Tag: Silk

NOW: Red hat with tassel – 9318

If you are in Berlin this week, you can catch the Nalbound Object of the Week on display in the Auf unbetretenen Wegen: Georg Schweinfurth und die Ägyptologie exhibition at the Neues Museum before it closes on the 8th of February 2026. Held in the collections of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, this hat was one of the first nalbound artifacts that I learned about when starting my explorations of nalbinding throughout the world.

Inv. 9318. Photo Credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst /CC BY-SA 4.0

Object: Red Hat with tassel – 9318

Description: A lovely red nalbound hat with a point extending to a multi-stranded tassel. Two thirds of the point are covered with blue and yellow cross-knit looping worked in a graphic pattern and supported underneath with a linen/cotton cloth. The red hat section is worked in a very open density for the gauge. It is smooth on the outside, but on the inside there are loose strands of the yarn fibers leading to an almost thrummed or brushed interior appearance. There are two fine yellow threads loosely sewn around the opening of the hat. Length x Width: 63 x 24 cm1 Height of the crown is 18.5 cm.2

It is interesting to note that the tassel is no longer attached to the hat as evidenced by examining the various photographs taken over time showing the hat in a different orientation to the tassel. The hat is currently sewn to its conservation backing with the side that was under the head currently showing. The photograph published with Bush’s article shows the front.

Dated to: Originally thought to be 9th to 10th century CE,3 it has since been radiocarbon dated to between the 11th and early 13th century CE. The museum catalog entry states it was radiocarbon dated to 1036–1215 CE.4 Fluck and Mälck’s article indicates the radiocarbon dating dates it between 1040 and 1220 CE.5

Find location: Arsinoë (Krokodilopolis)6 now in the city of Faiyum7

Material: The cap is made of a red wool yarn S-plied of two unspun threads; possibly mohair wool as it is fine and hairy. The tube section is blue and yellow silk threads, both S-plied of two unspun threads. Inside the tube is a linen warp cotton weft woven fabric. The tassel is bundled linen threads (S-spun) and green or yellow silk threads.8

Stitch(es) used:
Hat: looped needle netting Type IIIa (which is Hald’s designation of Mammen stitch). Confirmed to be F2 UOO/UUOO, Mammen stitch, by Anne Marie Decker based on photographs provided by the museum on March 12, 2019.
Tube: Fluck and Mälck state single needle technique.9 Hald calls it mesh stitch,10 but diagrams it correctly. These days we call it Z-crossed Cross-knit Looping (F1B1 O) which has been confirmed by Anne Marie Decker based on photographs provided by the museum on March 12, 2019.

Inventory number: 9318

Current location: in the collections of the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst but on display in the Neues Museum during the Auf unbetretenen Wegen: Georg Schweinfurth und die Ägyptologie exhibition May 23, 2025 to February 8, 2026.

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Bush, Nancy; ‘Nålbinding – From the Iron Age to Today’ in Piecework Vol. IX N. 3, May / June 2001; Interweave Press, 2001; pgs. 28-32.

Claßen-Büttner, Ulrike. Nalbinding – What in the World Is That? History and Technique of an Almost Forgotten Handicraft. Norderstedt: Books on Demand, 2015. ISBN 978-3-7347-7905-3.

Fluck, Cäcilia, and Kathrin Mälck. “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” in Methods of dating ancient textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries : proceedings of the 4th meeting of the study group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 16-17 April 2005, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cäcilia Fluck, 150-165. Tielt (Belgium): Lannoo Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789020970982.

Hald, Margrethe. Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs And Burials: A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles. Publications of The National Museum of Denmark; Archaeological Historical Series XXI. Translated by Jean Olsen. Copenhagen: Fyens Stiftsbogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 1980. ISBN 87-480-0312-3. pg. 308, fig. 355 and pg. 309.

