textile; 紡織品(Chinese) BM-MAS.924

Period:Tang dynasty Production date:7thC(late)-8thC(early)
Materials:silk, 絲綢 (Chinese),
Technique:woven, 織造 (Chinese), double weave, 雙層錦 (Chinese),
Subjects:flower 花 (Chinese)
Dimensions:Length: 22.50 centimetres Width: 5.50 centimetres

Description:
Stein assigned the same number to two strips of the same type of figured silk. These were later split up, with one piece allocated to the V&A, and the other to the British Museum. They are of double weave in plain weave in blue, orange, light green, brown and white silk showing two types of six-petalled flower motifs in alternate rows. One row has a quadripartite centre with six broad petals, the next displays a centre with six smaller petals with six larger petals emerging between these from beneath. The pattern repeat is 2.9 cm in the warp direction and 5.6 cm in the weft direction. On the fragment in V&A, there are traces of purple stitching along the selvedge where one tiny fragment of plain woven terracotta silk is also still attached. On the reverse of the fragment, there are the remains of paper kept in place by the stitching. The paper backing indicates that this piece was originally used as a sutra wrapper. Double weave appeared in northwest China during the Han-Jin period (2nd-4thC) and Tang dynasty textiles made in this technique have also been found. The earliest silk examples were found in Tombs 206 and 187 at Astana. The fragment from Tomb No. 187 is similar to these double weave pieces from Dunhuang, but in different colours (fig.41). Therefore these strips probably date to the high Tang (705-780). Weave structures: Warp A: silk, untwisted, paired, white, 38 ends/cm; Warp B: silk, untwisted, paired, light brown, 38 ends/cm; Weft A: silk, untwisted, single, white, 20 lats/cm; Weft B: silk, untwisted, single, light brown/yellow/blue/green, 20 lats/cm. Weave structure: double weave in plain weave. 長方形雙層錦殘片，共有兩塊，分別收藏在大英博物館和V&A博物館（LOAN.STEIN.651），斯坦因推測其曾用作經帙的邊緣。這一雙層錦由兩層平紋組織表裏換層而成，一層是白色緯線和白色經線織成平紋，另一層是藍、橙、綠和褐四色緯線與淺米色經線進行交織，然而表裏換層。其結果是正面以彩色緯線條紋樣作地，其上點綴有兩列不同類型的白色朵花圖案，一種是花芯四瓣、外層六瓣；另一種則花芯和花瓣俱爲六瓣，圖案經向循環爲2.9cm，緯線循環爲5.6cm。 雙層錦組織在我國西北地區早有發現，在中原地區也早就有使用雙層組織進行斜編的絲織物出現，但雙層絲織品的正式出現則在唐代。目前所知最早的實例是在吐魯番阿斯塔那墓地206號墓出土的菱形網格填花雙面錦，墓中出土永昌元年（689）和延壽十年（633）兩塊墓誌。另一件實例是吐魯番阿斯塔那187號墓，墓中出土天寶3年（744）文書，此件織物爲白地朵花雙面錦，其組織風格、團花造型等與敦煌所出者十分相似，只是色彩有較大區別而已。因此，此件雙層錦也很有可能是盛唐的産品。 組織結構： 經線：甲經：絲，無撚，雙根排列，白色，38根/cm；乙經：絲，無撚，雙根排列，淺棕色，38根/cm；緯線：甲緯：絲，無撚，單根排列，白色，20根/cm；乙緯：絲，無撚，單根排列，淺棕、黃、藍、綠分區換色，20根/cm；組織：1/1平紋雙層組織。
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Comments:Stein suggested that this pieces of textile was orginally used as the border of a sutra-wrapper because he found remains of paper backing adhering to it.