Helen Persson
Helen Persson has been at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, since 2001 and is
curator of Chinese textiles and dress, in the Asian Department. Her
first degree is in archaeology from the University of Stockholm and
her second is in History of dress from the Courtauld Institute of Art,
London.
Helen’s interests in Central Asia focus in particular
on the exchange in textiles; in motifs and technologies during the
first millenium and how the textiles can help us understand the
societies where they were made and used. Her interests also include
fashion and identity. She has lectured and published extensively on
textiles from the Silk Road, among others Textiles
from Dunhuang in UK Collections, edited by Zhao Feng
(2007), and most recently on Chinese silks for the Mamluk market in
a Centre for Textile Research publication (forthcoming).
Her
chosen item is a hemp shoe found by Stein in the Limes watchtowers, north
of Dunhuang.
Helen Persson writes:
Well, I do like shoes and this peculiar
looking and old shoe is very special. Although the shoe's
original functions were practical and protective, there is a
clear design element to it. The utilitarian everyday object has
decorative features as well, showing human's desire to embellish
even the simplest of artefacts. The shoe was discovered in a
refuse heap, discarded most likely because of worn holes in the
heel and the ball of the toes. The upper is made of two or more
thicknesses of strong plain woven hemp or cotton, bound together
by even rows of hemp string, producing a pattern of dots all
over. The process of sewing two or more layers of materials
together to make thicker padded material is like quilting and
just as in quilting, the stitching has become both functional
and decorative. A drawstring is threaded around the upper edge,
which by a clever method of crossing near the instep restricts
the size of the opening and draws up the slack of the fabric
over the toes into a sort of point. This has created a curious
profile of the shoe, like a horn. The thick sole has warp of
hemp cord placed lengthways with weft of string plaited in a
‘wrapped-twined’ manner. Furthermore, the entire sole is covered
with tight knots of string, which would have the effect of the
hob-nailed military sandals of the Romans or the climbing nails
in a modern boot. The knots would have made walking on the sand
in the Taklamakan Desert much easier. This type of sole can also
be seen in the footwear of the terracotta soldiers from Xi’an,
showing that this sort of footwear is not a single occurrence
but most likely had a long tradition. It would most likely have
been worn as an outer shoe, i.e. over a thinner cloth
shoe.
This shoe was recovered from the site known as the
Limes Watchtowers, which actually include several different
sites of fortified encampments north of Dunhuang in northwest
China, along the edges of the Taklamakan Desert. They were
designed to ensure the safe transit of goods across the area and
served as a base for expansion into Central Asia. Within the
towers Stein found an astounding range of artefacts, which
provide a glimpse of garrison life and military operations under
the Han empire, including bronze mirrors, coarse pottery, tools,
leather armour, weapons, shoes, and clothing. Ancient documents
included personal letters on silk and wood; military directives
and supply lists; and treatises on a range of subjects,
including medicine and astrology. This shoe was found at the
garrison station named by Stein as T.VI.b, where many Chinese
documents dating from 68–56 BCE were found — indicating that
this artefact is among the oldest shoes in the V&A
collection.
This shoe is one of my favourite Stein
objects, as it is an everyday object which basic form is
functional, but been created with ingenuity and some decorative
elements. It contributes to the story of Central Asian life
during the Han dynasty.
Link to original post on IDP blog.