Steve Price

Hi People

Large Khmer silks are almost impossible to photograph without studio lighting and equipment because of ther size and the low contrast in the palette. I discovered some professionally done photos of two large silks that I own tucked in a book, and present them here. Both probably date to around 1900.

The first one is more than 9 feet long, was probably either a hanging in a temple or worn as a pantaloon.





The elaborate designs at the ends are typical of Royal Khmer textiles.

The next one is almost 12 feet long. The ground color of the field is a green that I've never seen in anything except a Khmer textile.





Regards

Steve Price

Jaina Mishra

Hi Steve,

These pieces are most likely Pidans. Am absolutely envious !

There are several books on South East Asian textiles and art - mostly published by Riverbook publishers. There's one on Pidans by Gillian Green with titled 'Traditional Textiles of Cambodia' that is beautifully done.

Your Pidans and the tubeskirt could easily be one of the pieces featured in the book ! Unfortunately I did not get to see an antique textile material in Siem Reap - it is all housed in the Phnom Penh museum and also some museums in Thailand.

Could you put up some close up shots please ?

Jaina

Steve Price

Hi Jaina

I can try getting closeups, but may not succeed. It's very difficult to photograph silk with flash (because of the reflectivity), and I don't have studio lighting. The images I posted are scans of large, professional photos and I can probably scan them again and extract closeups from the scans.

One of the things I can't do is share the incredible tactile qualities of old Khmer silk. It's virtually weightless, and is easy to distinguish from younger Cambodian, Thai and Indian textiles on that basis. The Khmer silks are twill woven, so they have a shiny side and a dull side, and I'm told that this is diagnostic for Khmer (as opposed to Thai and Indian, some of which are similar in many ways) origin.

Regards

Steve Price

Horst Nitz

Hi Jaina, Steve,

the lady in her wrap shorts seems best equipped to cause an uproar on any beach or boulevard. Its all very exquisite, the shapes, the textiles, the accessories, but when I look at the rules of dress in the last paragraph, its getting suffocating again. An interesting glimpse of an exotic culture, perhaps not easy to get access to.

Thanks, Jaina.

Bye the way, Steve, now that you have found your pidans again, how are you going to wear them?

Horst

Steve Price

Hi Jaina

I rescanned the photos and extracted some closeups. Here's the first one:



And the second,



They may be pidans, I just don't know. I've shown them a couple of times, and it's fun to show folks how to turn them into pantaloons.

Regards

Steve Price

Jaina Mishra

Thanks Steve for the close-ups.

These must be in great shape if you are allowing people to touch them and drape them into pants !

Pidans are actually only those articles used in temples as canopies or wall hangings and usually have Buddhist drawings but may also have geometric drawings like the ones you have shown.

I love the colors in both and am sure it has a much more dramatic impact in real life than it has on your screen ! Envy envy envy .....

Jaina

Steve Price

Hi Jaina

Except for a few small holes, the pieces are in very good condition. This fact suggests that they weren't subjected to the wear and tear of being garments, now that I think about it.

Regards

Steve Price

Jaina Mishra

Steve,

I guess not 'wearing' it as a garment helped.

But most of the old woven silks that I have are terribly fragile and tend to succumb to the slightest strain and result in a rip.

I don't know which feature of the silk gives up - whether its the weave between the warp & weft that comes apart or whether its the multiple fibres rolled into a single thread that comes loose or whether its the strand of silk fibre that breaks.

The fragility makes it hard to display and store ...how do you manage ?

Regards
Jaina

Filiberto Boncompagni

Hi Jaina,

Silk is very vulnerable to light. Unfortunately the damages are irreversible.

In this page “Care of Victorian Silk Quilts and Slumber Throws”

you can find some advice on silk conservation.

Regards,

Filiberto

Richard Larkin

Hi All,

Steve, without intending to divert the discussion into a structural analysis, I'd like to ask you whether you can explain briefly why the twill weave in silk produces a shiny side and a dull side.

Rich Larkin

Steve Price

Hi Rich

It's easier to show than to explain, but in essence there's longer stretches of weft (two warps) on one side than the other (one warp), and this gives one side its luster. One side is more nearly level, the other is more uneven.The effect is sort of like the difference between viewing a pile rug from each ind. From the end woven last, you're looking at the length of the pile yarn; from the end woven first, you're mostly looking at the tips.

I'll check Marla Mallett's site and see if she has a diagram showing both sides of a twill. Wikipedia has a brief explanation, at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twill

Regards

Steve Price

Jaina Mishra

Filiberto,

For wearable silks, the practice that I have seen, amongst dealers and family owners of heirloom pieces (who were once wearers of the piece) - is to fold these and store them in airtight suitcases with napthalene balls.

Exposure to light does not occur unless the article is displayed - which is not usually a practice amongst asian families - and families are possibly the largest (but fragmented) source of supply.

Yet the pieces tend to begin disintegration - not just along the fold lines but along the main body of the article as well.

Further, in their usable lifetime, these silks get treated with stiffeners such as starch and glue - no idea what long term effects these have on the silk !

And as you say - unfortunately its all irreversible - so we can only look on and feel bad about it.

Jaina