Clavus of a cabled fringed tunic with a line of wild animals

Inventory number: FT 205
Photo Michel Lechien, Musée royal de Mariemont
Photo Michel Lechien, Musée royal de Mariemont

In the centre, long-tailed felines, with mottled fur, follow one another in eight octagons, edged with a fine chain, in increasingly elaborate flying thread. The outer border has two interlacing types of rosettes. The clavus ends with a brown cartouche with stylised dancers and birds and twisted fringes.

Origin:

Egypt

Date:

6th - 9th century

Material:

Linen and wool

Dimensions:

Warp: 19.5 cm; weft: 50 cm (+ 2.5 cm fringes)

Comparisons:

Rietberg Museum, Zurich, inv. RAg 543.
Coll. J-F Bouvier, inv. S 241.
Textile Museum, Washington, inv. 72.72.
ROM, inv. F 1973/9.15.
[This band may be compared to the clavi that decorate a woollen tunic in the Nir David Collection, previously dated around the 10th -12th centuries. (They are currently estimated to be from an earlier date).]

Provenance:

Collection Coptic textiles Fill-Trevisiol: donation

Location:

Musée royal de Mariemont

Woollen tapestry decorated in ecru flying thread

I. No ground weave


II. Tapestry areas

Warp:

natural-coloured wool S: 8/cm

Weft:

natural-coloured and purple wool S: 50/cm (tapestry parts); purple wool, paired S: 32/cm (flying thread brocading)

Weave:

weft-faced tabby

Special techniques:

slit tapestry, eccentric weft; flying thread brocading with natural-coloured wool and white linen; vertical weft brocading: linen; selvedge: 4 units of 3 warp yarns each, and weft fringes

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