An Intact Pieced Silk Drawstring Bag: 19th Century Silks

mid nineteenth century
as shown: 6" x 15" x 15", 15 cm x 38 cm x 38 cm

This is a good sized, piece-constructed drawstring bag hand stitched from individual pieces of 19th century, botanically dyed silks: notice the indigo blues, the benibana or safflower oranges and the shikon or gromwell root purple pieces which all attest to the vegetal origins of the dyes.

The spirit of this bag is high: it is really lovely to look at and is beautifully hand stitched: all the loops on the drawstring top are intact and the cording is probably original to the bag: even though it is made of delicate silks.

The bag is lined in a medium toned blue silk, all intact.

Besides the obvious beauty of this bag it is worthwhile noting that the silks on the bag are all in good condition with no holes, wear or loss: quite remarkable for a bag of this age. Judging from the quality of the silks that compose this bag it appears they all date from the mid nineteenth century.

This bag may have been a komebukuro or a bag that was used to present a token amount of rice or beans to a temple or shrine during a festival, however it is really quite large and may have been destined for another use.

Really, really lovely and recommended.