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Ikat from West Timor, Timor, Indonesia
 

081 Timor, West Timor


Beti naek (men's wrap)  magnifiermicroscope



Locale: Subun, Western Insana, North Central Timor.
Period: 1950-1960
Yarn: Cotton, hand-spun, fine - plus pinstripes in commercial cotton
Technique: Warp ikat
Panels: 3
Size: 104 x 192 cm (3' 4" x 6' 3")   LW: 1.85
Weight: 745 g (26.3 oz), 373 g/m2 (1.22 oz/ft2)
Design: Wide middle panel in plain dark indigo - with the hard to achieve deeply saturated, nearly black tone that is typical for Insana - flanked by side panels decorated with numerous narrow stripes, about a third of them ikated, and central bands with intricate kaif-like motifs in white on indigo. In between are small crocodile motifs.
Comment: Good, tight weaving and pleasant colours. Twisted fringes. Like many Timor blankets the cloth is slightly wider at one end than at the other. The indigo midfield is certainly made of handspun thread. The ikated bands appear to have been done in hand spun cotton as well, double ply, but microscopic analysis is inconclusive. The accent stripes were done in doubly ply commercial cotton. Excellent overall condition. Older than it looks. Faint skatol smell of ageing indigo.
Background: Chapters on Timor and West Timor.
Exhibited: Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, 2014/15.
Timor: Totems and Tokens, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, 2019/20.
Published: Timor: Totems and Tokens, 2019.
Compare: 095 133
Sources: Near-identical to example in Art Gallery NSW, Acc. Nr. 192.2005 but more intricate. Near-identical to beti in Yeager and Jacobson, Textiles of Western Timor, Plate 143, but almost certainly older. Similar to our PC 172. Very similar to blanket in Yoshimoto, Ikat, Fig. 186.
  
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