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Details
LOT 0447
Egyptian Mounted Coptic Textile
CIRCA 6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.
15 x 11 3/4 in. (121 grams, 38 x 30 cm).
Comprising a pair of simple segmenta on a woven background, formed of a spiral line surrounding floral images, closed at both ends by a pair of petals. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired 1970s-1996.
Property of a North American collector.
London collection, 2016.
Literature
Cf. Pritchard, F., Clothing Culture: Dress in Egypt in the First Millennium AD, Manchester, 2006, p.62, fig.4.12, for similar segmenta.
Footnotes
The textile shows a pair of segmenta, probably from a sleeve of a linen tunic. The wool here seems to be Z-spun, a spin direction not very common in Roman Egypt and suggesting that the spun yarn may have been traded from another province of the empire. Frequently, like in our case, the wool is purple in hue.
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