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Detail of an embroidered pair of trousers from Guatemala (2021.1971).A few days ago a box arrived from Charles and Carolyn Knobler, Los Angeles, and it was opened with great anticipation, because for the last three years they have been sending a diverse range of Guatemalan and Mexican garments to the TRC.

Each garment comes with its own label that often includes details of where it comes from, the local name, dates, and in some cases with information on what sort of occasion it would have been used, namely all the things a curator loves to know about.

And this new box was not disappointing! There are some lovely huipil (tops) for women worked in various techniques, including woven (with supplementary wefts) and embroidered (both hand and machine) forms. Many of these garments are made from cloth woven on back strap looms. The plan is to display about one hundred of these and similar items in a TRC Gallery exhibition about textiles and garments from Guatemala in the autumn of 2022.

But I have to admit, one of my favourite items in this latest box is a pair of men’s trousers (TRC 2021.1971) from Santiago Atitlán in southern Guatemala. The trousers are made from two lengths of white cloth with dark red stripes.

The lengths are sewn together to create the waist and leg sections. The lower parts of the trouser legs are heavily embroidered with rows of stylised birds of various types in a wide range of contrasting, vibrant colours using satin stitch, Romanian stitch and stem stitch. I thought you might enjoy detailed images of the birds, what they look like, how they were made, etc.

What a difference from men’s trousers that are worn here in the Netherlands, even in the summer time! Can I please make a plea to Dutch men to wear more colour and embroidery?

Detail of an embroidered huipil from Guatemala (TRC 2021.1970).An embroidered women's top (huipil)

In addition to the trousers, there is a women’s top (huipil; TRC 2021.1970) from the same area of Guatemala and this garment is also embroidered with rows of birds. It is made from lengths of white cloth with multicoloured stripes in both the warp and weft, as well as being embroidered around the neck opening with rows of colourful, stylised birds worked in satin stitch, Romanian stitch, long stem stitch as well as running stitch.

Gillian Vogelsang, Director TRC, 21 June 2021.

Sample from Friesland, the Netherlands, ca. 1900 (TRC 2020.1633).Nelleke Ganzevoort wrote the following blog:

Last weekend, while Gillian and Willem travelled to Friesland in search of Akke Scheepsma from Schettens (TRC 2021.1805; see the blog), I took a trip on my computer to find another girl. It took me to a small village in Friesland, even smaller than Schettens.

TRC 2020.1633 is a small sampler worked on a white ground with cross stitch, double running stitch and eyelets. In Dutch, I would not call it a merklap but rather a naailap – a piece of cloth on which sewing techniques are practised. It has no date, but lots of initials and these initials make it possible to date it.

The main initials in the centre are CvdZ, LJH and SvdZ,  whereby LJH is worked in red, and the other two in white, square eyelets. CvdZ may be read as GvdZ. Three sets usually mean the girl and her parents. VD usually means 'van de', 'van der' of 'van den', and the fact that two of the three have the combinations VDZ means that these two will be father and daughter. So, I went looking for a girl called S* van de/der/den Z, whose mother was called L* H*.

I found Sjoukje van der Zwaag, daughter of Gabe Louws van der Zwaag (1856-1925), a farmer, and his wife Lutske Jogchums Haakma (1860-1929). Sjoukje was born 10-04-1892 in Akkerwoude, a very small village that is now part of Damwoude.

Nelleke Ganzevoort wrote the following blog about a sampler in the TRC collection and a comparable example in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

In September 2020 the TRC in Leiden acquired an intriguing sampler (TRC 2020.3682). It is marked with numerous initials, but it still proved difficult, but not impossible, to identify the girl who made it. The sampler measures 30 x 29 cm and made with silk threads on a linen ground. It is not dated, but a late 18th century origin seemed likely, but now we know much more.

Linen and silk sampler from the Netherlands, c. 1800 (TRC 2020.3682).

The linen is reasonably fine (16 threads/cm). The embroidery includes what look like lines of text, all around the edges, but by now nearly illegible: tiny stitches in badly faded threads. I took many photographs, enlarged them and puzzled it out, stitch by stitch. In the end the apparent texts were two alphabets and two lines of initials, some of them in cartouches. Many of the initials are joined together, which makes them difficult to read. The embroidery also includes lines of crowns and other symbols, along the four edges. Most of the embroidery is worked in cross stitch, but the initials without cartouches are worked in square eyelets.

