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Lot Essay
The vibrancy of the colour palette of this excellently woven silk lampas robe is truly exceptional. A similar robe was recently with Simon Ray with confronted birds inside eight-pointed stars, which also had impressive interwoven highlights of light blue and gold (Simon Ray, November 2009, pp. 134-137, no. 39). The interwoven light blue threads on our robe are used to highlight the small details of the head and beak of the bird excluding the eye. The robe from Simon Ray had a carbon date test, which like our robe, confirmed it as being from the 11th or 12th Century.
Two fragments from another silk robe that were sold through these Rooms, 6 October 2009, lot 25; and 13 April 2010, lot 24, had very similar large roundels with pairs of birds. However, the birds depicted on the fragments and on the robe from Simon Ray are confronted, whereas on our robe they are addorsed. This is contrasted by the smaller birds in between the roundels on our robe, which are confronted and mirrored.
Two fragments from another silk robe that were sold through these Rooms, 6 October 2009, lot 25; and 13 April 2010, lot 24, had very similar large roundels with pairs of birds. However, the birds depicted on the fragments and on the robe from Simon Ray are confronted, whereas on our robe they are addorsed. This is contrasted by the smaller birds in between the roundels on our robe, which are confronted and mirrored.