Schrenk, Sabine, ed. Textiles in Situ: Their Find Spots in Egypt and Neighbouring Countries in the First Millenium CE. Riggisberg: Abegg-Stiftung, 2006. ISBN 3-905014-29-7

Photographs:

Inv. 9318.
Photo Credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst /CC BY-SA 4.0
Detail of the cross-knit looping tube on Inv. 9318.
Photo Credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst /CC BY-SA 4.0
This photo was taken before the most recent conservation and mounting and thus shows the side that would have been towards the front. Bush, Nancy; ‘Nålbinding – From the Iron Age to Today’ in Piecework Vol. IX N. 3, May / June 2001; Interweave Press, 2001; pg. 28. Photograph courtesy of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
Museum für Spätantike und Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin, Germany.
Photograph by A. Voigt.

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze Accessed 2/2/2026. Hald states the circumference is 48 cm which corresponds to the width of the hat when flat as measured in the museum catalog entry. Petra Linscheid, 2018, Object Description in the museum catalog says the circumference is 47.5 cm. ↩︎
  2. Petra Linscheid, 2018, Object Description at https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze Accessed 2/2/2026. Hald states the crown is 17 cm. Her measurements would have been taken prior to the most recent conservation and mounting. ↩︎
  3. Hald, Margrethe. Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs And Burials: A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles. Publications of The National Museum of Denmark; Archaeological Historical Series XXI. Translated by Jean Olsen. Copenhagen: Fyens Stiftsbogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 1980. ISBN 87-480-0312-3. pg. 308, fig. 355 and pg. 309. ↩︎
  4. https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze Accessed 2/2/2026 ↩︎
  5. Fluck, Cäcilia, and Kathrin Mälck. “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” in Methods of dating ancient textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries : proceedings of the 4th meeting of the study group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 16-17 April 2005, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cäcilia Fluck, 150-165. Tielt (Belgium): Lannoo Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789020970982. pg. 158. ↩︎
  6. https://id.smb.museum/object/2016749/m%C3%BCtze Accessed 2/2/2026. Hald had erroneously listed it as found in Antinoupolis and that was repeated in Bush’s article. This was corrected in Cäcilia Fluck and Kathrin Mälck’s article “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” ↩︎
  7. Pleiades is a gazetteer of ancient places that is very useful for locating find locations that may only be recorded under the ancient location name. R. Müller Wollermann, Brady Kiesling, Sean Gillies, Jen Thum, Jeffrey Becker, H. Kopp, Herbert Verreth, B. Siewert-Mayer, Mark Depauw, R. Talbert, Johan Åhlfeldt, Adam Prins, W. Röllig, Tom Elliott, DARMC, Francis Deblauwe, and Eric Kansa, ‘Krokodilopolis/Ptolemais Euergetis: a Pleiades place resource’, Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places, 2025 <https://pleiades.stoa.org/places/736948> [accessed: 03 February 2026] ↩︎
  8. Fluck, Cäcilia, and Kathrin Mälck. “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” in Methods of dating ancient textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries : proceedings of the 4th meeting of the study group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 16-17 April 2005, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cäcilia Fluck, 150-165. Tielt (Belgium): Lannoo Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789020970982. pg. 158. Hald, and thus Bush’s article, stated the hat itself was also silk, not just the tube. That has since been corrected in the more recent publications. ↩︎
  9. Fluck, Cäcilia, and Kathrin Mälck. “Radiocarbon analysed textiles in the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst, Berlin” in Methods of dating ancient textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries : proceedings of the 4th meeting of the study group ‘Textiles from the Nile Valley’, Antwerp, 16-17 April 2005, edited by Antoine De Moor and Cäcilia Fluck, 150-165. Tielt (Belgium): Lannoo Publishers, 2007. ISBN 9789020970982. ↩︎
  10. Hald, Margrethe. Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs And Burials: A Comparative Study of Costume and Iron Age Textiles. Publications of The National Museum of Denmark; Archaeological Historical Series XXI. Translated by Jean Olsen. Copenhagen: Fyens Stiftsbogtrykkeri, Copenhagen, 1980. ISBN 87-480-0312-3. pgs. 284 and 309. ↩︎

