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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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fact that these specimens of patterned damasks and gauzes are quite as numerous in our collection
as those of the more effective polychrome figured silks. But it is certainly noteworthy that among
them we meet far less frequently with designs showing the influence of Western-Asiatic, i.e. Persian,
textile art than among the specimens of the latter class. It is this contact with fabrics of the type Polychrome
usually designated as 'Sassanian' which gives, as we shall see, special antiquarian value and figured silks.
interest to many of these figured silks. But, even apart from this, they are bound to attract
attention by their brilliant and yet harmonious colouring and the exquisite art of their execution in
general. We probably owe the preservation of a relatively large number of specimens to the fact
that these gay figured silks were in particular favour for use in the head-pieces of banners.¹⁹
Chinese silk tapestry work is represented in the collection by only a small number of pieces, Silk tapestry
but these are all of exceptional fineness in technique and all hand-made with the needle. The value work.
attached to such work is illustrated by the fact that twice we find small pieces of the identical fabric
utilized in different head-pieces and manuscript-roll covers.²⁰ Gold is introduced into this tapestry
work, just as in the case of certain embroideries, by means of paper covered with leaf-gold and then
cut into very narrow strips, in accordance with a method which still prevails in the Far East.²¹
Of methods of decoration applied to finished textiles we find two plentifully illustrated among Embroidery
our fabrics. The embroideries, usually worked on a ground of silk gauze and in solid 'satin-stitch', needlework.
show in most cases that perfection of careful workmanship which has survived in this class of
Chinese needlework down to modern times.²² Their floral designs are always purely Chinese in
character. The same is the case also with most of the printed silks, which, however, in point of Printed
technical execution do not approach the standard of the other decorated textiles, even where the silks.
patterns imprinted are artistically pleasing.²³ In a few of the printed silks the design shows plainly
the influence exercised by models derived from Western Asia, while the execution is obviously
local. In the next section we shall have occasion to make special reference to these printed silk
pieces, in view of the light they may throw upon interesting questions connected with the repro-
duction of 'Sassanian' textile motifs in China.²⁴
SECTION II.—CHINESE DESIGNS IN DECORATION OF TEXTILES
Neither the technique of our Ch'ien-fo-tung fabrics nor the methods employed for their Antiquity
ornamentation can claim such special archaeological interest as the designs appearing in their of Chinese
decoration and the styles of art to which these designs attach themselves. That silk-weaving in textile art.
all its aspects had reached a high state of technical perfection in China thousands of years before
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