Things which are amazingly awesome (pt 1)

[melannen]

So tommorow is our church's big fall rummage sale, so I came home today to help Mom set up and price, and in the big pile of STUFF THAT WAS DONATED was this:



It is not it great shape - some of the fabric is deteriorated and some of the dyes have run as they faded - but it is *old* - my conservative guess would be 1940s - and over five feet long, all hand-appliqued on heavy canvas - and did I mention it is made of pure awesome? (Possibly quite literally.)

All I know about it is that it belonged to the deceased husband of a friend of a woman who knows someone at our church.

Here's a close-up of Horus so you can see the stitchwork: link. (And a huge version of the whole thing: link)

Hey eleutheria, know anyone who needs a hanging for a Horus altar? :D

(I would like to at least figure out who the other two figures reresent - they're not anything I know offhand - and get a better idea of the age and origin - and maybe figure out how to attempt to properly conserve it. I've gotten ratty old quilts before, but they were all obviously used hard when they were new and intended for it, so I was fine with continuting to use them as ratty old textiles. This one, however, is *awesome*.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's almost too cool to *not* display! But I'm guessing that your biggest enemy would be light damage, so you'd need to limit the amount of light hitting it, either by mounting it behind UV-protective glass of some sort, or keeping it in very low light. It might also need to be mounted onto yet another piece of backing to avoid stressing the original canvas.

Fraternal society sounds possible; I was going to go with "handmade by someone who liked the look of ancient Egyptian art but didn't know the symbolism," which would be even more impossible to research. I'm not sure who you could ask. You could always try a curator who works with a collection that includes twentieth-century textiles--they might be able to point you toward some reference materials (actually, when the American History Museum opens back up you might try their library). Curators are usually legally prohibited from appraising/giving conservation advice, and that might extend to helping identify an object. But "hey, what sources do you recommend I look at" might work.

Re. dude-without-beard: I'm going with "male" as I seem to remember women usually being portrayed with white skin rather than red. But normal symbolism may not apply in this case.

--siegeofangels

[melannen [journalfen.net]]

I'm actually thinking maybe quilt it to a backing (very carefully. With, I supposed, special acid-free thread) and then hang it on the inside of a closet door, as a sort of compromise between display and not-display. Maybe.

See update for update on provenance! I do have some reprints of old egyptology books, so I shall be looking at them to see if I can at least get an idea what would have been known. But yes, trip to DC to museums is looking like very good possibility.

RE: dude-without-beard: it looks like sometimes women are paler, sometimes not, and sometimes it's faded enough that it's hard to tell? Women are usually more shapely than that, but again, could be maker's inaccuracy...

[(Anonymous)]

That actually sounds like a pretty good compromise. 100% cotton, undyed = acid-free, I think.

Re. provenance: ooh, the plot thickens! I agree on its almost certainly not being 200 years old, but the other possibilities do sound intriguing.