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Small bag with woven designs from Peru, c. 2020 (TRC 2021.2073).While looking around the historic city of Maaseik in northeastern Belgium last week prior to going to see the Anglo-Saxon embroideries in the Sint Catharina church (see blog), Willem and I met Seppe Bleukx and his Peruvian wife, Venessa. They had set up a small stall selling Peruvian textiles inside a florist shop cum café. They have been helping a group of weavers in Peru who are badly affected by the lack of customers, local and tourists, in Peru.

Small bag with woven designs from Peru, c. 2020 (TRC 2021.2071).So the Family Bleukx are selling a range of bags and textiles made by the weavers in pop-up stalls in various parts of Belgium. We have bought three small bags for the TRC Collection (TRC 2021.2071, TRC 2021.2072 and TRC 2021.2073) and we are now wondering if we can help them by stocking the bags in the TRC Shop.

This is the story of VeinteVeinte as told by Seppe Bleukx and his wife Venessa:

VeinteVeinte or 20-20 in Spanish is a number which many people associate with a time of twists and changes. Despite what happened in 2020, VeinteVeinte for us represents a new start. The start of a new relationship between Peru and the world. I moved to Peru many years ago and met there Vanessa, who was born and raised in Cusco, the old Inca capital, and home to Machu Picchu.

Small bag with woven designs from Peru, c. 2020 (TRC 2021.2072).Over time we realised how much interest there is in unique, Peruvian handicrafts and accessories. When my sister Griet came to Peru last year, we felt that we must do something with this geographical and emotional connection and VeinteVeinte was born. Now, several months and lockdowns later, the time is ready for us to present our initiative to a much wider audience.

Basically, VeinteVeinte offers carefully selected handmade Peruvian gifts and goods such as textiles, bracelets, bags, purses, and blankets. We purchase everything directly from the people responsible for making these colourful items and in doing so deliberately cut out middlemen. This allows us, on the one hand, to offer the best prices to the makers and, on the other, to provide our clients with products that are not easily found outside of Peru.

The weaver Hermenegilda from Chinchero, Peru.We work directly with the weavers from the famous weaving town of Chinchero, an ancient Inca town located close to Cusco in South Peru. Hermenegilda is one of the main weavers in the town. She is also the one who ensures that VeinteVeinte offers a quality product, while at the same time making sure that all the benefits go to those that have earned them.

In these difficult times, the weavers of Chinchero have lost one of their main clients: international tourists. Therefore an important part of the VeinteVeinte initiative is to reach to these artisans directly and provide a positive outlook and market despite the lack of physical clients. For more information or collaborations, please contact us at at this web address.

30 June 2021.

For nearly two years we have been meaning to go, and then longing to go, and finally yesterday we were allowed to go, to the small town of Maaseik in northeastern Belgium, close to the border with the Netherlands. Why all this interest in a small Belgian town?

Maaseik is home to a group of Anglo-Saxon embroideries associated with the Frankish Saints Harlindis and Relindis. The two saints lived in a Benedictine establishment at the nearby village of Aldeneik, which was set up by their parents around AD 730.

The so-called Casula of Saints Harlindis and Relindis, before conservation and separation of the constituent parts. Early medieval. Photograph courtesy of the Musea Maaseik.

The sun is shining again here in Leiden and with it came some very good news! For quite a few years we have been working together with Bloomsbury Publishers, London, on the World Encyclopedia of Embroidery series (see blog). The series is changing the way in which hand embroidery around the globe is being perceived and studied, academically and for the sheer love of the subject.

Chantilly lace skirt flounce (c. 1870s, France; TRC 2021.1903).We have recently been cataloguing a collection of lace given by Styske Wijnsma that includes a range of handmade and machine made lace, with some lovely lace collars. Among the bobbin lace examples there are several pieces of black Chantilly lace from the latter half of the 19th century. Two pieces, in particular, caught my eye, one is a long, deep length that was probably used as a skirt flounce (TRC 2021.1903), the other piece is a lappet (TRC 2021.1902). The latter raises two basic questions, what is Chantilly lace and what is a lappet?

Detail of straw and leather hat from western Africa (TRC 2021.1962).Thanks to the help of Dr. Annette Schmidt, curator for sub-Saharan Africa at the Volkenkunde Museum, Leiden, we have some more details about the straw/grass hat with leather details (TRC 2021.1962) mentioned in an earlier TRC Blog.

This type of hat has been worn since at least the mid-19th century by nomads and cattle herders living in West Africa. It is particularly associated with the Fulani, Hausa, as well as the Zerma. Examples of this type of headwear, with variations such as the height of the crown and decoration, can be found in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, as well as Togo.

Straw and leather hat from Mali, western Africa. Courtesy collection of the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen (RV-739-1525).The Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen has several examples of this form of headwear, some of which date from before 1889 (such as RV-739-1521, RV-739-1523 and, probably of more recent date, RV-739-1525). I have just spotted examples in the British Museum Collection as well.

Such headwear is also mentioned in Norma H. Wolff’s article ‘Hausa in Nigeria and diaspora’, in J. B. Eicher and D. H. Ross (2010), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion Vol 1, Africa, Oxford: Berg Publishers, p.306.

However, we still have not been able to identify the leather form of headwear that was also mentioned in the previous blog (TRC 2021.1963), and once again any help would be greatly appreciated.

Gillian Vogelsang, Director TRC, 19 June 2021.

Hand knitted cap from Peru, late-20th century (TRC 2021.1917).We have just had a donation of textiles, garments and headwear from the Hobijn family here in Leiden. The items were collected over many years by Hilde van der Linden's parents-in-law, Joop en May Hobijn-Roth, who were passionate about textiles. The items come from many parts of the world, literally from Indonesia to Guatemala via China, India and Africa and include a wide variety of techniques.

The first group, in fact, was catalogued this morning (Thursday) and include fourteen pairs of knitted socks that show a variety of heel and toe techniques, as well as patterns and colour combinations (TRC 2021.1936a-b – TRC 2021.1949a-b). One of them, TRC 2021.1940a-b, has a delicate lacey design plus toes with a trellis work enclosing rosettes.

Haute Bordure: Catalogue to the exhibition with the same titel in the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands (2021).Willem and I have just returned from another visit to Friesland, both to see an embroidery exhibition at the Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, and to hear further details about Akke Scheepsma from the village of Schettens, who stitched a sampler in 1852. We were also privileged to go to the village of Pingjum in order to see an early Mennonite chapel that is ‘hidden’ behind a small private house (more below on all these subjects).

For over a year we have been unable to go anywhere, let alone see exhibitions, so it was with great relief when on Friday we went to the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden to see Haute Bordure, about 400 years of hand embroidery in the Netherlands, and especially that associated with Friesland. We were shown around by Eveline Holsappel, the curator of the exhibition.

It is a lovely exhibition that is well-worth seeing. It shuts on the 18th July, so you have to be quick. You need to book in advance and we were told that many tickets are already booked. The exhibition includes examples of embroidery of various types that date from the early seventeenth century to ‘yesterday’, including regional, fashionable and royal forms for men and women. I have been asked to write a review of the exhibition for Selvedge, the London based textile journal. As soon as it is published I will let you know.

We officially opened on Monday (5th June) and straight away at 10.00 there were two visitors to see the paisley exhibition, and the promise of more visitors for the exhibition over the next few weeks! Life really is returning to the TRC premises!

Quilting is not limited to bedspreads. Print published in the UK in 1885, showing quilted armour for men and horses, from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) (TRC 2021.0284).