CIRCA: 1900 (or before?)
A somewhat trapezoidal shaped Tibetan takheb made for use as a cover over a horse or yak. The design consists of green and salmon-red ‘crusader-cross-like’ motifs (or stylised double dorjes?) arrayed across a cream/sepia-coloured main field in a staggered diagonal pattern which gives a pleasing fluid movement to the arrangement, while across the top is a salmon-red band with green and white crosses. Made circa 1900, or possibly before, the colours are from natural dyes and both the warp and weft are of handpsun wool (with what appears to be yak hair in both). Quite possibly rural or village work, the size across the bottom is 140cm, across the top 127cm, and the height is 107cm. It may benefit from a professional clean and has an old reweave, barely discernible from the front side of about four by eight centimetres in size (close-up photos available on request). Overall though it is an attractive old takheb in good condition for its age with it’s seemingly random array of motifs giving it a very pleasant visual appeal.