textile; banner; 紡織品(Chinese); 幡(Chinese) BM-MAS.874.a

Period:Tang dynasty Production date:9thC
Materials:silk, 絲綢 (Chinese),
Technique:woven, clamp resist-dyed, 織造 (Chinese), 夾纈 (Chinese),
Subjects:哺乳動物 (Chinese) cat
Dimensions:Height: 40.50 centimetres (Pressure mount) Length: 30.50 centimetres (textile fragment) Width: 40.50 centimetres (Pressure mount) Width: 17 centimetres (textile fragment) Depth: 2.50 centimetres (Pressure mount)

Description:
These are two rectangular pieces of plain woven silk patterned with the clamp-resist dyeing technique. The pattern comprises a roundel, made of small rosettes, enclosing a pair of deer with a flowering tree in the middle. Outside of the roundel is a quatrefoil. When four similar pieces are compared (these two; another in the British Museum [MAS.875, cat.025]; and one more in the State Hermitage Museum [Дх55]),1 it is possible to estimate the size of the roundel. The diameter is about 56 cm, which is probably larger than the loom width of the plain woven silk, and the roundel runs beyond the selvedge on MAS.875. The pattern was dyed with two basic colours using two sets of clamp blocks: reddish orange mainly for the ground (though it is not clear now) and blue for the deer, tree and roundel. The two colours overlapped in places, creating special effects such as, for example, the rosettes alternating in brownish blue and bright blue. The undyed outline is not as well defined as on other clamp-resist dyed pieces. The two pieces were originally sewn together to form the panel of a banner. Although the motif of paired deer with a tree in-between is typically Central Asian or Western Asian in design, the deer in these pieces are clearly oriental deer, not ibex or stags. Furthermore, the border of the roundel is not formed by pure linked pearls, as is commonly seen in Central Asian art, but by linked florets. These features indicate that the two pieces date from the late Tang. Weave structures: Warp: silk, untwisted, single, 52 ends/cm; Weft: silk, untwisted, 42 lats/cm. Weave structure: 1/1 plain weave. 兩片用夾纈製成的長方形絲織品殘片。其團窠的尺寸可由這兩片織物與另兩件織物進行比較後得出，一件是大英博物館所藏斯坦因織物中的MAS875，另一件是現藏聖彼得堡愛米塔什博物館中的Дх55，其直徑大約應爲56cm。這樣的圖案大於所用平紋絹的織物幅寬，因此，圖案中的團窠一邊已越過在MAS875上的幅邊。夾纈染色包括兩種基本色彩，一是桔紅色主要用於染地，二是藍色用於染鹿本身、樹紋和團窠框架。兩種色彩有時重疊，因此團窠環上的朵花由褐藍和明藍相間排列，其未染色的圖案勾邊也沒有象一般夾纈作品上的勾邊那樣清晰。 圖案爲朵花團窠中的花樹對鹿，窠外爲團花。雖然花樹對鹿明顯帶有中亞西亞的影響，但這件夾纈上的鹿紋已不再是粟特織錦上的牡鹿或野山羊，明顯是東方常見的鹿紋。同時，聯珠團窠也不再是單純的聯珠，而是以朵花連成的團窠環。因此，這一作品年代應該較晚。 組織結構： 經線：絲，無撚，單根排列，52根/cm；緯線：絲，無撚，42根/cm；組織：1/1平紋。
IMG


Comments:This panel presents the same design of MAS.874.b and MAS.879.