February textile events and a fond farewell

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This Saturday the Museum of Asian Art in Bath will be celebrating the Year of the Dragon, with a variety of family-friendly events.

“A traditional Lion Dance will lead you into the beautiful Bath Assembly Rooms for a day of creative workshops, chopstick challenges, and more. Look to the stars in our pop-up planetarium, where the team from The Herschel Museum of Astronomy will explore fascinating stories about the cosmos linked to the dragon and the moon (book here). Listen to a concert by Bath local Lydia Sun as she plays the guzheng, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.” – Museum website

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Meanwhile in Seattle celebrations of a very different culture will be taking place. The Seattle Art Museum will be hosting Knowledge, Transmission, and Embodiment in East Javanese Performing Arts as part of their Saturday University sessions. Please note that this is an in-person event.

“This presentation will explore the spiritual knowledge, or ilmu, that performers imparted on UW professor Christina Sunardi while conducting fieldwork on gamelan music and dance in Malang, east Java from 2005–2007…….. Through their beliefs, practices, and verbal discourse about ilmu, musicians and dancers in Malang maintain and produce local systems of knowledge, transmission, and competence. The presentation will be accompanied by a musical performance by Ki Midiyanto.”

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Saturday 10th February is a very busy day, as the Textile Museum and New England Rug Society are co-hosting an online talk entitled Reconstructing the Chehel Sotun Carpet. Maggie Squires of the Courtauld Institute of Art will be the speaker, and will trace and reconstruct the history of this massive carpet. It was “woven in the late 17th century for the Chehel Sotun palace in Isfahan, Iran. In the late 19th century, the carpet was cut up and sold as fragments, which are now distributed across at least eleven different collections across the world.

Squires’ research engages with digital methods to virtually reconstruct the complete carpet based on archival evidence, historical descriptions and physical examination of the fragments. The reconstruction has implications for our understanding of Safavid palaces and their furnishings in the 17th century, as well as artistic exchanges between Iran and the Deccan during this time.” – Museum website

The talk begins at 1pm EST, which is 18:00 GMT and you can register for it here.

The Chehel Sotun palace in Isfahan, Iran. © guenterguni/iStock.com.

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A new exhibition opened on 1st February 2024 at the Nickle Galleries in Calgary and runs until 28th March 2024. Kyrgyz Textiles: Introducing the John L. Sommer collection is curated by Michele Hardy and builds upon the travelling exhibition Reeds and Wool: Patterned Screens of Central Asia that the gallery hosted back in 2009.

The collection of the late Dr Sommer, including felt textiles and carpets, reed screens, and most importantly his notes and photographs, was recently donated to the Nickle Galleries. On Tuesday 13th February at noon Michele will lead a tour of this exhibition. Click here for more details.

To learn more about reed screens in Central Asia read this post in my new blog.

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The OATG AGM takes place on Saturday 17th February, and members should have already received their invitations to this event. The formal proceedings begin at 14:00 and will be followed by a Show and Tell session, which is always good fun, provoking a stimulating discussion. This is also open to non-members for a small fee. Check out our Events page for more details.

A Palestinian dress shown at a previous Show and Tell by Helen Wolfe

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On Wednesday 21st February the Oriental Rug and Textile Society (London) will host a lecture by Martin Conlan of Slow Loris. His subject will be Tribal Wedding Blankets of South West China.

“Wedding blankets are often intricately woven, embroidered or resist-dyed decorative panels attached to the top of a quilt cover. They play a central role in the marriage customs and traditions of many communities in southwest China. For the scores of tribal groups inhabiting the remoter areas of the region, preserving their cultural identity has been a perennial challenge through historical transformations.” – ORTS

Martin will also be taking some examples to show attendees. This is free for ORTS members, but guests are also welcome for a small fee. For full details click here.

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Also taking place on 21st is a Zoom lecture by Patricia Bjaaland Welch, hosted by the Museum of East Asian Art. Her subject will be Here, There May Be Dragons: Symbolism In Chinese Art. This is a free Zoom talk that takes place at 12:30 GMT and you can register for it here.

“The dragon is undoubtedly the best-known symbol representing Chinese culture and folklore. But what is its origin? And what is the nature of the dragon? And when and where should we be looking for dragons? And why are there so many varieties?

With this illustrated talk by Chinese Art writer and researcher Patricia Bjaaland Welch, we will discover the many myths and truths that surround the dragon in Chinese history and art.” – Museum website

Wanli Era (4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620) Dragon Plate Courtesy of Patrick Kwok, Singapore

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A new exhibition opens on Saturday 24 February at the Textile Museum in Washington. It is entitled Irresistible: The Global Patterns of Ikat and runs until 1st June 2024.

“Prized worldwide for producing vivid patterns and colors, the ancient resist-dyeing technique of ikat developed independently in communities across Asia, Africa and the Americas, where it continues to inspire artists and designers today. This exhibition explores the global phenomenon of ikat textiles through more than 70 masterful examples from countries as diverse as Japan, Indonesia, India, Uzbekistan, Côte d’Ivoire and Guatemala.” – Museum website

Textile fragment (detail), Iran, 17th century. The Textile Museum Collection 3.103A. Acquired by George Hewitt Myers in 1931

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Finally, some personal news. This is my final Oxford Asian Textile Group blog as I’m standing down from my Social Media role at the AGM, but don’t worry – this blog will continue in the safe hands of our journal editor Gavin Strachan.

