Four-Cornered Hat600-800

Not on view

Title: Four-Cornered Hat
Culture: Wari
Place Made: Peru, South Coast
Date Made: 600-800
Medium: Camelid fiber in larkshead knotting with cut pile
Dimensions: 3 1/2 × 5 × 4 3/4 in. (8.89 × 12.7 × 12.07 cm)
Credit Line: Costume Council and Museum Associates Purchase
Accession Number: M.79.81.2
Classification: Costumes
Collecting Area: Costume and Textiles
Curatorial Notes: High-status men of the Wari culture, possibly only men of the imperial family clans, wore unusually small but brilliantly colored square hats such as this. The appendages pointed like the ears of felines or bristling tassels are suggestive of bird plumage. During construction, sections of the hat were knotted separately and then sewn together, directly incorporating looped yarn into the knots. After the loops were sheared off, the velvety surface texture that resulted may have been intended to imitate the thick, soft coats of animals, reinforcing the wearer’s sense of interrelationship with the animal world.

Nicole LaBouff via Kaye Spilker

2009

Not on view

Title: Four-Cornered Hat
Culture: Wari
Place Made: Peru, South Coast
Date Made: 600-800
Medium: Camelid fiber in larkshead knotting with cut pile
Dimensions: 3 1/2 × 5 × 4 3/4 in. (8.89 × 12.7 × 12.07 cm)
Credit Line: Costume Council and Museum Associates Purchase
Accession Number: M.79.81.2
Classification: Costumes
Collecting Area: Costume and Textiles
Curatorial Notes: High-status men of the Wari culture, possibly only men of the imperial family clans, wore unusually small but brilliantly colored square hats such as this. The appendages pointed like the ears of felines or bristling tassels are suggestive of bird plumage. During construction, sections of the hat were knotted separately and then sewn together, directly incorporating looped yarn into the knots. After the loops were sheared off, the velvety surface texture that resulted may have been intended to imitate the thick, soft coats of animals, reinforcing the wearer’s sense of interrelationship with the animal world.

Nicole LaBouff via Kaye Spilker

2009