One of the oldest and rarest textiles in the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust collection is a fragment of Egyptian Coptic (Early Christian) tapestry dated between 700 and 900 AD.
The tapestry was donated by Miss Devonshire in 1952, who had inherited it from her mother, who originally acquired it while living in El Maadi, Cairo, Egypt.
The museum’s initial documentation of the Coptic tapestry described its condition as poor, torn and stained, mounted on a piece of acidic cardboard, and framed under glass.
To ensure its longevity and preservation it became evident it required intensive conservation work. The Hawke’s Bay Embroidery Guild, interested in, and keen to support, the museum’s textile collection raised funds to have the tapestry conserved.
A fragment of Coptic tapestry from the MTG.
In 1989, the tapestry was sent to the National Museum (now Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa) where textile conservator, Valerie Carson, was commissioned to work on it. Once removed from the frame and cardboard, the woven tapestry was cleaned and stabilised, while fragile areas and the tear were carefully and sensitively mended. Once treatment was complete the tapestry was mounted onto non-acidic fabric and attached to a conservation backing board, extending its life considerably.
It seems remarkable that this small (104mm x 358mm) Coptic textile survived, given its age, organic structure, and the rapidity with which wool and linen decomposition occurs. Its survival is thanks to the Egyptian desert climate, which ensured the fabric’s preservation.
Most surviving examples are only fragments of a whole, making it difficult to determine the form and function of the original textile. Coptic tapestries were for ceremony but also everyday use, as many are mended and patched.
The two most common materials for the manufacture of Coptic fabric were linen (used as the warp) and wool (used for the weft). The linen, favoured because it was strong and durable, was made from flax, which flourished in Egypt when the annual floods of the Nile fertilised the soil. Linen could be woven into different forms depending on use — from a very fine sheer fabric up to a thick canvas in appearance.
Wool and linen could be used, both on their own or in combination in the same textile. Most commonly, weavers used linen as the background, or main material, and the wool featured in the design. The development of pattern weaving by Coptic weavers, distinguishes these textiles from those of Ancient Egyptians.
Wool has an advantage over linen in that it is easily dyed, while linen had to be soaked in an acidic mordant to take on a dye. Dyes used to colour wool were made from animal and vegetable compounds. The earliest Coptic tapestries, however, tended to be monochromatic with a geometric design.
This textile is composed of purple wool, which with time has changed to black. The background linen would have been white but has also discoloured with age. Purple dye was expensive and time consuming to make, produced from secretions of the purple-shell, a mollusc found offshore from Syria. A huge quantity of molluscs was required to manufacture the dye, which proved not only time consuming but expensive.
The most common use of textiles in Coptic Egypt during Roman times was as apparel. The main piece of clothing was the tunic, fitted over the head and sometimes fastened at the waist by a belt. They often featured coloured narrow bands, known as clavi, which descended from the shoulder of a tunic, as well as ornamentation on sleeves and at the knees.
The Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust’s example features fish as a border, delineated by two geometric patterns, and a central design featuring eight fish (a Christian symbol) with a scroll in each corner. The dominant language of the early Church was Greek, and in Greek, the phrase “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour” produced the acronym ICHTHYS — the Greek word for fish.
Along with the rarity of Coptic tapestries, fish depicted in a design is an important reason why the museum’s example is historically valuable, as there are very few Coptic textiles with distinct Christian themes or symbols now in existence.
With continual exploration, the Hawke’s Bay Museums Trust collection continues to amaze and enthral, and it is thanks to the far-sightedness of people, (mainly from Te Matau-a-Māui / Hawke’s Bay) who, perceiving an item’s intrinsic value, donate them for the benefit of all.
