tribaltextiles.info

Here are a few mediocre pix of a large Ikat (about 8 feet high and 20 inches wide) that a friend showed me in the deluded hope that I know anything about textiles. I don't I'm hoping someone can tell me what to tell my friend about this piece. Provenance, age, quality and perhaps value. Also, a suggestion about what to read would be helpful.
Framed and matted, it's very large and is wedged into a storage room, hence the mediocre pix. Any insights would be appreciated.

Hi!

The textile you show is from Sumba, Indonesia. It is a hinggi and one of two matching cloths worn by a man - one over this shoulder and the other as a loin cloth. The designs look familiar. It is difficult to say much more from the limited images you show. I have no idea as to value - and we don't usually discuss that on this forum.

Have a look at this thread for photos of more hinggi and some helpful background information: http://www.tribaltextiles.info/communit ... ight=sumba

You should be able to find some information on textiles from Sumba and hinggi in particular in several books on textiles from south east Asia and especially Indonesia. They are very striking cloths and very photogenic. Also see ''Decorative Arts of Sumba', Pepin Press Amsterdam and Singapore, ISBN 90-5496-050-7. This was the catalogue accompanying the 1999 exhibition at the Museum voor Volkenkunde (Museum of Ethnology) in Rotterdam, 1999.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

have a section on textiles from on their very excellent website.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Pamela, thanks for providing a name and place. I'm thrilled to have a thread to follow on this hinggi. I'll head to the libraries at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and UC Berkeley's Hearst Museum as a start. Now the question is what someone in an apartment does with a 10' x 3' massively framed hinggi. Keep in the frame or free it?
I'll post better images as soon as I can.

Keep an eye out for 'Between the Folds: Stories of cloth, lives and travels from Sumba' by Jill Forshee ISBN 0-8248-2346-X, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2001. There are some pretty cheap editions on Amazon.com (starting at $5.00 plus postage).

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

A copy of the Forshee book is now on order, and I have a mini-bibliography of other works to seek out at the Anthro Library at UC Berkeley on Monday. My friend has decided there is no way she wants to house the framed hinggi, and asks if I want to buy it from her. The altnernative, says she, is to hand it over to a consignment shop! I think it might languish for a long time if that happens.
So, I'm trolling through ebay and hoping I can come up with a price fair to my friend and to me. I respect your site's disinterest in pricing, but based on ebay, the range seems to run between $300 and $700.
The wildcard is the piece's age. She thinks that her uncle bought it sometime in the 1970s in Asia, but not in Indonesia.
Good thing that my wife is travelling in the Carolinas, 3000 miles from home, while all this plays out. Imagine her surprise should it be sitting somehwere in our home when she returns.
Thanks again for your help.

Hi, 8 feet is about right for the length of a hinggi but they are usually about 4 or 5 feet wide, made of two pieces of cloth sewn together in the center. If this piece is only 20 inches wide you may have only half a hinggi! Is it folded in half lengthwise? The colors and clarity of the ikat as well as the motifs seem to indicate to me that it is not that old, say from the 80s or 90s. The photos are not that clear so it is hard to be sure. Have you had a look at the post Sumba dragons?. Usually older pieces have dark rich colors and pretty clear ikat.
Best regards, MAC

Though not much better than the first set of images, here are three more. Since the cloth is under glass, it's hard under even good conditions to get an adequate pic, so this might just be coals to Newcastle.
Thanks for your patient help.

Hi MAC

I had wondered 'one strip or two' but think I might be able to see a seam down the middle of the nose of the man on the bullock in the original photos and now perhaps in IMG_0097A. The design would appear to be a mirror image around these central points.

Gratianus

Have a close look at the lengthwise (down the warp) of the centre of the textile. You should be able to see that there are two pieces very tightly whipped together in a sort of herringbone stitch. When the warp thread bundles were originally bound and dyed they would have been opened out so that 4 strips were woven - two for each final textile, giving mirror images from the centre of each textile where they are sewn together.

Taking a quick measure from a hinggi which I have draped over a sofa, each panel is just over 23" wide (so total width 47") - in line with MAC's width comments above. If you only have one panel then this would significantly reduce the value by, I would think, more than half. It in no way diminishes it as a 'work of cultural art' and I, myself, would not be put off it if the piece 'spoke to me' but be aware of the much lower level of 'fair price' for you and your friend. There is, of course, the cost of the framing which must have been quite significant - would cause you to flinch if you had to have it done yourself!

Just a word of warning if you are going to display the textile in your home. The dyes are very likely to fade if you have them in a bright light. If you can hang the framed textile out of direct sun or bright light this should keep its colours glowing much longer.

I hope your wife likes it. These textiles make a strong statement and can be love/hate pieces! This one looks as if the 'action' could be leaping out of the textile into the room so a good dramatic piece - but not exactly restful!

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

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Lesley Pullen, London

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Anna

Hi all, In the new photos did anyone notice that the kabakil or end border seems to have ikat motifs in the weft direction. I think it is actually a warp ikat but used in the weft direction when the kabakil was woven. These borders are woven on mini looms and not twined I believe. I have photos and a movie of them being woven on Sumba which I took back in the 70s. What surprises me is that the kabakil contains ikat motifs! I think this is the first time I have ever seen this! Pieces made for the tourist trade in the 70s and 80s were usually of extra large size as if big ment a better price. Gotta go , later MAC