I’m not giving up on blogging though, so if you still want to follow my textile news and adventures, please check out my Asian Textile Studies blog. It’s quite a different style to this blog and I see them as complementary.

Thanks for your support over the past six years and farewell!

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An event next week, and something to look forward to in the future!

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Tatiana Krupa has been studying Kazakh textiles since 2009, and I featured an interview with her, which had appeared in Voices on Central Asia in a previous blog in 2022. An adapted version of that interview was published in our Asian Textiles journal in Spring 2023 (Number 84). Members will have received a hard copy at the time, but it can also be accessed through the password-protected section of the OATG website here.

Left: Fragment of a woman’s robe of the Golden Horde era from excavations of the Tokov burial mound in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine. Right: A polychrome silk, seen under a microscope, from the Kimak-Kipchak period (9th−12th centuries) from excavations of the Baidala burial mound in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan.

Next Wednesday, 31st January 2024, the Department of Archaeology of the University of Cambridge will host a free online talk by Tatiana, which begins at 13:00 GMT. The title of her talk is Research of golden threads of Ukraine and Kazakhstan: comparative analysis.

“Chronologically, the research materials cover a period of 1400 years, spanning from the first century CE to the 15th century CE. These materials were discovered on the territories of Ukraine and Kazakhstan and share significant commonalities. The comparison enables a broad examination of the history of Eurasia, emphasizing the uniqueness of production technologies and the use of golden threads.” – Tatiana Krupa

For more details of this talk please click here.

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Exciting developments are currently taking place in Oxford with the construction of the Collections Teaching and Research Centre (CTRC), just next to the Pitt Rivers Museum.

“Housing more than 8,000 textiles from the Pitt Rivers Museum and 4,500 from the Ashmolean Museum, the new Collections Teaching & Research Centre will contain one of the world’s most important textile collections, with early Māori Cloaks, arctic intestine garments, Pharaonic linen weaving from c.2800 BC, over 1,000 early Islamic embroideries, and seventeenth-century English embroideries. New accessible storage in the Centre will allow for stabilising, researching, conserving and examining these incredible collections.” – Oxford University website

In addition this new space will provide new research and teaching opportunities, a dedicated space for photography and digitisation and a modern conservation studio.

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New Year, new textile events!

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On Wednesday 17th January 2024 the Oriental Rug and Textile Society (ORTS) will hold their first in person lecture of the year in London. The speaker is Avalon Fotheringham of the V&A, and her subject is Connecting Threads: New Investigations into Madras Handkerchief Exchanges between South India and the Caribbean.

“Connecting Threads is an AHRC+NEH funded humanities project dedicated to exploring how Indian cotton weavers and their customers across the Global South impacted wider fashion histories. The project is now entering the second phase of its pilot case study, which focused on the South Indian ‘Madras Handkerchief’ and the impacts of its consumption in the Caribbean. This lecture will summarise the project’s findings, including new discoveries which shed light on the possible origins of Madras and the importance of the Caribbean market to global trade and fashion.” – ORTS website

The talk begins at 18:30 GMT and is free for members. Guests are welcome upon payment of a small fee, but do need to contact Dimity Spiller in advance.

Linen Day, Roseau, Dominica – A Market Scene, by Agostino Brunias, c.1780. Yale Centre for British Art.

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Also taking place on Wednesday 17th January 2024 is the first online lecture in a series hosted by the Washington-based Textile Museum. These lectures will all be given by authors who have contributed to the most recent issue of the Textile Museum Journal. The speaker is Nikolaos Vryzidis, who specialises in the medieval and early modern Mediterranean. He will be discussing a fourteenth century Asian silk in a monastic Greek manuscript. Dr Vryzidis will demonstrate how the “study of this rare and intricately patterned textile can contribute to our knowledge of the importation and dissemination of Asian silk damasks and damask-like fabrics in late medieval Europe.” – Textile Museum website

This online talk begins at noon EST, 09:00 PST, which is 17:00 GMT and you can register for it here.

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On Thursday 18th January 2024 the Katonah Museum in New York State will hold an online talk linked to their current exhibition on Syrian textiles (which closes on 28th January). In Syrian Textiles Up Close leading experts Deniz Beyazit and Julia Carlson will “discuss how the fine garments designed and created by skilled artisans in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reveal social and cultural traditions.” – Katonah Museum website

This free talk takes place at 14:30 PT, 17:30 ET, 22:30 GMT.

Man’s abaya (cloak), from Aleppo or Damascus, late 19th-early 20th century

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The London Antique Rug and Textile Art Fair (LARTA) runs from Tuesday 23rd to Sunday 28th January 2024 in Battersea Park. According to their website this is “the UK’s leading annual fair dedicated to the appreciation of antique rug and textile art. Our specialist event brings together quality decorative pieces and interesting collectors’ items presented by some of the UK and Europe’s most dynamic and knowledgeable dealers.

