigeria and other West African countries, plus North African embroideries, veils and haiks from Morocco and Tunisia.(Information from Hali website). You can browse through images of some of his collection here.

Winter chuba from Western Tibet

15 June – 15 September 2019

Finally a new exhibition has just opened at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. Guo Pei: Chinese Art and Couture showcases twenty pieces from the Museum’s own collection along with twenty nine pieces created by the designer.

Image courtesy of the Asian Civilisations Museum.

Curator led tours will be held on 26 June, 31 July and 28 August and can be booked via the museum website. Steven G. Alpert has pulled together a huge amount of information about this exhibition on his excellent website Art of the Ancestors. It has stunning images and information on the links with the Peranakan – the golden bridal dress is simply a work of art! It seems pointless for me to attempt to replicate Steven’s piece so instead I simply recommend you click here to read it.

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Event: Textile talks and more in Singapore

Event date: Friday 22 February and Monday 25 February 2019

 

Ikat loseng – photo copyright John Ang

Investigating the origins of Ikat Loseng: Malaysia’s Lesser Known Warp Ikat

Many of us have heard the term kain limar, which refers to the famous weft ikats from Malaysia’s northeast states of Terengganu and Kelantan. However ikat loseng, a warp ikat produced in the same states of Malaysia, is largely unknown. John Ang’s interest began with the purchase of his first Malay ikat loseng. Although he told many of his textile collector friends that it was from Terengganu, they insisted it was a warp ikat from Uzbekistan. The similarities between the two were intriguing and inspired him to investigate if there was a connection. His talk will focus on this investigation and its interesting results.

John Ang, who was based in Taiwan for over 30 years but has recently moved to Kuala Lumpur, is an avid collector of textiles. In recent years he has focussed his attention on the textiles of the Malay world and frequently contributes to the journal Textiles Asia.

Friday 22 Feb 2019, 10:00am (for 10:30 start),  Indian Heritage Centre, 5 Campbell Lane, Singapore

 

Kelingkan embroidery – photo copyright John Ang

All that Glitters is not Gold

John’s second lecture is on the subject of kelingkan embroidery. This is a quintessentially Malay textile using flat metal strips to embellish the cloth. John will discuss where and how it was produced, and its possible origins. A short article on this subject, written by Adline Abdul Ghani (formerly of the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia) can be found here.

Monday 25 February 2019, 11:00am, Ngee Ann Auditorium, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore

 

Raffles in Southeast Asia: Revisiting the Scholar and Statesman

Finally, this major new exhibition is opening at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore on 1 February 2019, and runs until 28 April 2019. It reexamines the life of Sir Stamford Raffles. According to the museum’s website “Sir Stamford Raffles was an official with the British East India Company stationed in Southeast Asia between 1805 and 1824. He is known for establishing Singapore as a British port, as the author of The History of Java, and as a collector of natural history and cultural materials. Opinions of Raffles have changed over time. He has been viewed as a scholarly expert on the region, a progressive reformer, a committed imperialist, and even a plagiariser. In keeping with the Asian Civilisations Museum’s mission to explore encounters and connections, this exhibition presents a complex, multilayered picture of Raffles while presenting the rich artistic and cultural heritage of Java and the Malay world.”

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