1911 Antique Indian Trade Textile Toraja Fine Cloth Fragment

Fantastic little fragment of an Indian Trade textile.

Amazing  fine cloth fragment that may have been part of a border.

A panel of blue vines and red flowers placed within two slim red borders 

Appears to have small block / stamp print combined with hand-drawing - but am not informed enough about the technique - so please make your own judgement.

Collected on a field visit to Toraja, Sulawesi. 

This fragment has been saved from a fire - therefore has burn marks present. Holes and stains. Edges not even. This fragment is one of the few border sections that have been saved from the same fire-struck cloth.

24 x 14 cm

Comparison with other similar examples suggests that this is pre 1900.

[Similar examples have been dated to be from the 13th - 19th century]

For similar examples see

1) The Ashmolean Museum collection: Link

2) The Kelsey Museum collection in Ann Arbor: Link

3) 'Master Dyers to the World' by Mattiebelle Gittinger

This is a rare opportunity to own something as rare and as old as this fantastic little work of art that had traveled from India to Toraja sometime in it's past and then has back to Singapore. 

VERY RARE

Such pieces can be found only in museums.

Frame it and add it to your home-museum collection.