Our aim is to promote this vibrant art form to a wide audience, and offer a tempting array of textiles and weavings for sale. The scope of our interest is broad, and includes weavings from the Far East, Central Asia, Persia, India, Turkey, the Caucasus as well as from Europe and Africa, and from all periods up to the early 20th century. Customers typically include collectors, interior decorators and designers, private buyers and international dealers.” – LARTA website

Information on the exhibitors can be found on their website.

Image from a past LARTA Fair. © The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair / John Englefield

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Wednesday 24th January 2024 sees the second of the Textile Museum talks by authors featured in its journal. The speakers are Anna Jolly of the Abegg-Stiftung and Corinne Mühlemann from the University of Bern. They will be discussing two velvet Iranian letter pouches, which are currently held in the Danish National archives. They believe that the letters which these pouches once held can help to date the textiles to pre-1637.

“By placing the two letter pouches in the context of diplomatic exchange between the Safavid court and a European court, this case study highlights the role luxury textiles played in 17th-century Iranian diplomacy.” – Textile museum website 

This online talk begins at noon EST, 09:00 PST, which is 17:00 GMT and you can register for it here.


© Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen. Photo by Pernille Klemp.

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On Saturday 27th January 2024 the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California will host and online talk by Professor Walter Denny entitled How We Look at Turkish Carpets: James F. Ballard and a New Way of Collecting. In this talk Professor Denny “will focus on carpets from the Ottoman Empire acquired by early 20th century American collector James Ballard.  Ballard’s collection, today divided between the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Saint Louis Art Museum, has influenced a century of American carpet collecting and changed the way we look at carpets made in Anatolian workshops, villages, and nomadic encampments.” – TMA/SC

This Zoom talk takes place at 10:00 PT, 13:00 ET, which is 18:00 GMT and you can register for it here.

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The final talk in the Textile Museum journal series takes place on Wednesday 31st January. This time the speaker is Yu-Ning Chen and her subject is Mosurin Wool Textiles in Imperial Japan.

“Chen discusses military-related patterns on mosurin fabric, representations of mosurin in print media, including Japanese prewar textbooks, and descriptions of both the consumer culture surrounding this fabric and the female factory labor involved in its production in modern Japanese literature.” – Textile museum website

This online talk begins at noon EST, 09:00 PST, which is 17:00 GMT and you can register for it here.


Photo courtesy of Mukogawa Women’s University.

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Next some OATG news. Our AGM will take place on Saturday 17th February 2024 at 14:00 in the usual venue of the Ashmolean Museum Learning Centre. The formal proceedings will be followed by a Show and Tell, which is always a lively event. The Eventbrite invitations will be sent out in due course.

Image from a previous Show and Tell

Those who attended last year’s Show and Tell may remember Peter Umney-Gray and his scissor bags.

Short (24.2cm) and long (44.8cm) scissors with appropriate Shahsavan bags (29cm and 47cm), showing how short bags could possibly have been used for short sheep scissors.

Peter’s book Scissor Bags & Sheep Scissors in the Nomadic Tradition has now been published. With 292 pages and 299 illustrations this should surely satisfy any readers’ curiosity about this subject! It is available for £55 plus postage from Argali Publishing.

“Scissor bags, and the end-pivot sheep scissors they contained, have not until now been given the attention they deserve. The utilitarian purpose and ephemeral nature of these mainly woven objects by nomadic pastoralists have meant that not many of them survive….. The results of field research among the Shahsavan of Northwest Iran, the Sarıkeçeli Türkmen of the Toros Mountains, Türkiye, and the Uygurs of Xinjiang help to shed light on this tradition….” – Peter Umney-Gray

Inscribed end-pivot sheep scissors, Iran, lying on a scissor bag.

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OATG members who were unable to attend recent events will be glad to know that the recordings of the talks given by Sheila Fruman (Pull of the Thread: Textile Travels of a Generation) and Patricia Cheesman (Unravelling Tai Textiles from Laos) are available to view via the password-protected section of our website. Click here, then on the Members Resources link and enter the password.

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Selected textile events in early December

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A reminder that the next OATG event takes place next Thursday 7 December at 18:30 GMT. This is a Zoom lecture by OATG member Sheila Fruman, entitled Pull of the Thread: Textile Travels of a Generation. Sheila will present highlights from her recent book of the same name in which she studied “intrepid travelers [who]combed the streets and bazaars of Central and South Asia finding, researching, collecting and selling textile treasures to interested Westerners.  Taken together, their stories are an enlightening guide to understanding how we connect to the past, and how textiles connect the world.”

This should be of particular interest to OATG members as two of Sheila’s nine subjects – John Gillow and Joss Graham – are fellow members.

As usual this event is free for members, with a small fee payable by non-members. Click here for more information and to register.

To whet your appetite, an extract from Sheila’s book – along with some fabulous photos – is available to read in the Cabana Magazine blog here.

Pip Rau in her Islington shop in the 1980s

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On Friday 8 December 2023 a new exhibition, Conversations in Cloth, curated by Judy Frater opens at the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts.

