Antique Red/Ivory Handwoven Provision Bag From Greece Start Price GBP 70.00 Current Price GBP 70.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price GBP 80.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Tuesday, October 07, 2008 End Time Tuesday, October 14, 2008 Location rethimnou, Kriti See more about 'Antique Red/Ivory Handwoven Provision Bag From Greece' Description I live on the Greek island of Crete where, once upon a time and not that long ago, every home had a loom. On it the women of the house would make all the household linen and clothing – after first spinning the thread from the wool of the family sheep.   These days the dwindling number of looms on the island are all used for commercial purposes. Despite the commendable efforts of the Greek government  to keep alive traditional crafts like this, weaving is dying out, existing weavers are getting older, and today’s young Cretan women are more interested in computer programming or hotel management than in handcrafting blankets.   In another couple of decades, skills that go back to Minoan times will be forgotten. Hand spinning has already all but vanished.   One of those trying to buck the trend, and one of the youngest women weavers still plying her trade daily, is my friend Maria, whose Aladdin’s cave of a shop is also her workshop. Using two ancient looms – and a smart modern one too – she creates exquisite textiles to age-old designs using ancient techniques. Some go to the young women who still want traditional l towels and carpets and tablecloths for their bottom drawers, even if they’re not up to making these things themselves; the rest are aimed at the upmarket tourist trade.   Her business works well with these new weavings BUT Maria also has a large store of antique pieces, some inherited, others acquired over the years, many unused, which she is now thinking of putting on the market. Much of her stuff is of museum quality but sadly the museums here don’t have the funds to invest. Their loss will be some discerning textile collector’s gain.   I said I’d help her, and we are beginning with a small selection whose provenance we know. All four pieces were hand-loomed by Maria’s mother’s mother as a young woman – we reckon around 70-80 years ago – and put away without being used. They’re all bags, products of a donkey-borne culture in which hand-made sakia were the main means of transporting and storing items from grain to clothing.   Bags carried the bridal dowry to a couple’s first home; bags bore the corn to the mill and the flour to the home; bags held the shepherd’s iron rations of rusks and olives. Bags were traditionally embellished with pattern and trimming  to add a little colour to a hard everyday life, and give enjoyment to the weaver. But bags were first and foremost functional strong containers. woven to last.   Linen didn’t figure much in the mountain communities where  Maria grew up. The bags she is selling are of cotton - imported from the Greek mainland where it was widely farmed - or the sheep wool that was always at hand. They’re tough, beautiful and durable, folk art in their own right.   Each is as fine a piece of the folkweaver’s skill as you will find - an antique, but in pristine condition. Suitable  for incorporating into a primitive or Gustavian design scheme, for an upholstery project, bench cushion, laundry bag or pillow, or as a wall hanging in its own right – each bag has two sides so you have double the amount of fabric. In excellent unused condition, just with a little light soiling from storage.   Maria hopes that they will find good homes and wishes the buyer “me iyeia” – meaning “may you own this in good health”.         110 cm x 65 cm  Ivory heavy cotton twill woven with alternating stripes in berry red. Hand seamed with decorative whip-stitch edging.   Place a Bid!