The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (18157740252)

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library



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420 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL Museum, and have come to a more definite condition of mind as to the art vaKie of all the great anthropological collections, yet my first enthusiasm for the beautiful textiles of the Lost Empire is in no sense abated. In fact, each visit, I make to the Peruvian hall increases my admiration for the wonderful color effects and knowledge of design which these old masters possessed.
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To obtaia the effect of embroidery completely cover- ing the basic fabric the decorative yarn is laced a full turn over pairs of threads, either of warp or weft ac- cording to the requirements of the design. A very loose basic web is necessary to permit of this change in direction of the embroidery thread Next in importance come the collec- tions of garments and fabrics from the Amur River tribes and those belonging to China proper. The embroidered garments of the Koryak tribe of Siberia have also attracted a great deal of atten- tion, and the Mexican and Southwest halls have been visited l)y artists capable of adapting material from many different objects. One designer in particular is doing some very original work under the direction of Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, showing the way toward the develop- ment of interest in a great art which until this time has received too^little attention from the textile world. The fabrics of Peru are beyond all question the most interesting technical and artistic record of textile history. Compared with them, the Coptic fabrics represent a very limited development, and even the interesting cloths recently excavated in Turkestan by Sir Aurel Stein are but a fragmentary record of the art they represent. In Peru every process of decoration of which we know is found — every trick of the weaver's art, every skillful blending of colors. In- deed in some of their techniques and color combinations they far surpass modern work. Nor is this a record of scattered fragments. Even the rarer techniques are well represented, and there is enough material (as one promi- nent silk man remarked) to furnish in- spiration for a century of design. Of course, practical textile people do not come to the Museum to get technical information. The value of the collec- tions to them is almost entirely of an (lesthetic nature. Still, I have always felt that careful research, accompanied by experiments, might result in the work- ing out of even new technical methods. Color and form are however, the princi- pal things, and in these the collections are wonderfully rich. The recent gifts to the Museum by Mr. A. D. Juilliard, of textiles from Nazca and lea, contain some of the most won- derful and beautiful color combinations of any fabrics, be their origin what it may. The shawl-like garments from lea are especially ricii in this particular. Thev are embroiderv designs, the basis