Ceremonial Skirt, late 19th century

  • Sumatran

Silk embroidered and cotton warp ikat

  • Overall: 46 1/4 × 50 1/4 inches (117.5 × 127.6 cm)

Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund

81.717

Bands of embroidery divide this garment into four parts, each with the same design—a chief, with raised arms, stands on a platform in a boat. Rather than floating on water, this boat moves across land on small wheels. The textile depicts an important ceremonial procession that takes place over eight days and nights. Attendees present gifts of cloth like this one in honor of their ancestors.

Robert J. Holmgren (New York, New York, USA) and Anita E. Spertus

1981-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

Rites of Passage. Mingei International Museum of Folk Art. San Diego, 1979. "A Red Ikat Tapis: Ships and the Lands Beyond," Bulletin of the DIA 68, no. 3. 1994.

Sumatran, Ceremonial Skirt, late 19th century, silk embroidered and cotton warp ikat. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund, 81.717.