This exhibition “explores the textile traditions of Kutch, a region in the western state of Gujarat, India. Invitations to participate in this exhibition were extended to eleven artists by guest curator, Judy Frater, who developed the first design school for traditional artisans in Kutch. The Kutch district is renowned for its textile traditions, including Badhani, a form of tie-dyeing, weaving of extra weft patterned blankets and shawls, Rabari and Suf embroidery, and Dhadki, a type of scrap quilt making, and carpet weaving. This exhibition showcases the exquisite work of the artists, while asking each of them to engage in a conversation through making with a quilt from the museum’s collection.” – museum website

Judy will host a guided tour of the exhibition from 4:30pm on the opening day, and there will be a Textile Artists’ Market the following day. Click here for more information.

Image: Work by Khalid Usman Khatri

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The Textile Museum in Washington DC will be holding another of its regular Rug and Textile Appreciation mornings on Saturday 9 December 2023. The speakers this time are Lily Hope and Zachary Jones and their subject is the Past, Present and Future of Chilkat Weaving.

“Originating in the Pacific Northwest, Chilkat weaving uses a complex finger-twined technique requiring immense skill, time and dedication. These boldly patterned robes, also called “dancing blankets,” are worn for ceremonial occasions by dignitaries and high-ranking tribal members of the Haida, Tsimshian, Tlingit and other Northwest Coast Indigenous peoples of Alaska and western Canada. A single Chilkat robe can take years to weave, and the knowledge of how to complete them has always been held by only a small number of weavers.” – Textile Museum website

This event starts at 1pm EST, 10am PST, 18:00 GMT. You can find out more and register for this free programme here.

Lily Hope wearing her artwork “Between Worlds.” Photo by Sydney Akagi Photography.

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For those who would like to learn more about Northwest Coast Native textiles I would recommend visiting this website – The Spirit Wraps Around You.

“This exhibit traces the history of the sacred textiles known today as “Ravenstail” and “Chilkat” robes. Two dozen robes 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 weavers.

Woven from the plush white fur of mountain goats, these robes were seen by early Euro-American visitors to the northern Northwest Coast when they contacted First Nations and Alaska Native people. Their use is reserved for sacred ceremonies, where dancers wear them to display the crests of their clans. In the 1900s, only a few weavers carried these unique traditions into the 21st century.” – Alaska State Museums website

The Online Exhibit section has lots of excellent images and explanatory text, and if you click on the Events section you can watch recordings of lectures and celebrations that took place in 2021.

Left: Chilkat robe woven by Jennie Thlunaut in the 1930s. Right: Jennie Thlunaut demonstrating Chilkat weaving in the 1980s.

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On Tuesday 12 December 2023 Andean Textile Arts will be hosting another online talk. The speaker this time is Susan Bergh and her subject is Mouth Masks and Severed Heads: The Nasca Painted Cloth at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“Many regard the fragmentary Nasca cloth at the Cleveland Museum of Art as one of the greatest paintings to survive from Andean antiquity.  The grounds for this judgment rest on artistic quality, including the refined realism of the six numinous figures who seem to walk in procession across the cloth’s length.” – ATA

The talk begins at 7pm EST. You can find out more and register for it here.

Cloth with Procession of Figures (170 BCE—CE 70) (detail).  Central Andes (Peru), south coast, Nasca people. Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection

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Upcoming textile events

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The new issue of our journal, Asian Textiles, is now out and should be winging its way to members. A pdf of it will also be uploaded to the Members Resources section of our website.

I really enjoyed reading the article on Burmese sazigyo by the late Ralph Isaacs OBE. We have a small collection of these manuscript binding tapes, which Ralph kindly examined and commented on back in 2010. This particular article is dedicated to the analysis of tapes done by the late Peter Collingwood OBE, and has some great diagrams. It also provides an insight into Peter’s method of working and is richly illustrated.

Other articles in the journal include Tibetan dress in Darjeeling in the early 19th century, May Beattie as a benefactor of the Ashmolean, and Discovering Moroccan textiles – a journey with Sheila Paine.

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A new free exhibition focussing on the Ainu people opened recently at Japan House in London. It is entitled Ainu Stories: Contemporary Lives by the Saru River.

“Historically, members of the Ainu community were not able to fully express their distinct culture, however a movement to celebrate and sustain the Ainu language, textiles, crafts and traditions continues to gather pace, in particular among younger members of the Ainu community.

Ainu Stories is a collaboration with the people of Biratori, an area located in the Saru River basin in southern Hokkaido. Through intimate video interviews and displays of contemporary Ainu works, the exhibition explores four central themes of contemporary Ainu culture: the critically endangered language; society and the preservation of the environment; Ainu textiles, song and dance; and woodcarving and tourism.” – Japan House website

An illustrated review of the exhibition by Urban Adventurer can be viewed here.

Photo by Urban Adventurer

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Next Thursday, 30 November 2023, the Fashion and Textile Museum (London) will host an online talk by Aarathi Prasad, the author of a new book on Silk: A History in Three Metamorphoses. The talk begins at 18:00 GMT and you can book for it here.