By coincidence, I came across a sampler in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam (BK-1959-142-A) that shows some clear correspondences with the TRC example. It includes initials and symbols along the edges, just like the TRC example. In fact, there are so many similarities that they were clearly made in the same tradition, perhaps in the same school, under the same teacher, or perhaps even from the same pattern book. There is at least one difference that also marks a similarity: the initials inside cartouches are worked in square eyelets, while those without cartouches are in cross stitch (exactly the opposite from the Leiden TRC example).

The Rijksmuseum notes provide further information about this sampler: it was made bij A.C. van Duuren. There is actually a darning sampler, also in the Rijksmuseum collection, with the name of A.C. van Duuren written in full (BK-1959-142-B). I suggest both names refer to the same person.

Sampler worked by A.C. van Duuren c. 1805/1806 (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, 1959 142 A).

The initials ACVD in a cartouche of the Rijksmuseum sampler obviously refers to this person. The rows of smaller initials start with AvD and IMvL, and I guessed these were her parents. Searching the archives for a woman named A.C. van Duuren (Dueren, Duren) with a father called A. van Duuren soon helped me to her full name: Adriana Cornelia van Dueren, baptized 17-11-1793 in Leiden. Her parents were Abraham/Abram van Duuren/Dueren en Joanna/Johanna Maria van Loon.

Other initials in the Rijksmuseum sampler refer to her grandfather Willem van Duuren (WvD), her grandmother Grietje van Belle (GvB), her maternal grandfather Isaac van Loon (IvL), her eldest brother Willem van Duuren (WvD), and his wife Maria Elisabeth Broekkerken (EMB). Other initials include IvD (for her sisters Johanna and Jacoba and/or her brother Isaac), GvD (for sister Grietje and/or brother Gerardus), and MvD (for sister Maria). Adriana was married to Abraham Theodorus Beausar, a vicar, and died in 1869 in Willemstad, aged 75.

Linen and silk sampler from the Netherlands, c. 1800 (TRC 2020.3682), with the initials CHD.The TRC sampler has large initials AMHD, in eyelets (but without cartouches as is the case with the Amsterdam example), which clearly refer to the maker, and several cartouches with the initials CHD, ICVB, CHD with an i underneath it, AVH, and in the corner AD. I assume CHD to be the father. Because both have the combination HD, and because these letters are so often paired in this sampler, I assume both to belong to the surname, the first half beginning with H and the second half with D. The mother could be ICVB, AVH or AD.

It took me some time to identify the girl. AMHD is Aletta Margareta Hoogendorp (or Hogendorp), born 27-05-1790 in Haarlem. Her parents were Cornelis Hoogendorp (CHD) and Johanna Christina Valbracht (ICVB). Other large initials refer to her paternal grandparents, Cornelis Hoogendorp (CHD) and Alida Double (AD) and her stepmother Ariaantje/Ariana van Hulst. Her mother’s parents may be AMVB and HP, in the rows of smaller initials, but I could not find their names in the archives.

Date

The samplers are not dated, but both girls embroidered their age. Adriana van Dueren was twelve years old (OUDT 12 IAAR) when she made her sampler. As she was born in 1793, this must have been in 1805 or 1806. Aletta Hoogendorp was born in 1790 and she made her sampler when she was nine years old, in 1799 or 1800. The place where they made them must have been in Holland: Adriana was from Leiden, Aletta from Haarlem. Adriana’s sampler shows the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam, but the link between the girl and Amsterdam remains unclear.

I am not clear about the social status of the two families. Cornelis Hoogendorp was a country policeman (a ‘veldwachter’), Aletta married a working man (a ‘werkman’) and there were cobblers and carpenters in the family, but one of her father’s brothers was a vicar. Abraham van Dueren was a baker, but one of his sons went to university and Adriana married a vicar. Anyway, there must have been money to pay for schooling.

Motifs

Detail of linen and silk sampler from the Netherlands, c. 1800 (TRC 2020.3682).Chart of detail of sampler TRC 2020.3682. Click on illustration for a PdF file.

Adriana’s sampler, in the Rijksmuseum, has many crowns and cartouches, the Amsterdam coat of arms and two trees. Aletta’s sampler is more interesting. In the first place, there are two butterflies. They appear to be identical, but I worked out the pattern and found many small differences. Maybe the girl was inexperienced at pattern reading, or maybe she did not have a pattern. Perhaps the butterfly was just drawn or stamped on the linen?

Detail of linen and silk sampler from the Netherlands, c. 1800 (TRC 2020.3682).Chart of detail of sampler TRC 2020.3682. Click on illustration for a PdF file.

