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Looped horsehair veil from Uzbekistan, 20th century (TRC 2005.0261).The TRC has a fascinating collection of face veils from different countries. One that has always interested me is a handmade veil from Uzbekistan, dated to the mid-20th century, which is machine embroidered around the edges (TRC 2005.0261). This veil intrigued me because of the material, which was new to me: it is made from horse hair, a stiff and very durable material.

Imagine my delight when I recently saw many other Uzbek face veils made from the same material. They are in an art installation now on display at the EYE Film Museum in Amsterdam. The exhibition, called “18,000 Worlds”, is by award-winning Uzbek artist Saodat Ismailova (b. 1981, Tashkent). While she is best known for her films, this exhibition contained many textiles.

The first piece that drew my eye was a long strand of hanging horse hair that almost obscured a neon light that read, in Arabic script, “What was My Name?” (2020). In this piece Ismailova explores the multi-faceted Uzbek identity, combining Arabic, Mongol, Persian, Russian and Uzbek aspects. The language is Uzbek, the script is Arabic, and the horse hair, traditionally used in Uzbek face veils, may have originated in the Mongolian belief that horse hair protects against the evil eye (see also a TRC blog about horse hair veils that used to be worn in Afghanistan, and the TRC online exhibition 'Dressing the Stans').

There was an intriguing article recently on the BBC News (online)) about scientific discoveries presented to the Royal Society, London:  Four incredible objects that made science history.

The article refers to some 250,000 documents that can now be viewed online, and that include letters sent by the public to the Society in the 17th, 18th and 19th century about scientific observations and other matters of interest to the Society.

One letter from 1779 was sent by someone called Jean Antoine André, a cloth-maker, from Offenbach am Main, Hesse, Germany. Included was an introductory letter and a piece of silk that Mr André said demonstrated he had discovered how to make the "pinkest ever pink dye".

Following our initial question whether there was someone who knew about the cloth maker and  which dye was being referred to, we received a reply from Monika Preuss in Germany:

The family André were French Huguenots who emigrated to German lands in 1699. Marc André (1705-1751) married Marie Juliane Pfaltz, daughter of a cloth-maker from Mannheim, and started his business of silk weaving in Offenbach. His eldest son Johann André (1741-1799) established a shop dealing with music (Musikalienhandlung André in Offenbach, still existing today). Johann or another son continued the silk factory or the eldest was engaged in both. For more information about the family, click the Wikipedia entry.

26 April 2023

Bunschoten-Spakenburg mannequin between two quilts with Dutch-inspired designs. Nantes, April 2023We would like to let you know about some developments and events during the last few days: Firstly, Beverley Bennett, our shop manager and quilt guru, has been participating in an international quilt festival in Nantes (France) between 19-22 April 2023.

The festival is called Pour l’Amour du Fil (‘For the love of thread’) with the theme ‘The Netherlands from every angle’. Beverley had three quilts on display, while the TRC lent three mannequins dressed in Bunschoten-Spakenburg, Marken and Volendam regional dress.

At the same time a group from the TRC went to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam for an international conference called 'Under the Microscope' (20-21 April). It was a stimulating and thought provoking event! A report about the conference can be found here.

The Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden is proud to announce the publication, on 20 April 2023, of volume three of the Bloomsbury World Encyclopedia of Embroidery, which covers sub-Saharan Africa. The work was completed under the aegis of the TRC and edited by Dr Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, director of the TRC and also chief author, together with her husband, Dr Willem Vogelsang. For the official Bloomsbury announcement of the book, click here. 

Encyclopedia of Embroidery from Sub-Saharan Africa, Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood and Willem Vogelsang

Last year we were given a number of Romanian blouses by Monique Amsel from Paris. At the time we wrote a blog about this donation. In order to gain more information about these embroidered garments a special meeting was held last year that was organised by members of the Romanian community living here in the Netherlands.

Romanian Blouse Day, 8 April 2023. Photograph Maria Linkogle.

Paysanne de l'Angoumois (Southwest France), wearing clogs. Costume print, France, late 18th century (TRC 2023.0388).

It's been busy over the last few weeks at the TRC! No surprise there, it's is simply getting busier and busier as we have new activities, visitors, items for the collection, etc.

Some good news – thanks to the efforts of a colleague, Maria Linkogle, the TRC has just been given a grant via the national Cultuurparticipatie programme for working with various groups of people, especially those with Middle Eastern backgrounds living in the Netherlands.

Hand embroidered raffia panel from DR Congo, late 20th century (TRC 2021.2201).We recently published a TRC blog about some Philippine textiles that were made from fibres of the Abaca plant, a member of the banana family. In this blog I would like to draw attention to another interesting type of fibre namely raffia (raphia), which comes from the raffia palm (especially Raphia ruffia and Raphia taedigera) in Africa.

Apart from those two, there are more species of raffia palm that are all native to sub-Saharan Africa, especially West and Central Africa, as well as Madagascar. They grow in marshy or swampy areas, especially in tropical forests or other places with a plentiful supply of water. 

Raphia australis tree. Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town. Photograph by Andrew Massyn.The Raffia palm has long, curving pinnate leaves that can grow up to about 16 m (Rapphia regalis leaves can grow up to 25 m length and 3 m in width), but the best raffia is said to come from the younger leaves of about 1 m in length. The fibre itself is made from the upper epidermis of the leaves, which is removed in the form of long, thin fibres that are bundled together and then allowed to dry slowly.

In most parts of Africa the fibres are used in single lengths, rather than being spun or spliced like other fibres such as flax. This means that the length of the fibres defines the size of the finished product. Most finished products are therefore max. 2 m in size. The main exception is Madagascar where the fibres are spliced and twisted together.

The online BBC News recently (29 March) published a short, but fascinating article by Kan Zhang about the so-called ‘Dream Weavers’ of the island of Mindanao of the Philippine archipelago (to be downloaded here). They are women of the indigenous T’boli people, who live around Lake Sebu in the southern part of the island.

T'nalak cloth of the T'boli people, southern Mindanao, Philippines (TRC 2022.2909).