download - OATG. Oxford Asian Textile Group

5
At the beginning of the twentieth century Haddon was an influential figure in both
anthropology and art. He first came to Sarawak in 1898 at the invitation of Charles Hose,
following Haddon’s second expedition to Torres Strait. While in Kuching, Haddon
photographed and made sketches of some hundred Iban cloths at the Sarawak Museum. He
later purchased a number of cloths from Hose and eventually donated this collection to
Cambridge. It was only in 1936 that Haddon published his book on Iban textiles in
collaboration with Laura Start who provided the drawings. The study’s main merit is the
identification of single design motifs which were originally provided by Hose. In fact, most
cloths sold by Hose came complete with tags giving the names of the designs (Figure 1). It is
this documentation that makes Iban cloths in U.K. collections unique.
Figure 1; British Museum (Accession Number 1905-377); skirt cloth; warp ikat; deer pattern
Nonetheless, there are many data that Hose failed to record. Crucially, he did not
inform us how and from whom he collected his data. There is no information on the weavers
of the cloths he obtained, and rarely of the longhouses where they lived. The records in the
British Museum give the place of origin of all Hose cloths as Baram District, but most likely
this is based on the fact that Hose was stationed in the Baram for most of his career. We also
do not know how Hose went about acquiring the large amount of cloths that he eventually
sold. Did Iban bring cloths to him, or did he acquire them during travels upriver in the course
of his official duties More importantly, why were his standards of quality so poor Iban
today would consider many cloths assembled by Hose as mediocre (dye, execution of ikat,
condition, and pattern). For example, almost half of the skirt cloths at Cambridge were
subjected to only one dye process with an inferior brown dye, which saves the weaver the
laborious second tying of the pattern. Nonetheless, the British Museum acquired three pua