And then there are those two buildings: Is it a house, a church, a castle, a large gate, or simply an ornate dovecote? The chequered area in the middle suggests a balcony. And the white constructions (?) on which the birds are sitting: are there towers? Chimneys? I have no idea.

I tend to think there must be more samplers of this type around. If you have seen them, please tell us! Knowing more of them may make it possible to find out where they were made.

Nelleke Ganzevoort, 10 May 2021

Early 20th century carte de visite from France, with a photograph of a standing women wearing a dark coloured blouse with a lace edging (TRC 2020.5161).In a previous blog post, I described a box of 127 Nyonya kebaya embroidery patterns in the collection of the Textile Research Centre (TRC 2020.4874). They were used among the Peranakan Chinese in Malaysia to embroider women's blouses. Following my interest in these kebaya blouses, the director of the TRC acquired a black and white photograph (TRC 2020.5161) of a woman wearing a blouse with noticeable similarities to the kebaya.

From the text on the photograph, we know that the it was taken in the studio of Charles Bacou (officially known as Louis Jules Bacou, 1853-?) , a portrait photographer active in France in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. We can assume that the photograph was taken somewhere in France, but who exactly the woman is and where she is from remains a mystery.

If we take a closer look at her blouse, it seems similar to the kebaya because of the V-shaped collar and its length, coming down to just below hip level. The bottom of the blouse also points slightly downwards, just like the shape of the kebaya.

However, there are also important differences. The front of her blouse is fastened with buttons, rather than the three brooch kerongsang that are used to fasten the kebaya. She also wears her blouse over a long white undershirt and (given the date of the photograph) a skirt, possibly of the bustle type, which gives her dress a wider European shape, in contrast to the hip-hugging batik sarong.

The blouse of this lady is trimmed and decorated with lace, rather than embroidery, and it appears that the blouse is all in one colour, probably black (although it is hard to be sure with a black and white photograph). This is a marked difference with the Nyonya kebaya, which is typically made of a brightly coloured voile and embroidered with brightly coloured thread.

However, even though we do not know the story of the woman in this photograph, the similarity and differences between this blouse and the Nyonya kebaya tell an important part of the story of the evolution of the kebaya worn by the Peranakan Chinese.

Paper pattern for embroidery on a Nyonya kebaya blouse from among the Peranakan Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore, late 20th century (TRC 2020.4874.028).It is thought that the Nyonya kebaya was perhaps adapted from European lace-trimmed blouses worn by Dutch women living in the Dutch East Indies. Because of the hot and humid climate, Dutch women often gave up their stiff and stuffy European dresses in domestic settings for a more airy batik sarong paired with a lace-trimmed white cotton blouse. White cotton was worn in the day time, while black was evening wear, and therefore a little more formal.

There are photographs of Peranakan Chinese women wearing similar white, lace-trimmed shirts in the 1920s. However, perhaps because in Chinese culture white is associated with mourning, the blouses were gradually transformed, becoming more colourful with more intricate decoration. But we can see that there are still echoes of this lace trim on some of the Nyonya kebaya.

For example, an embroidery pattern in the TRC collection (TRC 2020.4874.028), once applied to fabric, would have employed a cutwork embroidery technique (tebuk lubang in Malay). The lines coloured in blue would have been embroidered using a zig-zag stitch and then the spaces in-between would have been carefully cut out with scissors. The end effect would be a fine web or lattice made of embroidery, a pattern reminiscent of lace.

This part of the story of the Nyonya kebaya demonstrates the ability of the Peranakan Chinese women to adopt ideas from various influences and combine them create something new, beautiful and unique.

Tchi Ridley, 6 February 2021.

See also two other TRC Needle entries about the Peranakan:

• Tokei altar cloths
• Nyonya needlework exhibition
• Kasut manek
• Kebaya

Paper embroidery pattern for a woman's kebaya from the Peranakan Chinese, late 20th century (TRC 2020.4874.037).In the collection of the Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden, there is a box filled with 127 paper embroidery patterns for the Nyonya kebaya, a traditional dress for the women of the Peranakan Chinese communities of Singapore and Malaysia (TRC 2020.4874). The embroidery patterns show an amazing variety of designs. Most are floral, with colourful flowers set in curling leafy tendrils, but there are also fans, umbrellas, and many animals including peacocks, phoenixes, dragons and goldfish. On one pattern there are even Spanish flamenco dancers and bullfighters, twirling amidst musical notes.