NOW: Namur Reliquary Purse 229F

After a brief hiatus due to surgery, I bring you another Nalbound Object of the Week. This artifact was mentioned as an aside in an article about Pierre de Courpalay’s gloves (which will be a later post) and for the longest time I could find no more information about it other than it was supposedly an early 14th century green silk reliquary pouch from Namur, Belgium worked in space patterned Simple Looping with a carried thread. There was a stitch diagram, but no picture. My friend Ann Moreau took up the quest to track down more information and was able to provide me with a photograph and a couple of very interesting sources: a master’s thesis and the conservation report.

Photo credit: Bazzo, Stéphane, IRPA
CC BY 4.0 KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), cliché X142949

Object: Namur Reliquary Purse

Description: The purse measures approximately 6.5 inches by 6.3 inches (16.5 x 16cm) not inclusive of the tassels or ties.1 The main body is worked in a pattern of diamonds enclosing four smaller diamonds that is regular on the face, but shows an error in the pattern at the top of the reverse turning it into chevrons.2 There’s a strip of plain green on each side and a green eyelet band at the opening.

The pictures show that the main body of the purse was not worked in the round. Had it been worked around the purse, the slits in the space patterned Simple Looping would have been horizontal like those seen making eyelets on the green eyelet band. However, the slits in the main body are vertical, indicating that the fabric orientation has the base row along the right side of the face (left side of the reverse) and the fabric was built up to the left side. There is no noticeable seam showing at the bottom. All of which may indicate that the face and reverse were worked as one rectangle, sewn up the sides, and then the eyelet band worked around the opening.

The relic purse was classified as a Treasure by the Commission consultative du Patrimoine culturel mobilier [Consultative Commission for Movable Cultural Heritage] on October 4, 2021.3

Dated to: radiocarbon dated to ca 1260-1390 CE4 (77.4% certainty between 1260 and 1310)5

Find location: prieuré de Hastière [Priory of Hastière], Belgium.6 Donated in 1885 by M. Perpète Sarton and recorded as register number 16166 along with another purse.7

Material: Silk. The tassels include gilded silver metallic threads.8 “The beige and pink threads of the lining are colored with safflower and a dye containing traces of flavonoids, the green thread of the fringes with woad or indigo, and the beige thread of the boucle network with red wood.”9

Stitch(es) used: le réseau bouclé simple10 The opening is worked horizontally in Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O, with a carried thread leaving holes for the drawstring. The main body is worked vertically, also in Z-crossed Simple Looping, F1 O, with a carried thread worked with space patterning to make the diamond/chevron pattern of holes. (Stitch determination verified via photograph by Anne Marie Decker)

Inventory number: 229F

Current location: Owned by the Société Archéologique de Namur (SAN). Exhibited in the Musée Provincial des Arts Anciens Namurois (TreM.a).11

Link to museum catalog or other data: https://balat.kikirpa.be/object/11045822

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Damen, Emma, Griet Kockelkoren, Judith Goris, Ina Vanden Berghe, Marina Van Bos, and Mathieu Boudin. “Étude technico-matérielle et traitement de conservation, préservation et présentation de 7 bourses à reliques de la Société Archéologique de Namur (SAN).” Report on IRPS dossier 2017.13760 dated 9 September 2021.

De Ceuninck, Emmeline. “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 1 et 2.”Master en Histoire de l’Art et Archéologie Mémoire [Master’s thesis], Université Libre de Bruxelles, Année académique 2022-2023.

Desrosiers, Sophie, Patricia Dal-Pra, and Isabelle Bédat. “On medieval pontifical gloves and glove medallions and wristbands found in France,” In [Archäologische Textilfunde/Archaeological Textiles] NESAT IX. ed. Antoinette Rast-Eicher and Renata Windler, p. 159-165. Ennenda: Archeo Tex, 2007. ISBN 978-3-033-01267-7.