“Prasad’s Silk is a cultural and biological history from the origins and ancient routes of silk to the biologists who learned the secrets of silk-producing animals, manipulating the habitats and physiologies of moths, spiders and molluscs……… From the moths of China, Indonesia and India to the spiders of South America and Madagascar, to the silk-producing molluscs of the Mediterranean, Silk is a book rich in the passionate connections made by women and men of science to the diversity of the animal world. It is an intoxicating mix of biography, intellectual history and science writing that brings to life the human obsession with silk.” – Harper Collins website

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An exhibition devoted to Syrian textiles opened at the Katonah Museum of Art in New York State last month 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.

An online talk linked to this exhibition takes place on Thursday 30 November 2023 at 5:30 pm EST, which is 22:30 GMT. Maya Alkateb-Chami and Rania Kataf share their perspectives on ongoing efforts to document and preserve Syria’s textile heritage in Syrian Textiles Up Close. Click here to register for this free event.

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The next OATG event takes place on Thursday 7 December at 18:30 GMT. This is a Zoom lecture by OATG member Sheila Fruman, entitled Pull of the Thread: Textile Travels of a Generation. Sheila will present highlights from her recent book of the same name in which she studied “intrepid travelers [who]combed the streets and bazaars of Central and South Asia finding, researching, collecting and selling textile treasures to interested Westerners.  Taken together, their stories are an enlightening guide to understanding how we connect to the past, and how textiles connect the world.”

This should be of particular interest to OATG members as two of Sheila’s nine subjects – John Gillow and Joss Graham – are fellow members.

As usual this event is free for members, with a small fee payable by non-members. Click here for more information and to register.

To whet your appetite, an extract from Sheila’s book – along with some fabulous photos – is available to read in the Cabana Magazine blog here.

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Short update

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My thanks go to John Ang for alerting me to a new exhibition at the National Textile Museum in Kuala Lumpur entitled The Secret of Kebaya, which runs until 31st December 2023. Through sixty exhibits an overview is provided of the rich history of this garment, as well as how it has evolved through the years.

“Earlier this year, Malaysia joined four other countries to submit a multi-national nomination for the kebaya to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity for the year 2023.” – The Star

For more images and information see this article by M. Irsyad in The Star.

Baju Kebaya Sulam – a short kebaya, with filigree embroidery of a gold fish pattern and flowers made of plain black voile, worn with a sleeveless inner garment and embellished with ketuk lubang (punched holes). This garment is matched by a ‘Pekalongan’ batik sarong tied in the front fold style. Typically worn by Peranakan Chinese and Chetti women. Photo: The Star/Daryl Goh

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OATG member Chris Buckley has co-written an article on Dani art from Papua, for the current issue of Tribal Art magazine. The items will also feature in a catalogue, which is currently being prepared by Tracing Patterns Foundation.

“The Tribal Art article includes some reflections on the meaning of ‘art’ and ‘connoisseurship’. The Dani makers and collectors of these carved and decorated stones were also connoisseurs of their quality and value. Jonathan Fogel of Tribal Art also records his delight and intrigue with these objects in the magazine’s editorial. The objects, collected by the late Dr. O.W.Hampton, will eventually be returned to Papua, to the University museum in Jayapura.” – Chris Buckley

Contents page of Tribal Arts magazine

Chris and Sandra Sardjono gave a fascinating talk to members on the Fiber Arts of Papua back in 2021 – a recording of which is available to members via the password-protected section of our website.

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Running across 18th-19th November is the World Textiles Bazaar in Edinburgh. This will take place at The Nomad’s Tent, owned by OATG member Andrew Haughton. Whether you are looking for Indonesian batik, African beads or Japanese kimono you are sure to find something of interest!

For more information click here.

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OATG member John Gillow has informed me that he will be participating in the Antique Tribal and Decorative Fair being held in London on next Sunday, 19th November 2023.

Following the inaugural fair in July, this has been made into a biannual event to be held each June and November. The fair runs from 10:00-16:00 and entry is £10 until 11:00 and free thereafter. There will be a great selection of expert dealers with a fabulous array of antique textiles from Europe, Asia and Africa, for collectors, interiors and costume.

Participants include: John Gillow, Noel Chapman (Bleu Anglais), Sallie Ead, Sandy Carr, Ulrike Montigel, Junnaa & Thomi Wroblewski, Su Mason, Andy Lloyd, Katharine Pole, Lucy Farmer (World Basket), Michael Hawes, Owen Parry, Louise Teague, Rebecca Engels, Fuji Kimono, Emma Caderni, Hannah Whyman & Slow Loris Textiles.

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I was recently looking at photos taken during one of our many trips to Central Asia, and explaining about the babies cradles to a friend, so I was delighted to see this short piece about a beautiful Uzbek cradle cover in the collection of the Textile Museum in Washington. The author, Sandra Hoexter, explains how “the bright colors and expensive materials reflect hopes for the baby’s rich future.”

Cradle cover; Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Bukhara; 1870-1890. Silk, cotton; warp-faced plain weave, warp ikat, calendared; 71 x 90 cm. The Textile Museum Collection 2005.36.82A. The Megalli Collection.

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More textile events, in person and virtual!

