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

[melannen [journalfen.net]]

Huh, any particular reason, except that Osiris and Isis are kind of the default? My immediate reaction is that the form of Horus on here is one that doesn't usually show up in Osirian stuff, but again, that could be the maker just not caring...

[onyxnoir [journalfen.net]]

Only reason I'm thinking Isis and Osiris is because Osiris is the father of Horus, and usually when I see the male and female figures together like that it turns out to be the two of them. I think the representations are off or 'stylized' because it was created with the uneducated american or european audience in mind.

I'm also highly doubting the 200 year old story. The blue green in it screams chemical dye at me, which they wouldn't have had 200 years ago. Also, remember anything associated with ancient Egypt became very popular in the 1920's with the discovery of King Tut's tomb. It influenced fashion, home furnishings, and architecture for years afterward.