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48
Probably East Turkestan
Tie-Dyed Felt, 18th
or 19th century
.This delicate felt has become so
thin in places that it was judged too fragile to exhibit. It is
nevertheless catalogued here as an unusual example of an important
and venerable textile craft practiced in many of the same areas that
produce kilims and knotted pile rugs.
Felt is made from carded wool
soaked in hot, soapy water and repeatedly rolled and pressed until
it forms a dense fabric, a process that almost certainly predates
loom weaving. In its thickest and sturdiest form, felt is made into
tents and carpets; it is also used for hats and clothing, animal
trappings, and tent or house furnishings. The light weight of this
piece suggests that it served as a tent hanging or a ground cover
when food was served.
The "bull's eye" devices of this
felt were obtained by tie-dyeing after the felting process was
complete. This decorating technique is rarely used for felts, which
are more often inlaid with different colored wool before felting or
else embroidered afterwards. Only two comparably made examples have
come to light, and their place of origin remains in doubt.1
The "bull's eye" design is generally related to motifs on ikat
(warp-dyed) and susani (embroidered) textiles from West Turkestan.
But due to its closer resemblance to a resist-dyed cotton cloth with
disk-shaped motifs,2 this felt is tentatively attributed
to East Turkestan. Its delicacy and sophistication suggest that it
was the product of an urban workshop, perhaps in Kashgar or another
city of the Tarim Basin.
J.B.
1. These two felts, which are
similar in pattern but much thicker, are in the Museum fur
Volkerkunde, Basel. Alfred Buhler, in Ikat, Batik, Plangi,
Basel, Pharos-Verlag, 1972, vols. 1 and 3, nos. 415 and 417,
attributes them to Tibet or Mongolia, although no other textiles
like these are known from either place.
2. Illustrated in Buhler, nos.
407 and 408, and in Jack Lenor Larsen, et al., The Dyer's Art,
New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976, p. 30. This piece was
acquired in Kashgar in 1929.
This entry is based on the
research of Jeff Spurr, Islamic Cataloguer, Aga Khan Program,
Harvard University Fine Arts Library.
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