CIRCA: 1960’s
An Alpaca blanket or shawl from Bolivia with a stylised image meant to depict ‘Inti’, the sun god made from fine and super soft Alpaca wool. No dyes, all natural fiber colours with with lovely abrashed grey center field and white zig-zag inner border. Since being purchased in the late 1960’s in Cochabamba, Bolivia, – already slightly ‘used’ with some very minor wear – it has been mounted and only wall displayed. Overall it is in excellent condition and we are selling it unmounted / ‘loose’.
SYMBOLOGY; Inti, in the Inca religion, was the sun god who was believed to be the ancestor of the Incas, and his worship was imposed throughout the Inca empire. At its height, the Inca Empire included Peru, western and south central Bolivia, southwest Ecuador and a large portion of what is today northern Chile. Soon after the Spanish conquest of the Inca empire in the early 16th century, much of the Indian population of Bolivia was forced to labour in mines established by the Spaniards. Still the indigenous people found time to make many exquisite textiles – the earlier pieces today are much desired – and continued to do so well into the 20th century.