2037 Old Cambodian Silk Ikat Pidan Temple Hanging
Antique Figurative Silk Ikat Pidan from Cambodia
This type of long Pidan temple hanging banner is very hard to find commercially now. Most are in museums.
In the olden days these wall hangings were offered at temples.
Will be perfect framed as a wall artwork.
Of all the ikats that I have seen, Cambodian ikat is the finest.
Why do I say that? In creating ikat, the design is planned first, then the threads are laid out parallel to each other and dyed according to the design intended. At the time of dyeing, the threads are free floating and not attached to each other. It is only after the unattached threads are dyed in the many colors needed, that they are woven in together. And naturally some misalignment creeps in during weaving and gives rise to a rough look on each motif at the color-change edges. In places like Pochampally, the designs are large, and each color on a thread occupies a few centimeters or even a few inches and the misalignment can be seen over a few millimeters at the edge of every color. (The error must necessarily be a small fraction of the total otherwise the intended design would not be evident at all and would appear as a messy hodgepodge of colors.) On the other hand, in antique Pidans from Cambodia the color changes every few millimeters. So, the scope for misalignment is much much less. The time consumed and the attention required to produce motifs that are precise to a millimeter is enormous. And that is why old ikats from Cambodia are the finest among the ones I've seen.
Size: 4'8'' x 2'7'' (142 x 79 cm)
Estimated to be from the early-mid 1900s
p.s. Did you notice the elephant? And the beautiful green?
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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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