Wedding Huipil (Blouse)

Place CreatedSan Pedro Sacatepequez, San Marcos, Guatemala, Central America, North America

CultureKakchikel Maya

Dateca. 1910

MediumCotton, acrylic fiber

Credit LineBright Collection of Guatemalan Textiles

Dimensions40 in. (101.6 cm)

Object number2009.042.158

Exhibition HistoryThreads of Time: Tradition and Change in Indigenous American Textiles, Michael C. Carlos Museum, August 19 - December 17, 2017
Published ReferencesThreads of Time: Tradition and Change in Indigenous American Textiles, 2017, http://threads-of-time.carlos.emory.edu/items/show/144.

ProvenanceEx coll. Samuel R. Bright, Jr. (1936-2001) and Mickey Paddock Bright Griffin, United States.

Status

Not on view

Collections

Art of the Americas

Technical NotesSmall samples (approximately 2mm) from both the lighter and darker purple threads were analyzed using Direct Analysis in Real Time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) by the Armitage Archaeological Chemistry Research Group at Eastern Michigan University. Neither of the samples contained dibromoindigo, which is found in natural purple dye made from sea snails. The specific dye was not identified. Given these results and the historical date of the huipil, the purple dyes are likely to be modern synthetic colorants.