Nina
There are several reasons why this could be more recent embroidery on an older base.
As you know, as I shared the information with you, Michael Goh, collector of Yao shamanist artefacts based in Chiang Mai, when approached about this robe by Martin Conlan said - before many of the later images were posted - that:
Quote:
"the cloak looks like a Taoist shaman's jacket, Yao or otherwise, I can say only if I have a complete and full image of the front and back. Take a good look at the underside of the embroidery. If the silk knots are fresh and loose instead of tight and knobby, they are probably new. They make very good new pieces, sometimes on top of old used jackets. The image of the jacket shows very thick silk embroidered deity figures, clean details with no signs of age. Try to detect the whole jacket for signs of age or use. If this is a Yao jacket, it would be from Guangxi or Hunan".
Martin condensed what Michael Goh said somewhat but drew the implication that if the gown itself shows signs of age then the silk embroidery should as well. Martin's old Yao shaman's robes have lost some of their surface details in the silk embroidery right across the piece".
I hope that Michael and Martin will not mind me sharing these thoughts more publically on the forum.
The robe itself may well have been made for use by the Yao - valuable as a continuing tradition - and not to deceive. Possibly a later dealer may have been deceiving - or, to put it more kindly, may not have known! Regardless of the motive for making the robe there is no doubt about the skill of drawing out and embroidering of it! It certainly isn't mass produced as no one seems to have seen one like it!
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Pamela
http://www.tribaltextiles.infoon-line tribal textiles resource
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