Blanket (Owës)
Text
The fabric consists of cotton (plain weave; warp and weft threads in dark-blue, white, and red); three panels are assembled lengthwise. The consistently white and dark-blue geometrical pattern is called kosikos (Kron-Steinhardt 1991: 179) or binakel (Pastor-Roces 1991: 68-75, p.212). Pastor-Roces observes that these "are oft-reproduced textiles displaying a matrix structure that conceives an optical illusion effect of throbbing spheres [ ... ]" (68). (Ursula Brandl-Straka 2009:78)
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Metadata
Identifier
MVW 30932
Origin
Northern Luzon, Abra;Tinguian (ltneg)
Materials
Cotton
Physical Dimensions
174 x 105 cm
Provenance
Schadenberg; before 1888 Alexander Schadenberg (1851-1896) was a chemist and ethnographer, and a natural history enthusiast. Born in Breslau, Germany, he studied chemistry and botany. After receiving his Ph.D., he worked as the assistant director of the Potassic Salt Works in Stassfurt. In 1876, he went to worked as a chemist for the drug company Pablo Sartorius in Manila and in 1879, illness forced him to move back to Breslau. From 1881 to 1883, Schadenberg and his friend Otto Koch visited southern Mindanao to carry out ethnographic and linguistic studies, basing themselves in the Bagobo village of Sibulan. There, they also made ethnographic and natural history collections. Upon their return to Germany Schadenberg spent several years working on his collections, publishing, lecturing and corresponding with museums and anthropological societies throughout Europe. Schadenberg later returned to the Philippines and became a partner of Pablo Sartorius. He settled with his family in Vigan in 1885 and continued his excursions among the native people of the islands. After Schadenberg's death in 1896, his collections passed to several museums in Dresden, Vienna, Berlin, and Leiden.
Acquisition Date
before 1888
Short description
Blankets of this kind were worn by Tinguian men and women as a cloak, protecting against the cold. Yet they were also used as sleeping blankets (Meyer and Schadenberg 1890: 11, fig. VIII, no. 19), and one of Schadenberg's photographs indicates that they served as wrapping skins too.
Display status
Not on display
References
The Philippines: Museum of Ethnology, Vienna : Early Collections. Vienna: Museum für Volkerkünde, 2009. Print. Kron-Steinhardt ,Christiane. 1991 Textilien und Weberei der Bergbewohner Luzons Indizien einer handelsintensiven, jungen Vergangenheit · Volume 1.
Pastor-Roces, Marian 1991. Sinaunang habi: Philippine ancestral weave (The Nikki Coseteng Filipiniana series 1).
Pastor-Roces, Marian 1991. Sinaunang habi: Philippine ancestral weave (The Nikki Coseteng Filipiniana series 1).
Official Website
Collection
Source
Translated from German by Google Translate Record accessed March 2021
Cite this Page
“Blanket (Owës),” Mapping Philippine Material Culture, accessed April 23, 2024, https://philippinestudies.uk/mapping/items/show/6070.
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