 |
|
Home |
|
A Large and Splendid Indian Kantha Bedcover browse these categories for related items... Directory: Vintage Arts: Regional Art: Asian: Indian Subcontinent: India: Pre 1950: Item # 900516
Sri Textiles 18 Eckford Street, 2A Brooklyn, NY 11222 tel 718-599-2559 Guest Book $565.00 |
|
||||||||||||||
| ca. early to mid twentieth century 82" x 54", 208.5 cm x 137 cm The kantha stitched textiles from Bangladesh and West Bengal in India are a well-known folk textile art and one of India's most prized textile traditions. Kantha stitching has its roots in ingenuity and the culture of women: used white dhotis (men's sarongs) and women's sarees were salvaged, cut and layered: thread from the colored, embroidered borders of the used garments were pulled free from the rags and used as embroidery threads for quilted work, the border threads usually being black and red, blue and red, and sometimes yellow, orange and green. Quilts, bags and clothing were embroidered using a running, stem and satin stitch, the quilts and coverlets were constructed of many layers, the number of layers dependent of the weather of the region where a particular kantha was stitched. Kanthas were stitched by both Hindu and Muslim women, and the variety of motives and patterns employed by these women calls up the rich cultural history of Eastern India and Bangladesh as well as the individual voices of the women who made these kanthas. This particular kantha is a free patern, showing a central medallion of a stylized, twelve petaled lotus flower (a Hindu symbol of the universe) surrounded by over sized flower forms and an intricately stitched edge-binding. The white field very heavily stitched in minuscule stitches using white cotton thread; the kantha itself seems to be made from about three or so layers of "recycled" cotton cloth. Note some faint stains in several places, some surface abrasion and loss of threads to embroidered flowers, all illustrated in detail photos. It is said that this kantha coverlet is from a village near present day Dhaka, Bangladesh. | |||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||
| Categories | Shops | Join | Terms | Critique | Map | Help | |||