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Our next OATG Zoom talk will take place on Saturday 11th November 2023 at 11:15 GMT. Please note the change of time. This is to enable those who wish to do so to observe the Armistice Day silence earlier.

Our speaker is Patricia Cheesman, and her subject is Unravelling Tai Textiles from Laos. In this talk she will introduce the complicated types and categories of textiles made by the Tai peoples living in Laos. This huge subject is a labyrinth to many researchers who find the variety of textiles and their identification daunting.

She hopes to unravel the mystery and introduce a method of identification for these textiles that is based on forty years of research in the field and on historical facts. There are numerous groups of Tai living in Laos including the Tai Lao, the largest group.

By looking carefully at the clothing styles, and studying the textiles in detail, a pattern appears that is related to their community identity, not their ethnic group. We can enjoy the beauty and superb weaving techniques as well as delve into some of the shamanic and Buddhist symbols that reveal the cosmology and beliefs of the ancestors.

This event is of course free to OATG members, with a small fee payable by non-members. Please click here to register.

We are aware that the timing of this event doesn’t work for many of our US members – it has to be at this time as our speaker is based in Thailand. Members will be able to access a recording of the talk later via the password protected section of our website.

The way this woman is dressed reveals her community identification as being Xam Nuea style. She is Tai Daeng.

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Also taking place on the same day is a webinar presented by The Hajji Baba Club and the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California. The speaker is James Opie and his subject is “Truly Tribal” in South Persian Weavings.

“What makes a weaving “tribal”? Is it its origin, history, complexity or lack thereof, or something else? In this virtual talk, longtime rug scholar and author James Opie will explore the topic of weavings from southern Iran, emphasising their importance in the canon of Persian weaving, as well as sharing essential assumptions. He will distinguish between urban influenced motifs and indigenous or tribal patterns by way of multiple images. By comparing various tribal confederacies in southern Iran, such as the Qashqa’i, Khamseh, Luri, Bakhtiyari and Afshar, he will further analyse the differences between urban-influenced and indigenous examples.  He will also examine other mediums of art and their impact and connections to southern Iranian rugs.”

The talk will begin at 10 am PT, which is 1 pm ET and 18:00 GMT. It’s free and you can register for it here.

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I blogged last week about the new British Museum exhibition on Burma, which opens on Thursday. On Wednesday 15th November 2023 at 17:30 GMT curator Dr Alexandra Green and Professor Sandra Dudley will present an online introduction to the exhibition, illustrating “the scope, context and themes of the show and examine highlight objects including jade, textiles, lacquer and metalwork.

From influential superpower to repressive regime, Myanmar – also known as Burma – has seen dramatic fluctuations in fortune over the past 1,500 years. Experiencing decades of civil war and now ruled again by a military dictatorship, Myanmar is an isolated figure on the world stage today, and its story is relatively little known in the West. However, the extraordinary artistic output of its peoples, over more than a millennium of cultural and political change, attests to its pivotal role at the crossroads of Asia.” BM website

This online event is free, but you do need to register for it.

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A book on Khmer clothing from ten different eras should be published by the end of this year, according to the Khmer Times.

“Buth Samet, a member of the Commission for the Compilation of Cambodian Costumes, said that the research book is 2,707 pages long and divided into two volumes and will depict 709 costumes from 10 different eras: Nokor Phnom, Chenla, Angkor, Chaktomuk, Longvek, Oudong, French, Sangkum Reastr Niyum, Khmer Republic and the Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge) periods……. He added that the Royal Academy of Cambodia also aims to establish the National Museum of Khmer clothing to display them for tourism and preserve it as a valuable heritage of Khmer ancestors.” Khmer Times

If each volume is over a thousand pages I need to start doing arm exercises to read it!

Two ancient Khmer costumes documented in the upcoming book of the Royal Academy of Cambodia. Kampuchea Thmey.

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On Saturday 18th November 2023 the Fowler Museum Textile Council will hold its annual sale. This fundraiser offers a curated selection of global textiles, jewelry, baskets, clothing from Guatemala, India, Japan and so much more. Proceeds from the sale support the Fowler’s textile acquisitions, exhibitions, and publications. This is an in person event that runs from 11am until 4pm at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles.

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Running across 18th-19th November is the World Textiles Bazaar in Edinburgh. This will take place at The Nomad’s Tent, owned by OATG member Andrew Haughton. Whether you are looking for Indonesian batik, African beads or Japanese kimono you are sure to find something of interest!

For more information click here.

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Finally, advance notice of our December event, which will be another Zoom talk. On Thursday 7th December 2023 Sheila Fruman will talk about Pull of the Thread: Textile Travels of a Generation, based on her new book of the same title.

Sheila will focus on nine intrepid travellers, including OATG members Joss Graham and John Gillow, who combed the streets and bazaars of Central and South Asia finding, researching, collecting and selling textile treasures to interested Westerners. Taken together, their stories are an enlightening guide to understanding how we connect to the past, and how textiles connect the world.

The talk begins at 18:30 GMT and registration will open in a couple of weeks time on our website.

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Another busy month for textile lovers…..

