Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D. )

L16cm; W18cm

        This textile uses small roundels offset to each other in alternating pairs on a plain blue ground. The floral roundels come in two types, each with four flowers stemming from a bee motif at the center. The images are fairly representational. The roundels are 5.4cm in diameter. The introduction of a plain ground as well as the use of alternating offset pairs of motifs was an innovative design approach that developed after the Tang era and was to become a major trend in pattern design in the succeeding Liao and Song dynasties. This weft-faced compound satin weave is a typical Liao samite, with 2 interruptions in a unit of 5 k-ends. The weft threads are in three different colors, a blue weft for ground, a light green serving as a constant figuring weft and a light yellow figuring weft that never surfaces in areas of the blue ground.  (XZ)