CIRCA: 1800’s, 19th C.
An extraordinary, extremely elaborate, intricately designed woman’s scarf, or adha rhachu – which differs significantly from the regular rhachu by having the design embellished all over – with the use of the five diamond central panel being important as it is seen mainly on chaksi pankhep’s. Woven in the 1800’s / 19th century and used only on specific ceremonial occasions it is comprised of a single panel of hand woven plain-weave cloth that is decorated with a complementary-weft-faced weave design. The plain-weave base cloth itself is itself finely hand woven (65-70 warp threads per linear inch) and the bottom row left image above shows an area of that cloth with a diameter of just 8.5cm x 8.5cm (1/3rd of an inch). The design is made of hand-spun wild raw silk and consists of just two colours; red and dark blue (as is the norm for pre-1900 pieces), with both colours coming from natural dyes and the size is 42cm x 285cm with 17cm fringes on either end. An heirloom piece of museum quality, it has been in the ones collector’s hands since being purchased in Nepal in the early 1970’s. Rare and in pristine condition, it is a highly collectible piece. {There are almost no published examples of adha rhachu from the 19th century, although a later one, probably ealry 1900’s, can be seen on page 141 in the book Traditional Bhutanese Textiles by Barbara Adams (1984).]