Auctiva Emporium: tradertraveller

Many years ago a group of Black Miao from the Huangping area of S.E. Guizhou migrated to the S. W. of the province around the towns of Zhenfeng and Anlong. It is fascinating to study the way they have developed and changed their clothing style while still retaining many features of their motherland in Huangping.Go to tradertraveller's ebay store to see a baby carrier from each group.

El Traje Indigena En Mexico This classic series is hard to find and an absolute joy when you succeed. The 30 colour plates by renowned Mexican artist Teresa Castello Yturbide are superb and all worthy of framing. Here are the famous traditional costumes of the Highland Maya in Chiapas, the Nahua in Puebla,Veracruz and Potosi and selected groups from other areas. With these glorious plates you get a back up book by Carlota Mapelli Mozzi and 41 monochrome photographs and a folio of patterns for tailoring and embroidery. This set offered on Ebay comes with its box which alas is in poor condition and this drawback is the reason for a very good price. Held in Australia postage will be high to US or Europe but the low listing price makes it affordable.

Muga silk from Assam is a very special silk, definitely not everyday. At one time only Royalty was allowed to wear it but today it is a fine fashion fabric in India. The silk comes from a silk worm that does not feed on mulberry leaves but on local leaves. It is produced in a semi domestic manner. Saris and clothing made from muga silk are greatly prized in India.

Miao textile arts are famous . In Guizhou Province, S.W. China there are least 90 different Miao dress styles. Some of these beautiful costumes are still not too hard to come by but others have become quite rare. This lovely very old jacket from Rongjiang is a rare old treasure. Frame it or hang it on a rod to grace your wall. Or wear it with care if you are slight and small boned and dazzle everyone who sees you enter the room.

Miao women in Taijiang County, Guizhou Province in S.W. China make countless hundreds and thousands of metres of fine silk braid to apply as fabulous embroidery on their festive jackets. These jackets are a joy to behold, wonderful to wear and a great statement when hung on your wall to bedazzle your visitors. Take a look at a very special example of Taijiang braid work.

Women in old Azerbaijan in the Caucasus stitched beauty into everything, even their potholders. Who would expect to find these domestic treasures from around the beginning of the 20th century still around today? But I did in an antique shop in the old city of Baku and in such good nick I don't think they served too much time holding the cooking pots. Maybe they were part of a dowry and kept lovingly for very special occasions and very special pots.

When the boat chugged into the shore there was a group of men and women waiting to escort the tourists to their designated lodgings - no hassle, no bargaining, no competition, each householder waited for their turn. While the men waited they kitted, wonderful caps and vests with an array of little animals and figures. The women incorporate many of the same designs into their weavings.And the belt I am listing now is a very fine example of their fine weavings, purchased from their village cooperative in l982. The island of Taquile in the middle of the vast Lake Titicaca in the high Andes of Peru is one of the most enchanting places I have been to and fondly remembered.

All on one string, ready to wear as a strong statement from a collector or to hang on your wall or display casually on a low table,this is a truly rare and exciting collection of beads. From the Karen tribe in the Lamphun/Tak area of North Thailand,the beads include an ancient iron bead,old lacquer beads,milky quartz and old silver coins, joined together with pale pomegranite coloured antique white hearts. A treasure.

Wrap this soft elegant fringed silk shawl round your shoulders and you will be transported back to old Baku where Azeri beauties knew how to catch and hold the eye of their men. Made in the town of Sheki in the north of Azerbaijan in Soviet times, going back many years, they are not made now. If you look hard you can still find a few vintage shawls in Old Baku.

The Gejia are usually classified as a branch of the Miao in Chinese official literature but they insist on a separate identity and are certainly a very distinctive group. The Gejia are particularly renowned for their very fine batik work but their embroidery too is exceptional,with strong designs superbly executed. An important part of Gejia folklore concerns their sacred drum. Each clan group has a drum made from camphor wood and at a Grand Ceremony held every 12 years this drum is brought out with great formality. Among other rituals, the elders recount tribal history, the lusheng pipes are played and the young sing and dance wearing their finery. And into the drum go important items in their tribal culture: silver in the shape of internal organs, ears of all the grains which form the basic diet, bundles of silk floss for their embroidery and finally treasured pieces of batik and embroidery. Women's work, textile work,is honoured. The fine old batik pinafore and the much older and very worn baby carrier panel I Am listing on ebay are worthy of going in the drum, 3excellent examples of Gejia textile art.