A Five Panel Hand Plied Hemp or Ramie Noren: Stencil Dyed

$495.00 USD

early twentieth century
57 1/2" x 63", 146 cm x 160 cm

This is a five-panel, stencil dyed hand plied hemp or ramie noren, a noren being a traditional curtain that acts as a shop sign or a kind of cover for an entrance way depending how the noren is used.  

The noren is completely hand stitched.

Noren not only acted as shop signs--they are hung in the doorway of a business to announce the shop is open--but they also provided a barrier between the dust and chaos of the street and the inside of the shop or home. Additionally they provide some sort of psychological effect of delineating the transition between outside and inside.

This one with its now-softened-with-age central diamond-shaped image was more than likely hung outside a store, the diamond probably being the crest of the family who owned the business.

The hemp cloth is finely woven yet it is durable and as mentioned above the yarns used to weave it are hand plied, both warp and weft.

The noren has some ingrained creases from wear and the surface is slightly burnished by time and exposure.

All in all this is noren has good graphic appeal, very good cloth, visual interest and nice age.

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