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Length of silk

Length of silk

  • Place of origin:

    China (made)

  • Date:

    ca.1880 - ca.1940 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Plain weave silk with twill weave decoration

  • Credit Line:

    Addis Bequest

  • Museum number:

    FE.111A-1983

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

  • Image in copyright

This gold-brown length of silk has subdued twill roundels woven along its length. The roundels are placed so that, when the material is cut and sewn to make a robe or jacket, the design is evenly spaced and sits well on the back and front of the finished garment. This type of roundel pattern lends itself to East Asian straight-seamed tailoring - not the only dressmaking tradition in that region, but one of the most popular.

Physical description

Bolt end of silk. This bolt end matches FE.111-1983 and is likely to have come from the same length as it. Of the two, this is the longer section
The silk is decorated with dragon roundels 21cm in diameter in twill weave against a plain weave ground. The roundels are spaced across the silk at 18cm intervals. The bolt end has yellow bands running across it. Towards the end of the bolt the roundels are smaller and are arranged in two groups of three. This is a feature common to these men's dress silks and may be the horsehoof cuff section.

Place of Origin

China (made)

Date

ca.1880 - ca.1940 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Plain weave silk with twill weave decoration

Dimensions

Length: 278 cm, Width: 79.5 cm

Object history note

Registered File number 1965/3344.

Descriptive line

Silk length, gold/brown plain weave silk with twill weave decoration, China, ca.1880-1940

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Wilson, Verity. Chinese Textiles, London: V&A Publications, 2005, page 81 plate 90 (and back cover)
Wilson, Verity. 'A Diplomat's Collection: The Chinese Textiles of Sir John Addis' in Arts of Asia vol.33 no.2, 2003, pp.90-101 plate 13

Exhibition History

Chinese Textiles from the Addis Collection (Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London 16/06/1997-29/08/1997)

Materials

Silk (textile)

Techniques

Weaving; Twill weave

Subjects depicted

Dragons

Categories

Textiles

Collection code

EAS

Qr_O23491
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