384 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The great advance resulting from the 

 use of heddles instead of healds to form 

 sheds was purely of a mechanical nature. 

 Its earliest simplest form, as well as the 

 latest most technical refinement, were 

 directed toward quantity instead of 

 quality, increased yardage, instead of 

 enhanced artistry. I am well aware that 

 many exquisite fabrics were made on the 

 earlier foot-treadle looms. The bro- 

 cades of India, and of sixteenth and 

 seventeenth-century European manufac- 

 ture have well-deserved places in collec- 

 tions of art objects; but in artistic 



value they cannot compare with Orien- 

 tal rugs and Flemish tapestries, nor 

 indeed with the infinitely more ancient 

 webs from the Peruvian desert. 



That our textile art is the child of 

 the more primitive loom no thoughtful 

 person can doubt. It may come as a 

 surprise however, to learn that every 

 technical method of creating textile 

 design originated from the same distant 

 and simple source. But this is the fact. 

 In the fabrics of old Peru — and no 

 doubt the same could be said of ancient 

 Mexico had the climatic conditions per- 



Penivian loom showing partially finished web of double clolh; bobbins at right contain the weft yarn. Ancient 

 type of loom common througlioiit southern North America, southward to Peru; similar to Asiatic rug loom. Warp 

 threads are not attached directly to loom bar, but to a string attached to the bar by loops, thus giving the play to 

 the warp necessiiry for fabrics in which both warp and weft enter equally into the decorative scheme. The middle 

 bar with loops on it is a heald rod; the short sections of cane above were inserted to hold the warps in the sheds 

 necessary to form the jiattern. Kvery class of textile of which we know anything today was made on this loom 

 in old Peru, and this type of l(X>m is still used in India 



