A Large, Beautiful Pale Colored Boro Panel: Off-Square and Many Stitches

early to mid twentieth century
65" x 21", 165 cm x 53.25 cm

This is a shaped fragment from what seems to be a futon cover that dates to the 1930s or so: we can tell that because most of the cloth that composes this piece is power loomed and seems characteristic of that time period.

Because this boro cloth was entirely hand stitched from scraps of different weights, its shape is rather free-form: from the internal surface tension of the stitching which holds these pieces together, the cloth has created its own form based on how it was assembled and relative kinds of cloth stitched together.

The fact that it is all pale-colored is a slightly unusual aspect for a boro textile and one that makes this one attractive. Embedded within this arrangement of commercially loomed cotton cloth we see an old tenugui or hand towel among some other, older scraps.

A really beautiful, almost sculpture piece of old boro cloth.

Recommended.