An Analysis of Historical Gold Mounting Textile – Light Brown Brocade with Gold Wefts and Lotus Pattern

Abstract

The case study is carried out on a piece of gold brocade lined with handmade paper and used as mounting textile for historic Chinese paintings. This “light brown brocade with gold wefts and a lotus pattern” (specifically, a preserved sample of a precious ancient silk mounting textile taken from a piece of the deceased Master Chang Dai-Chien’s collection, and provided by Professor Sun Jia-Cin, Master Chang’s last disciple) is decorated with a gold lotus pattern against a background that is light brown in color. The ground warps and the gold patterns are interconnected in a structure of one warp and two wefts (light brown wefts and gold weft threads). The weave for the ground structure can be identified as a warp-faced 2/1 right twill with light brown warps and flossy light brown wefts. Flat strips of gold threads are applied as continuous supplementary wefts, and woven into the design in the mode of a 1/2 right twill weft backed weave. The ground weft is connected by warp to the gold weft in a 2:1 ratio called Ban-Yua. Based on an analysis by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and a combustion method for textile fiber analysis, both the ground warp and the weft are made of silk. In addition, according to the result given by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), the primary material of the gilded weft is gold. The paper lining on the back of the gold strip is made of natural fibers, according to the result from a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and an FTIR examination. Based on the shape of the lotus motif, it is estimated that this gold brocade dates back to the Ming Dynasty period.

Citation

Chang, C. (2012), "An Analysis of Historical Gold Mounting Textile – Light Brown Brocade with Gold Wefts and Lotus Pattern", Research Journal of Textile and Apparel, Vol. 16 No. 4, pp. 71-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/RJTA-16-04-2012-B008