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I was delighted to read a new article by Elmira Gyul, who I have known for many years, in Voices on Central Asia. Her chosen subject for this article is A Brief History of Collecting Abr Clothing from Uzbekistan. The richly illustrated article looks at the fascination these brightly coloured fabrics have held for foreign visitors to the region, both historically and in the present day.

An Uzbek woman’s dress, known as a kurta, from the region south of Samarkand. Late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Richardson Collection.

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This Saturday, 28th October 2023, Japan House London are holding an in person event which will also be livestreamed on various formats and available to watch as a recording later.

“The culture of Okinawa is distinct from having long been influenced through trade links with China, Korea and Southeast Asia. Bingata resist dyeing techniques originated at the time of the Ryūkyū Kingdom (present-day Okinawa) and date back to the 14th century. The design of bingata textiles draws inspiration from the stunning natural beauty of the subtropical Ryūkyū archipelago. Its turquoise seas and diverse fauna and flora are represented on these vibrantly coloured and meticulously crafted textiles.” – Japan House website

 The talk and demonstration by Odo Azusa and Ueda Miki will look at the history of bingata, as well as its current state and what the future may hold. Click here for full details and to reserve your ticket – either in person or online.

Credit: Chinen Bingata Laboratory

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A new exhibition will open this week at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. Entitled The Secret Codes: African Nova Scotian Quilts it is curated by David Woods (the designer of the quilt depicted below) and runs until 28th April 2024.

The exhibition “brings together historic and contemporary quilts from makers connected to Nova Scotia, embodying the stories and voices of the community…… [it] includes more than 35 quilts and a selection of 8 paintings that highlight the various functions of quilts over time: as decorated blankets in the home, as possible codes of communication for enslaved people seeking freedom, as records of family history, as a celebration of Black women and culture, and as inspiration for other art forms.” Museum website

Preston, 2007. Designed by David Woods. Quilted by Laurel Francis. Images on quilt courtesy the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia.

The museum will also hold a hybrid moderated conversation with the curator on Thursday 2nd November 2023. Click here to register for the event, either in person or online.

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If you happen to be in the Chicago area you might enjoy a gallery talk taking place on Monday 30th October 2023 at the Art Institute of Chicago.

“Join Janet Purdy, associate curator of textiles, for a discussion of the history of the colorful, industrially-printed textiles known as kanga and the social and cultural symbolism expressed in their designs and proverbs. Explore eight works on display in the African galleries spanning five countries.” – Museum website

Kanga, Early or mid-20th century
Tanzania

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Thursday 2nd November is a very busy day. Not only is there the talk at the Textile Museum of Canada mentioned above, but also an online talk hosted by the Fashion and Textile Museum, London. This is linked to the new exhibition The Fabric of Democracy and curator and design historian Amber Butchart will look at the themes behind it, examining ‘how textiles were used as a tool of the state across the political spectrum, from communism to fascism.’ Click here for more information and to book.

WW2 Salvage Your Rubber Scarf by Jacqmar on loan from Paul and Karen Rennie Collection. Credit © Jonathan Richards

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2nd November also sees the opening of a new exhibition at the British Museum entitled Burma to Myanmar. This will run until 11th February 2024 and is definitely high on my list of things to see. I’m not sure how many textiles will be on show, but several are mentioned in this well-illustrated blog written by the curator Alexandra Green. I hope to report back on this further later on.

Detail of textile hanging with scenes from the Ramayana, Myanmar, early 1900s.

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Members who attended our AGM at the beginning of the year may remember that Peter Umney-Gray showed us a scissor bag from his collection and spoke passionately about it. He has been working for some time on a book about this subject, Scissor Bags & Sheep Scissors in the Nomadic Tradition, which will finally be published later next month.

“Scissor bags, and the end-pivot sheep scissors they contained, have not until now been given the attention they deserve. The utilitarian purpose and ephemeral nature of these mainly woven objects by nomadic pastoralists have meant that not many of them survive….. The results of field research among the Shahsavan of Northwest Iran, the Sarıkeçeli Türkmen of the Toros Mountains, Türkiye, and the Uygurs of Xinjiang help to shed light on this tradition….” – Peter Umney-Gray

Inscribed end-pivot sheep scissors, Iran, lying on a scissor bag.

With 292 pages and 299 illustrations this book should surely satisfy any readers curiosity about this subject! It will be available for £55 plus postage from Argali Publishing.

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Textile-related papers, talks, exhibitions and books

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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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A selection of upcoming textile events

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A new exhibition opened today at the Fashion and Textile Museum in London. It is entitled The Fabric of Democracy: Propaganda Textiles from the French Revolution to Brexit and runs until 3 March 2024.

“Curated by design historian Amber Butchart, this exhibition explores printed propaganda textiles over more than two centuries. Discover how fabric designers and manufacturers have responded to political upheaval from the French Revolution through to Brexit.

