A Large, Worn Three Panel Katazome Cloth: Oversized Peonies

early twentieth century
72" x 39", 183 cm x 99 cm

This good-sized katazome dyed cotton cloth is machine stitched from three panels, each of them showing a repeat of wildly oversized, resist-dyed peonies.

The color of this cloth today reads as a mauve-y grey tone and we can surmise that when this cloth was originally dyed an iron oxide-derived pigment dye--or bengara as it is called in Japan--was used to color the cloth.

Decades of use, abrasion and fading have softened to color to this hard-to-describe hue we see here, which, by the way, appears slightly different when in different lighting situations.

The cloth is well-used and is broken in areas. Still, the curious color and the unusual, large repeat are attractive. There is a small patch or two on the back of this cloth.

This is a not-often-seen pattern and color combination and has high visual appeal.