Sometimes nalbinding is combined with other techniques to make a artifact. My sincere thanks to Niina-Hannele Nuutinen for bringing this particular artifact to my attention. Generally the four-cornered hats of the Wari, from 8th-10th c. Peru, are knotted. This one is knotted with pile sides, but the top is Simple Looping. So this week’s Nalbound Object of the week is actually only partially nalbound.
Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Public Domain CC0
Object: Wari Four-cornered Hat with Simple Looping top
Description: A four-cornered brightly colored hat made with knotted pile in a lozenge pattern. The four corners have colored tassels. The top is Simple Looping worked in four differently colored bands from the sides of the hat to the top. The hat is 5 1/2 inches high and 5 3/4 inches wide (14 × 14.6 cm).1
Dated to: 8th–10th century2
Find location: The Wari culture was centered in the central Peruvian highland valley of Ayacucho. Wari pile hats with provenance come from the south or central coast of Peru.3 The exact provenance of this hat is unspecified.
Material: camelid hair4
Stitch(es) used: Larkshead Knotting with supplementary pile sides5 with Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O, in for the top (Top stitch determination by Anne Marie Decker from photographs)
Inventory number: 1983.497.7
Current location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Link to museum catalog or other data: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314624
Some sources in which more information can be found:
Frame, Mary. Andean Four-Cornered Hats: Ancient Volumes: From the Collection of Arthur M. Bullowa. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1990, pp. 18–19, pl. 8.
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- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314624 Accessed 9 June 2024. Mary Frame gives different measurements, h. 15.2 cm; c. 50.2, in Andean Four-Cornered Hats: Ancient Volumes: From the Collection of Arthur M. Bullowa. ↩︎
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314624 Accessed 9 June 2024 ↩︎
- Frame, Andean Four-Cornered Hats: Ancient Volumes: From the Collection of Arthur M. Bullowa pg. 10 ↩︎
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/314624 Accessed 9 June 2024 ↩︎
- Frame, Andean Four-Cornered Hats: Ancient Volumes: From the Collection of Arthur M. Bullowa pg. 28 ↩︎
This hat is fantastic!!