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Resist-Printed and Hand-Painted Paired Aprons or Skirt

1899-1909

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Resist-Printed and Hand-Painted Paired Aprons or Skirt

1899-1909

Physical Qualities Silk, cotton or hemp, 34 1/2 x 72 in. (87.6 x 182.9 cm.)
Credit Line From the Estate of the Rt. Rev. R. Bland Mitchell
Object Number 2010.60
A Han Chinese woman's skirt or paired aprons of lightweight deep purple silk damask with resist-dyed pattern of butterflies and floral designs hand-painted in yellow, cream, green, red. The skirt is composed of two sections or aprons, each with a panel in front and back and narrowly pleated sections (with pleats sewn down) at the sides. The resist/painted decorations form a 3-1/2" wider border around the front and back panels of the skirt and along the bottom border. Additional resist and painted decorations are found in the lower third of the wide panels within the area surrounded by the borders and within the pleated sections above the border. Both aprons have 3" wide cotton or hemp waistbands. These are joined with three loop and knot closures on one side and two wide loops on the other. The garment is lined in turquoise silk.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2010; Estate of Vivien M. Thweatt, through the family; Estate of the Rt. Rev. Richard Bland Mitchell, who lived in China as a missionary and was an Episcopal bishop connected to the University of the South
Verity Wilson, Chinese Dress, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986, pp. fig.55, 57.
Valery Garrett, Chinese Dress from the Qing Dynasty to the Present, Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle Publishing, 2007, pp. 106-107, figs. 200-202; p. 109, fig. 205; p. 99, fig. 188.

Inscribed: Two paper tags, one attached to each end with old fashioned wire clips. The word "Thweet" is written in (black ink?) by hand. Tags have been removed and placed in the object file.

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