2053 Antique Figurative Ikat Timor Skirt Indonesian Textile

A West Timorese Manila Woman's Tube Skirt 

A fabulous ikat tube skirt from Timor with figures.

The central band is adorned with pairs of rows of human figures.

There are men on the left and the right. Standing between the men are figures that appear to be women & children. 

Note the extraordinary feature that the women & children figures are perpendicular to the men. In executing Ikat, this would have required extraordinary imagination and expertise on the part of the weaver to execute two directions in the same weaving. 

Each figure is created in undyed white against an indigo background. Within the white lines, there are dashes.  The perfect alignment and precision of these dashes, even at such a micro scale, is of a level that we might expect from a felt-pen drawing.

Note that the men have been placed in two rows both mirror images of each other and facing opposite directions. 

However, note the borders above and below the main indigo panel. The animals in both are oriented in the same direction vertically and are not mirror images of each other. This defines the up and the down very clearly. 

Further, the fabulous contrast of the indigo against the maroon makes this aesthetically superior.

Ikats are rarely this perfectly done - even in the finest examples from Cambodia we see some fuzziness in execution. 

This is a masterpiece on the basis of the amazing craftsmanship that has gone into it.

Circa 1900

147 cm x 54 cm

RARE EXAMPLE 

.

Other Examples: Museum of Fine Arts

***

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.

***