1823 Exceptional Antique Sumatra Tampan Ship Cloth with Five colors

Unusual Ship Cloth Tampan from Sumatra

A Tampan ship cloth that is exceptional for two reasons:

1)  Threads of FIVE colors are used to create the subtle vignette shading

2) When it is turned 180 degrees, we see upright human figures interspersed with the upright ones. This means that during the process of weaving one line at a time, the weavers has to envisage the layout of the Tampan in both directions - straight as well as upside down. Thsi requires extraordinary genius!

[Note that creating human motifs in both directions all over the layout is far tougher than the case where the entire drawing changes direction along a line of symmetry]

Very few antique textile artworks (in all categories from all regions in the world) have such remarkable creativity that are products of not just creative art and technical craft but also of high intellectual input

Has signs of usage

Mid-late 1800s

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This item has spent a lifetime being used for the purpose of its creation with the original artist/user. Signs of this life lived heartily may be present on the piece in the form of stains, thread loss, loose threads, holes, tears, color run and other imperfections. Therefore the condition must be assumed to be “not” perfect. More photos of such imperfections will be provided on request.

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