A Length of Iron Oxide Stenciled Overdyed Cotton: Peonies

late nineteenth century
28 1/2" x 12", 72.5 cm x 30.5 cm

This is a really good example of a wonderful kind of stencil dyed cotton which shows an over dyed indigo base (indigo over dyed with a yellow dye to create green) onto which has been stenciled a pattern of red-colored pigment dye derived from iron oxide (bengara in Japanese).

The base cloth is stitched up the center from two separate pieces. The cloth is hand woven from hand spun cotton yarns.

The green tone of the base is beautiful because it is not a flat green color: the green color is enlivened because it was double dyed so there is some evidence of the blue and yellow coming together to make green.

The red overlaid pattern is in color contrast to the base, but just barely. The red is fairly the same tonal value as the green making for a low-contrast design with appealing optical effect.

The pattern shown is that of peonies amid a field of arabesque, very attractive.

A gorgeous example of this type of old stenciled cloth showing bengara dye.