Cleveland Museum of Art

Half of a "Sampot" (Skirt Cloth)

Date

1800s–early 1900s

Medium

tabby weave, weft ikat; silk

Culture

Cambodia, 19th - early 20th century

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Ikat-dyed silks from Southeast Asia are weft ikats. Both the technique and the use of silk originated in India and spread to those parts of Southeast Asia that were accessible to international trade. There, it gradually replaced the earlier technique of warp ikat using cotton. The antiquity of this technique in Cambodia is indicated by weft-ikat designs that are preserved on sculptures of the Ankor period (9th-13th centuries). The diagonal lattice pattern in the central field of this textile was common throughout Southeast Asia. Because the textile was inteded to be a skirt cloth, there is little figural representation in its design.

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