This beautiful kimono from Korea is a very iiue example of brocade, Lhe decoratiou being woven into the fabric 

 while on the loom. The bold and spirited dragon design, with water and cloud motives, is characteristic. Old 

 gold, greens, blues, and a beautiful shade of red, form the coloring on a dark blue field. This is a marvelous example 

 of skillful weaving, and is besides in the best spirit of Korean art 



weft. The embroidery stitch here passes 

 completely around the threads making 

 the sides of these minute squares, and 

 would therefore be practically even. 

 When the embroidery threads are taken 

 out, they have a resemblance to cork- 

 screws. 



The pottery, as well as the woven 

 fabrics from Nazca and lea, shows a 

 remarkable love of color and indicates 

 knowledge of chromatic harmony. Per- 

 haps the art of these people was too 

 greatly influenced by their superstition, 

 for they have a greater leaning toward 

 animalistic forms than is found in the 

 Tiahuanaco area, where the culture was 

 more highly developed; but in colors 

 they were supreme and these shawl -like 

 garments are the finest examples of 

 their art. 



Some time ago, a distinguished expert 

 on Oriental rugs, Mr. John Kiml^erly 

 Mumford, was looking at this American 

 Museum collection. He had brought 



426 



me some small fragments of wonderful 

 Oriental rugs, that I might analyze them 

 for their construction. These fragments 

 had come from some of the finest carpets 

 in America, and represented perhaps the 

 highest type of coloring in textiles from 

 Asia. The beauty of this art has been 

 described so often and is so much a mat- 

 ter of popular knowledge that to cjuestion 

 the supremacy of the rugs of Herat or 

 Ispahan may sound like artistic heresy. 

 Certainly that would have been my 

 judgment until the comparison was 

 made; but it was made by Mr. Mumford 

 himself, who placed the fragments on 

 one of the shawls which we had unrolled 

 for his inspection. He frankly admitted 

 that the work of the Peruvian artists was 

 superior. 



There can be no doubt that these 

 shawls represent the highest develop- 

 ment in color as applied to textiles. 

 They are unsurpassed masterpieces and 

 their addition to the Museum's collec- 