Gagneux-Granade, Marguerite. L’Homme et les Mailles: histoire critique des mailles textiles : filets, réseaux, tricot, crochet. Bordeaux: Éditions INsensées, 2016. ISBN 978-2-9558095-0-1.

Photographs:

Cropped close up of eyelet band and body.
Photo credit: Bazzo, Stéphane, IRPA
CC BY 4.0 KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), cliché X142949
Cropped to show chevron pattern on reverse top.
Photo credit: Bazzo, Stéphane, IRPA
CC BY 4.0 KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), cliché X142950
Photo credit: Bazzo, Stéphane, IRPA
CC BY 4.0 KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), cliché X142950

Desrosiers’ “On medieval pontifical gloves and glove medallions and wristbands found in France” has a diagram of the stitches making the pattern of a portion of the diamond in Fig. 2b on page 160. The diagram is flawed as it shows a whip stitch instead of the Z-crossed Simple Looping. It is showing a B1 O which makes a whip stitch instead of the F1 O that makes Z-crossed Simple Looping. The loops have also been regularized to the top which does not match the direction of work.

De Ceuninck’s “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 2.” includes some lovely photos and schematics of the purse in Figs. 11, 12, 80 & Schéma 33, 34, 35, 36, 37.

Please note that sharing to other venues will likely be intermittent. If you wish to receive these each week, please remember to follow the blog.
Patrons on Patreon receive early access previews, occasional extra details, and priority requests.

  1. Emmeline De Ceuninck,”Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 2.” (Master en Histoire de l’Art et Archéologie Mémoire [Master’s thesis], Université Libre de Bruxelles, Année académique 2022-2023), pg. 1. and Damen, Emma, et al. “Étude technico-matérielle et traitement de conservation, préservation et présentation de 7 bourses à reliques de la Société Archéologique de Namur (SAN).” Report on IRPS dossier 2017.13760 dated 9 September 2021. Pg. 10. ↩︎
  2. De Ceuninck, “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 1,” pg. 76. and Damen, Emma, et al. “Étude technico-matérielle et traitement de conservation, préservation et présentation de 7 bourses à reliques de la Société Archéologique de Namur (SAN).” Report on IRPS dossier 2017.13760 dated 9 September 2021. Pg. 10. ↩︎
  3. https://www.museedesartsanciens.be/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/TreM.a-MAAN_Rapport_Activites_2021.pdf III.5. Accessed 16 September 2024. ↩︎
  4. De Ceuninck, “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 2,” pg. 108. ↩︎
  5. De Ceuninck, “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 1,” pg. 74. ↩︎
  6. De Ceuninck, “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 1,” pg. 28. See also page 79. ↩︎
  7. De Ceuninck, “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 1,” pg. 28. ↩︎
  8. De Ceuninck, “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 1,” pg. 76. ↩︎
  9. Translated from De Ceuninck, “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 1,” pg. 74. See also pages 78-79. ↩︎
  10. De Ceuninck, “Étude historique, artistique et technologique de sept bourses conservées à la Société archéologique de Namur (SAN) et récemment restaurées à l’Institut royal du Patrimoine artistique (IRPA). Volume 1,” pg. 75. and Damen, Emma, et al. “Étude technico-matérielle et traitement de conservation, préservation et présentation de 7 bourses à reliques de la Société Archéologique de Namur (SAN).” Report on IRPS dossier 2017.13760 dated 9 September 2021. Pg. 10. ↩︎
  11. Damen, Emma, et al. “Étude technico-matérielle et traitement de conservation, préservation et présentation de 7 bourses à reliques de la Société Archéologique de Namur (SAN).” Report on IRPS dossier 2017.13760 dated 9 September 2021. Pg. 3. ↩︎