PERUVIAN PATTERNS

book to deal generally with the development of tapestry weaving, thegreat importance of primitive tapestries in the history of textile designmakes description and illustration of these early fabrics necessary.

In primitive days tapestry weaving was the only method ofobtaining bright colours.

It is perhaps worthy of remark that a people so far removedfrom Egypt as the early Peruvians, should have produced tapestryfabrics identical in structure and material, differing only in the typeof pattern, as there is an entire absence of the beautiful flora of Peruas elements of decoration; the patterns consisting of fishes, birds,

and figures, together with

OOU 6 LC CL°TH IN BROWN YELLOW.

the wave scroll, and the

LiijJPire*™

i uuuk • ct um i uilliufK 1 ! Oil: ■ ^ ^< 1 < B

itunMHfOT

Fig. II.— Peruvian Cloth.

Fig. 12.— Peruvian Tapestry.

fylfot or fret. Contemporary with these tapestry fabrics, manyshuttle-woven double-cloths were also produced on the primitivePeruvian looms.

Figs. 10-12 are typical Peruvian patterns of a period not veryremote from the arrival of Pizarro in 1529.

Most of the Peruvian textiles have been found in burying-grounds of the coastal region, and are the work of the non-Incapeoples, before and after the Inca conquests, which were completedonly a little before the Spaniards landed ; comparatively few are thework of the Incas themselves. The dates range over more than athousand years.

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