BACK TO TOP

TEXTILES

Kulli puka calcheña. Lliclla. Quechua ethnic group. Ayllu Caracara. Calcha, Potosí. Bolivia. First half of the 20th century.


Woven with alpaca wool, spun and twisted, very fine, dyed with natural dyes. The cloths, woven separately on a four-edge warp face, on a stake loom, are joined with an ornamental stitching of diamonds that repeat the colors of the piece. Measures. Length: 85 cm / 33.46 in. Width: 95 cm / 37.4 in.


At first glance, the llicllas of Calcha are much less striking than those of other Quechua and Aymara partialities, since their pallay (ornamental work designs) are much narrower, both in the center and at the edges, but in reality they are the finest pieces of the textile industry of Upper Peru. Its fabric -with alpaca wool in this case-, always very thin hand-spun, results in a very dense and delicate fabric, just like its working. Said tillage is of unique and constant characteristics in all the Calcheñas llicllas: two central streets of diamonds and hooks, alternating red and green on a white base, culminating the central edges of each cloth with a yellow list.


The lateral edges culminate in a wide red band outside a small street with geometric work.


Its name, also characteristic of Calcha, refers to the colors of its pampa (its field): Kulli, purple, and Puka, red. If the field were black, it would be named Yana, alluding to the dark color. The red has been obtained by staining with cochineal kernel, while the purple may be the result of said kernel but with the addition of iron sulfate, or with a tincture extracted from a variety of inedible potato, the purple potato (solanum tuberosum), widely used during much of the 19th century for cost reasons, given that the cochineal was not produced in Alto Peru, but arrived with large mule harnesses from Santiago de Estero (1)


By way of synthesis, we affirm that a lliclla de Calcha is –for the connoisseur- a singular and valuable jewel in its textile collection.


Note:

1. Teresa Gisbert, Silvia Arce, Martha Cajías: Textile art and the Andean world. Plural Editores, 2006, pp. 59-60.


S.O.H-XI-BSM


Are you interested in selling some works?

Send us an email briefly indicating
which works you intend to put on sale, and we will respond. click here

Subscribe to our newsletter to be updated.

Check our Newsletters