Length of cotton warp ikat. Predominant colours are shades of brown in longitudinal bands. Narrow red, yellow and blue border. One end has geometric pattern stitched in thick cotton thread forming a transverse band. Both ends fringed with loose threads. [CW 15 6 98]

Collection type: Object
Description: Length of cotton warp ikat. Predominant colours are shades of brown in longitudinal bands. Narrow red, yellow and blue border. One end has geometric pattern stitched in thick cotton thread forming a transverse band. Both ends fringed with loose threads. [CW 15 6 98]
Long description: The geometric border pattern might have been made by weft twining.
Geographical reference: Malaysia
Asia > South-eastern Asia > Malaysia; Sarawak
Cultural groups: Iban
Person: Field collector Arthur Bartlett Ward; PRM source Arthur Bartlett Ward; PRM source Dorothy Lucy Ward and family
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1923
Date collected: 1899 - 1923
Acquisition information: Donated: 1970
Materials and processes: Material Cotton Textile Plant, Material Cotton Yarn Plant, Material Pigment, Process Ikat Resist Dyed, Process Woven, Process Stitched
Dimensions: Width 468 mm, Length 1980 mm including fringe
Object numbers: Accession number: 1970.32.127
Research and responses: Additional information from Michael Hepple, February 1990: 'This is a baju borung ("bird jacket"), prior to being made up. This kind of jacket, with stylised bird motif is worn by a bird augur when predicting the future. It is also sometimes worn by men when fighting to enable them to move with the swiftness of a bird.' [CW 15 6 98]
Traude Gavin, author of The Women's Warpath: Iban Ritual Fabrics from Borneo (Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1966), notes that the local name for this cloth is Baju Burong rather than Baju Borung. Notes in RDF under 1923.86.83-94. [CF 24/7/2002]
This object was found physically numbered on new plastic label only [JP 26/11/2003]

Search terms: Clothing Textile, Textile, Specimen