The Peranakan Chinese (or Baba Nyonya as they are also known) are a community of mixed ethnic roots and identities. Their ancestors were Ming Dynasty Chinese traders who settled with Malay wives and began a family. These families maintained aspects of both Chinese and Malay culture, and later through trading activities also formed strong ties with the European colonisers. The variety of the patterns show the three different cultural influences with an impact on the community: Chinese, Malaysian and European. There are still communities of Peranakan Chinese in Singapore, and in Melaka and Penang in Malaysia.

As part of the TRC research for the Encyclopedia of Embroidery from Scandinavia and Western Europe (London, Bloomsbury), TRC recently acquired a very fine cotton shawl (TRC 2021.0114), which was described by the previous owner as being late nineteenth century in date. It measures 210 x 60 cm. When we studied the shawl, it became more and more likely that the shawl is much older than first thought.

The TRC Gallery exhibition Textile Tales from the Second World War includes a number of war-time Mennonite quilts with a special history. Monika Modersitzki, a German quilter, has written the following blog:

In 1987 they emerged out of nowhere – quilts with the label „GIFT OF CANADIAN RED CROSS“. Some of them showed up at a flea-market in Munich, Germany, others for sale in bulk at a farmhouse nearby. It was pure chance that someone happened to identify these gifts. Obviously the sellers had no idea what to do with the old „stuff” and knew nothing about its possible value – not to speak of the historical dimension.

Canadian relief quilts being displayed at the TRC. Photograph by Monika Modersitzki. 

During and after the Second World War, the Canadian Red Cross had organised the shipments of quilts to Europe, but somehow not all of the quilts were distributed in Europe to people in need. Many of them were apparently stowed away and forgotten.

When the quilts turned up in 1987, yet unidentified, many of them were very dirty or damaged. When Christl Tumat, a quilter in Munich, found one of these quilts, she immediately informed her quilting friends in nearby Groebenzell about discovering those “Canadian Red Cross quilts” near Munich. The “Groebenzeller Quiltgruppe” bought about twenty of them that were still in a reasonable condition. The quilters are still using them in their own homes.

Elisabeth Greil remembers:

“What a touching gesture! Canadian women made thousands of quilts for the suffering population of war-torn Europe - even for their former enemies during WW II, Germany and Austria. The quilts warmed and comforted many during the harsh winters of the 1940s. Sadly, some of the quilts were forgotten in a freight wagon at the Vienna train station. They were found decades later during a clean-up. A dealer offered them for sale at an antique market at the Nockherberg. My assumption is that he didn’t know what a treasure he had, given that some of the quilts were in poor condition.

9-patch quilt, donated via the Canadian Red Cross in mid-1940s. Photograph by Monika Modersitzki.

Fortunately, Mrs. Tumat, one of the quilters in the Munich area, discovered the quilts at the market. She convinced the dealer to offer the entire collection of quilts he stored in a barn in Alling for sale. It was 1987. The Groebenzeller quilters jumped at the chance to purchase these special quilts. The quality varied greatly. Some were wholecloth quilts, with only one seam in the middle printed with flowers or checks. Others were real works of art.

I bought an especially nice 9-patch of lovely fabrics. Unfortunately many of the colours had faded over the years. All the quilts were made traditionally: the top of cotton, loose cotton as wadding and with cotton backing, hand-quilted. The prices varied in the beginning. I paid 220 Marks for my 9-patch and fifty for plain ones. I own five of these historical quilts. I am grateful to own a bit of this peace offering. It would be wonderful if the descendants of the Canadian quilters hear that the work of their mothers, grandmothers or aunts still exists and is admired.”

Monika Modersitzki, 25 September 2020

Badge of the Prinses Irena Brigade, which was set up in 1941 in the UK for mainly Dutch military fighting Nazi Germany (TRC 2020.0476). The badge displays the Dutch rampant lion.I had a bit of a shock yesterday at the TRC. We had the opening of the new exhibition on Wednesday (“Textile Tales from the Second World War”). Yesterday morning there was a very positive and encouraging article in the Leidsch Dagblad (click here), with a photograph on the front page and an additional brief column about the need for municipal and other support for the TRC. Thanks to this article, and the many blogs and other PR, we received quite a few phone calls and emails making appointments to see the display.

Yes, textiles is a subject that particularly attract women, although over the years we've got many men interested in various (often technical) aspects. But lo and behold, and yes, it was a bit of a shock and my knees almost gave way: yesterday at one point in the afternoon there were three men in the gallery keenly looking at the exhibition – without their wives present!!! Normally men sit quietly in the hubby's corner with a book or magazine, cup of coffee and a biscuit.

The corona virus is certainly changing the world: Men publicly enjoying textiles and the tales they represent. What will ever happen next?

Gillian Vogelsang, 18 September 2020