The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Pair of Boots

Pair of Boots

1000 – 1125
Location: not on view

Description

The fabric and tailoring of garments have always defined social status. For these boots, different outer fabrics were used: a patterned silk for the leg portion, and tapestry (kesi) for the foot. Since both were considered luxury fabrics, they were pieced together from remnants too precious to discard. Consequently, the silk pattern was not used in relation to the form of the boot, as seen in some other imperial boots. By contrast, these boots would have been made for a court official, not a member of the imperial family. The patterned silk was woven with geese flanking a vase of flowers on a stand and surrounded by cloud scrolls. The Chinese motif of flowers arranged in a vase was adopted by the Liao during the 11th century and indicates an 11th- or early 12th-century date for the boots.
  • Watt, James C. Y, Anne E Wardwell, Anne E Wardwell, Morris Rossabi, Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Morris Rossabi, Cleveland Museum of Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.). When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art in cooperation with the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1997. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 46-48, no. 10
    Klingbiel, Karen, "Conserving the Past", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 37 no. 08, October 1997 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6-7 archive.org
  • {{cite web|title=Pair of Boots|url=false|author=|year=1000 – 1125|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1992.349