An Edo Period Drawstring Silk Bag: All Botanical Dyes

mid nineteenth century
as shown: 10" x 18 1/2", 25.5 cm x 47 cm

This is a wonderful thing with very good and with amazing visual appeal.

It is a drawstring pouch that is hand pieced entirely of mid 19th century silks, all of them dyed in botanical dyes. The combination and judiciousness of the placement of pattern with solid colors and with sizes and shapes of each individual piece of cloth is something of a marvel.

The bag shows a rich and important selection of Edo period silks, some dyed in the katazome method while others are solid in color. The play of these two types of hand dyed silks against one another and as laid out by the artisan as they can be seen here is sophisticated, surprising and beautiful. Not only that, the quality of the small fragments of katazome dyed silks is really high. They are well worth acquiring this bag just for them.

There is nothing as beautiful and colors derived from nature and we see this so clearly in the green tone which is the product of dyeing indigo cloth in yellow dye; in the orange color which is from safflower; in the purple which is gromwell root. We can assume that the greys and blacks are pulled from other sources, perhaps even soot or charcoal-based ink.

The bag is shown flat and not drawn closed because the loops holding the still-intact silk cord have been damaged and are no longer fully functioning.

This is a supremely rich assortment of old silks and aside from the broken loops that should have held the drawstring the bag shows no damage or loss, just some very slight dulling from wear.

Recommended.