The mechanisation of textile industries from the mid-18th century led to the development of print techniques that could create more detailed imagery on cloth, quicker than ever before. These increasingly affordable processes ‘democratised’ textile decoration, allowing governments, regimes, and corporations to harness the power of print to communicate, from wartime slogans to revolutionary ideals.” – Fashion and Textile Museum website

Peace in our Time Scarf 1938 on loan from the Paul and Karen Rennie Collection © Jonathan Richards

If like me you find the subject of propaganda textiles fascinating you may enjoy this blog I wrote a few years ago, which includes links to a paper by Michele Hardy of the Nickle Galleries on How Soviet propaganda influenced traditional oriental carpets and another by Irina Bogolovskaya on The Soviet “Invasion” of Central Asian Applied Arts: How Artisans Incorporated Communist Political Messages and Symbols.

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The exhibition China’s hidden century, which opened at the British Museum in May, closes on 8 October 2023, so if you haven’t yet had the chance to see it don’t delay!

One of the things I like about the British Museum is that they always have interesting blogs and videos to accompany their exhibitions and give you insights into the work of the curators and conservators. I particularly enjoyed this video by curator Jessica Harrison-Hall about a 140-year-old outfit, which would have been worn by a Han woman.

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On Monday 2 October 2023 Japan House London will be hosting Ainu Stories by Ankes, during which the singing duo Ankes will introduce their heritage and background, accompanied by a performance of Ainu songs. They will explore their Ainu roots, discussing their identity, cultural background and life in Biratori, in conversation with Simon Wright of Japan House London. You can attend this event in person, or watch a live stream – but you do need to register. Click here for more details. This event is in advance of the exhibition Ainu Stories: Contemporary Lives by the Saru River , which opens on 16 November 2023.

Ankes (Harada Rino and Shinmachi Seiya)

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On Thursday 5th October 2023 the Royal Asiatic Society will host a book launch for The Art of Iran in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries: Tracing the Modern and the Contemporary. This will be an in person event, with a talk by the book’s author Dr Hamid Keshmirshekan, an art historian based at SOAS. It will take place at 1830 BST at the Royal Asiatic Society, 14 Stephenson Way, London NW1 2HD. You can also attend by zoom, by registering with Matty Bradley

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The final World Textile Day of this year will take place in the West of England, more precisely at Saltford, which is just thirty minutes from both Bristol and Bath, on Saturday 7th October 2023. Doors open at 10am – be sure to get there early for the best selection of ethnic textiles from a wide variety of traders! For full details click here.

Image of a previous World Textile Day event at Saltford.

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The following day The Textile Society will be hosting their Antique and Vintage Fair in Chelsea Old Town Hall, London. I’ve never attended the London Fair, but have been to the one they hold in Manchester several times and have found several treasures there.

The London Fair “offers an outstanding range of vintage fashion, antique textiles and costume sourced from around the world. Textiles from the 18th century up to the swinging 1960s and 70s, furnishings including pre-1950s rugs, and unique fashion accessories can be found here. Visitors can explore the fair for secondhand books, ephemera and advice on textile conservation.” Full details and ticket booking can be found here.

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The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum run a regular series of Rug and Textile Appreciation Mornings in which collectors and experts discuss textile topics and display examples from their personal holdings. The next event in this series takes place on Saturday 7 October 2023 at 11am EDT, which is 16:00 BST. This will be an online talk by Amanda Phillips of the University of Virginia on the subject Sea Change: Ottoman Textiles from 1400-1800.

“During the Ottoman Empire, the sale and exchange of silks, cottons and woolens generated immense revenue and touched every level of society. As attested by surviving objects, trade with Italy, Iran and India was supplemented by both extraordinary and mundane textiles exchanged within the empire. Based on her recent book, Sea Change, Amanda Phillips offers a brief history of the Ottoman textile sector, arguing that the trade’s enduring success resulted from its openness to expertise and objects from far-flung locations.

This virtual talk begins with a massive silk hanging made for Sultan Bayezid I (r. 1389-1402) and ends with a velvet floor covering made in the 1700s. Using weave-structure and visual analysis of surviving objects, Phillips will consider textiles as objects of technological innovation and artistic virtuosity. She will also highlight the ability of textiles to transform in the hands and on the bodies of their consumers, taking on new meanings and sometimes agency of their own.”

This program is a partnership with the New England Rug Society and the Hajji Baba Club. Click here to register.

Loom-width “kemha” (detail), Istanbul, 1575-1600. The Textile Museum Collection 1.50. Acquired by George Hewitt Myers in 1951.

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Andean Textile Arts will hold the next in their series of Textile Talks on Tuesday 10 October 2023 at 7pm Eastern, which is unfortunately midnight here in the UK. The speaker is curator Shelley Burian and her topic is New Materials in Ancient Techniques – Compositional Secrets of Colonial “Mesa Awayo”.

She will discuss “the composition and function of small rectangular warp-face woven mantles, often referred to as “mesa awayos”, woven in the 17th/18th centuries by Aymara-speaking peoples who inhabited regions encompassing modern southern Perú and northern Bolivia. These textiles demonstrate ways Andean communities adapted materials introduced through Spanish colonization into their own hierarchy of materials and production techniques.” – ATA website.

The registration fee for attending this online talk will go to further support revitalisation of Andean textile traditions. Click here for more details.

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Last – but certainly not least – is the next OATG event. This will be in person in Oxford and will take place on Thursday 12 October at 18:30 BST. 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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