Featured Antique sterling woven textile with Czech stones and a Cray Surprise!

Discussion in 'Textiles, Needle Arts, Clothing' started by scoutshouse, Oct 27, 2018.

  1. scoutshouse

    scoutshouse Well-Known Member

    I don't even know where to start with this... My Croatian neighbor has been been collecting and picking in San Pedro for at least 50 years - she's close to 90. Croatians have lived here since San Pedro's settlement in the late 1700s, believe it or not!

    She's amassed an incredible load of authentic hand made laces, textiles, shoes, shawls and jewelry for the authentic costumes she made for an Eastern European a Capella group called Zhena she belongs to.

    Anyway - I was first just going to ask people how they would describe this item - a form of woven sterling thread, Czech crystals and fake pearls. It's 88 inches long total, double paneled, sewn together with HUMAN HAIR??? Honestly. I pulled a hair out of it as I was moving it, but when I came to inspect the seam I found it was woven with hair and some other fiber, not sure what - those bordering channels are stuffed with it. Some of the other fiber has been spun into crude thread.

    That's a LOT of hair - it's quite heavy, as well. The back of the stones are painted gold and affixed to discs or squares. I just found them in a shoe box in the garage.

    Really - has anyone seen anything like this? I wonder if they were attached to the bottom of a dress? She has two of them - I just found them in a shoe box in the garage and thought they were wonderful, but this was a big surprise.

    NOR_CzechSterlingTextile_1.JPG
    NOR_CzechSterlingTextile_2.JPG
    NOR_CzechSterlingTextile_3.JPG
    NOR_CzechSterlingTextile_4.JPG
    NOR_CzechSterlingTextile_5.JPG
    NOR_CzechSterlingTextile_6.JPG
     
    Any Jewelry, kyratango, judy and 3 others like this.
  2. Ownedbybear

    Ownedbybear Well-Known Member

    Horsehair from a tail or mane, I think.
     
  3. Any Jewelry

    Any Jewelry Well-Known Member

    I agree, horsehair is more likely. And not sterling. Possibly silver, but a lower fineness.
     
  4. johnnycb09

    johnnycb09 Well-Known Member

    At 88 inches long I cant help but think it might have been curtain trim or the like. What a neat thing.
     
    Christmasjoy, judy, aaroncab and 3 others like this.
  5. scoutshouse

    scoutshouse Well-Known Member

    I was surprised to find out that horse hair is similar to human hair - the only horsehair I've come across is the horsehair in furniture, which is more coarse.

    It's not clear to me why they used that as well as the other fiber - maybe as a sort of hair net(?) to keep its shape. That's still a lot of horsehair!

    Any comments on age, use, manufacture/technique or country of origin - My words aren't kicking in for this.

    AFA being silver - it is tarnished and smells like :)

    Maybe, @johnnycb09 , but I can't explain why it's stitched together so it doesn't hang or lay flat.
     
  6. komokwa

    komokwa The Truth is out there...!

    upload_2018-10-28_2-8-10.jpeg

    Pima horse hair basket...they can get crazy small....
     
  7. Houseful

    Houseful Well-Known Member

    Horsehair used for making violin bows, usually taken from the tail.
     
  8. gregsglass

    gregsglass Well-Known Member

    Hi,
    Most old stuffing made with horse hair also includes cow hair and others. It is more curled to provide resilience. The mane and tail hair is longer and more straight.
    greg
     
    scoutshouse and kyratango like this.
Draft saved Draft deleted
Similar Threads: Antique sterling
Forum Title Date
Textiles, Needle Arts, Clothing Antique seed beaded coin purse Mar 13, 2024
Textiles, Needle Arts, Clothing Antique heavy lace fringe for tablecloth Dec 15, 2023
Textiles, Needle Arts, Clothing Antique Metal Buttons - are these cut steels on them? Sep 20, 2023
Textiles, Needle Arts, Clothing Large 6' x 3' Silk embroidery, not antique Jul 5, 2023
Textiles, Needle Arts, Clothing Antique Zuni Bird Handmade Bag? May 26, 2023

Share This Page