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Ikat from Babar, Moluccas, Indonesia
 

354 Moluccas, Babar


Roie irai (sarong)  magnifiermicroscope


Locale: The identification as Babar is tentative.
Period: 1950s
Yarn: Cotton, hand-spun, medium
Technique: Warp ikat
Panels: 2
Size: 50 x 115 cm (1' 7" x 3' 9")   LW: 2.30
Weight: 575 g (20.3 oz), 500 g/m2 (1.64 oz/ft2)
Design: [YET TO BE DESCRIBED] The motifs are very similar to those on early 20th c. Babar sarong PC 109. While the yarn is hand-spun cotton (even the narrow green pinstripes), it appears that it was coloured with synthetic dyes.
Comment: [PHOTOGRAPHY PROVISIONAL] The piece was collected on Savu, where it arrived in the 1950s - probably from Babar - in the context of a wedding. It has the W-stitch signifying that a proper ceremony was held when the warp was cut and assembled into a sarong, but none of style elements are Savunese. The ikat motifs resemble those found on Babar and some regions of Timor. The colour palette is unusual, in that it has six colours.
Background: Chapters on Moluccas and Babar.
Compare: 109
  
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