Fragment

Accession number	BZ.1933.39
Attribution and Date	Indian subcontinent, second half of the 10th–15th c.
Measurements	H. 10.0 cm × W. 22.1 cm (3 15/16 × 8 11/16 in.)
Technique and Material	Cotton; block-printed
Acquisition history	Tano Collection, Cairo; Robert Woods and Mildred Barnes Bliss, purchase (through Frances Morris), 1932; Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, 1940.

Materials

Warp: Cotton, single spun Z-direction, 9–10/cm. No selvage is visible.

Weft: Cotton, single spun Z-direction, 12–14/cm

Colors: Undyed cotton (yellowed with age and mordants), brick red, dark brown

Technique

Plain weave; block-printed with mordant and dyed brown, block-printed with resist and dyed red

Condition

Although a selvage is not present, one side seems to be very well preserved, suggesting that the piece was cut by the dealer. The opposite side is gently frayed.

Conservation history

Stabilized and stitched to framed backing fabric (2003)

—Karthika Audinet, May 2019

Accession number	BZ.1933.39
Attribution and Date	Indian subcontinent, second half of the 10th–15th c.
Measurements	H. 10.0 cm × W. 22.1 cm (3 15/16 × 8 11/16 in.)
Technique and Material	Cotton; block-printed
Acquisition history	Tano Collection, Cairo; Robert Woods and Mildred Barnes Bliss, purchase (through Frances Morris), 1932; Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, 1940.

This fragment features quatrefoil medallions in a half-step repeat that are decorated with little tendrils. Thick curving vines with a single dotted line enclose them in a lattice. The lattice is interrupted with small decorative cartouches and lobed medallions. The repeat of the block print can be seen in the middle of the fabric. One cartouche at the bottom of the fragment is offset. Compared with the other Indian fabrics found in Fusṭāṭ in the Dumbarton Oaks collection, this piece seems coarser, with warp threads spaced with uneven density next to each other and weft threads that are slightly thicker than the warp threads.

A fragment at the Ashmolean Museum has exactly the same pattern and similar thread count (13/12 threads per cm).Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, EA1990.765, http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EA1990.765. This design is similar in style to a red, brown, and white piece now in the Kelsey Museum, which has quatrefoil medallions linked by lines to make a lattice, with small decorative motifs that add interest to the lattice and background.Ann Arbor, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan, 94133: R. Barnes, Indian Block-Printed Cotton Fragments in the Kelsey Museum, the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, 1993), no. 30.

—Karthika Audinet, May 2019

Notes

Accession number	BZ.1933.39
Attribution and Date	Indian subcontinent, second half of the 10th–15th c.
Measurements	H. 10.0 cm × W. 22.1 cm (3 15/16 × 8 11/16 in.)
Technique and Material	Cotton; block-printed
Acquisition history	Tano Collection, Cairo; Robert Woods and Mildred Barnes Bliss, purchase (through Frances Morris), 1932; Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, 1940.

F. Morris, “Catalogue of Textile Fabrics, The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection” (unpublished catalogue, Washington, DC, 1940), 437.

Accession number	BZ.1933.39
Attribution and Date	Indian subcontinent, second half of the 10th–15th c.
Measurements	H. 10.0 cm × W. 22.1 cm (3 15/16 × 8 11/16 in.)
Technique and Material	Cotton; block-printed
Acquisition history	Tano Collection, Cairo; Robert Woods and Mildred Barnes Bliss, purchase (through Frances Morris), 1932; Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC, 1940.