Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 16. (Budapest, 1997)

FAJCSÁK Györgyi-Z. FIKÓ Katalin: Kínai szoknya a 19. század végéről - Restaurálás és dokumentáció

in the care of the collection (111. 6). While the front and back fields of this skirt panel are also rectangular, only a single trapeziumshaped field is inserted between them on each side, embellished with dense, ironed pleats. The pleats were stitched down in a wedge shape below the belt, giving a greater emphasis to the rich pleating of the sides of the skirt. The skirt was made of red silk atlas depicting clouds and bats, as well as stylized flowers arranged into medallions. Adorned with luxuriously elaborate metal-thread embroidery, the main fields, at the front and at the back, each show two phoenixes circling around a peony (111. 7). In each of the four corners of the ornamented field a smaller peony can be seen. The metal-thread embroidery ornamentation is bordered with a U-shaped edging strip, the small floral patterns of which are repeated on the wider strip of the black silk atlas frame. The strips of the emphatically narrow skirt pleats on the sides exhibit stylized metal-thread floral patterns. The front and back surface of the skirt, and its bottom are framed with black silk atlas, along which there extends embroidery in blue and white, strongly offsetting the vague outlines of the metal-thread patterns. This skirt was also made at the end of the 19th century, and although different in cut from the Qing period fishscale skirts discussed above, its similarity with them in its manner of adornment establishes a connection with them. II. The restoration of a Chinese skirt The most basic material for Chinese garments is silk. Legend has it that the Empress Si Longshi discovered silk threads on the leaves of a mulberry bush while walking in her garden. However, it is an established fact that as early as the third millennium BC the Chinese knew the secret of silk production, a secret they kept for thousands of years. The breeding of silkworms and the production of silk were imperial monopolies, and the taking of silkworm eggs abroad was punishable by death. To begin with only the emperor and his entourage could wear silk; later, however, through eastern Turkestan, Pamir and Persia, silk reached the coastal regions of the Mediterranean Sea along the so-called Silk Road. The breeding and processing of silk cocoons was typical women's work, but in some of the work processes (e.g., weaving) men also participated. The material of the restored two-panel Chinese skirt shown here is red silk atlas material, and its lining is blue silk damask (111. 9). Both panels are cut from nine pieces, a rectangular-shaped field is to be found on two sides of each of the panels; however, in the middle of each panel are seven trapezium-shaped fields (Figs. 1-2). When the skirt was worn only the front and rear rectangular-shaped fields, and the borders of the trapezium-shaped fields providing inserts at the sides, could be seen. The skirt measures 68 cm at the waist, and is 86 cm long, without the girdle-band. Of the two rectangular fields folding over each other at the joins of the two skirt panels, the upper field is embellished, while the lower one remains without ornamentation. The trapezium-shaped parts are held together by slanting, black atlas-woven strips 2 cm wide, while the rectangular fields of the skirt are bordered by similarly slanting black atlas material 3 cm wide in the direction of the thread. The bottom of the skirt has a border 1 cm wide. The restoration was preceded by an examination of the materials. The threads of the fabric, the lining and the embroidery were examined on a glycerine base with an optical microscope. This method was very suitable for identification of natural thread. The smooth, cylindrical surface of the silk thread was clearly visible in the microscope field (111. 8). Analysis of the weave of the red silk atlas of the skirt was as follows: Fabric structure: Warp: one warp Material: silk, Z twist