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