Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund

Gift of the Coltrera Collection

Ceremonial blouse or huipil made of three four-selvedge panels of white cotton, brocaded on the front, back and shoulders. The multicolored design on the central panel represents the double-headed eagle, and the horizontal bars represent its wing and tail feathers. The neck opening with its silk appliqué of radiating points represents the sun, and the four rosettes represent the four directions. Condition: good

Carll H. de Silver Fund

Gift of George D. Pratt

The Inca considered textiles more valuable than precious metals or gems. Textiles were symbols of power; clothing styles and designs identified a wearer’s social status. Rulers wore the finest tapestry-weave garments, called cumbi, such as the tunic displayed here. The unusual vicuña fringe on this tunic may have been added later.

In order to guarantee a supply of fine textiles, the Inca expanded herding and textile production into a state policy, setting up weaving workshops and collecting labor taxes in the form of woven garments.

Gift of Ernest Erickson

Textile fragment consisting of three embroidered birds with whiskers in blue, yellow, green, red, and beige on an olive green plain weave fabric. Size: undetermined or adult. Probable wearer: undetermined or male. Vertical camelid fiber warp. Camelid fiber weft. Camelid fiber embroidery. Plain weave. Iconography: birds with animal-like heads. (AR)

Gift of George D. Pratt

George C. Brackett Fund