4th-6th century
Large tapestry woven dark green leaf with light green, blue, red, and white details. Undyed warps running perpendicular to the design. The tapestry leaf currently sits atop a plain woven linen fabric. The large size of the leaf suggests this is a fragment cut from a hanging or furnishing rather than a garment. Roman and Byzantine hangings and curtains commonly featured large plant motifs that created the sense of an indoor garden and played with the divisions between interior and exterior space.
29.85 x 17.15 cm (11 3/4 x 6 3/4 in.)
Ink on silk
20th centuryAustrianSilk cut velvet
16th centuryItalianWarp: 2 Z spun S plied wool; 1 level. Weft: 1 Z spun wool in dark red, orange, undyed brown and yellow; mostly 2 and sometimes 3/4/5 yarns per shoot. Pile: 2 Z spun S plied wool. Pile colors: dark red heavily abrashed to light red, dark yellow (heavily abrashed), light green (most likely indigo sulfonic), purple, fuchsine purple (now faded), undyed white, corrosive brown. Knots: symmetrical. Both selvedges: 2 bundles of 2 green warps each. Top end: 1 cm. green tapestry weave, stripped. Top of design is bottom of rug.
19th-20th centuryOttomanSheep or goat hair
19th centuryAfghanWool
19th centuryNavajoSilk
17th centuryItalian?'Kesi' silk tapestry fragment
Chinese