COLOR

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Fifty-odd yarns, samplings from the striped and plain cloths of the Chincha lots, were matched against the printed samples in Maerz and Paul's Dictionary of Color.[8] We found yarns corresponding to thirty-two samples representing five of the eight color groups. We found no dyed yarns in these cloths for colors in the yellow-to-green, the blue-to-red, and the purple-to-red groups. Only four yarns out of three hundred and fifty matched in a previous study,[9] corresponded to colors in the purple-to-red group and these four matched very dark samples on plate 56. The available evidence indicates either that the ancients had not developed dyestuffs to produce such hues as our fuchsias, magentas, and heliotropes or that they did not favor these colors.

Over a dozen yarns matched samples on plates 14 and 15 of the orange-to-yellow groups; as many more matched the browns on plate 37. Some of the yarns in this series are darker than any of the printed samples on plate 39. The third largest series, approximately twenty, match eight samples in the blue-green-to-blue group. The fewest number represent the green-to-blue-green group. Yarns in four cloths are similar to poplar and bottle greens.

Stripes are in one, two, or three colors (fig. 8). Most of the one-color stripes (approximately 10) are blue (37F3, 37I5), one is an orange-red (5K10), and one clay color (14F8). For the two-color stripes we were able to distinguish blue (37F3), golden browns (approximating 15A12), and orange reds (approximating 5K10). In only one of the six two-color examples, however, were the two colors sufficiently clear to match the printed samples. Specimen 16-1251 combines brown (15A12) and blue (38C3) stripes.

The three-color stripes in the 16- lot were similarly difficult to match with the samples in the Dictionary. Yarns from the four specimens matched samples as follows:

16-1268: yellow (10C7) and two browns (14L10, 15A12)

16-1277: two yellows (11K8 and one other darker than any in the group) and blue (36F6)

16-1283: yellow (9J5), blue (35D4), and one other color too dull to match any printed sample in the blue group

16-1287: yellows and browns (7C12, 11K6, and 14F6)

One three-color specimen in the 4- lot (pl. 6,f) has a number of well-preserved portions. The weaving proper is natural-color white cotton with plaiding in dark brown (15C12) and gray similar to adobe (14D7). The wide edge stripe has the same dark brown, a lighter, more golden brown (14D12), and central pinkish stripes which approximate printed samples 3C10 or 3C11.

Fig. 8. Diagrams of stripings in Chincha plain-weave cloths: a, two-color stripe, blue and natural color cotton; b, two-color stripe, blue and brown on natural-color ground; c, allover stripe of blue on natural-color ground.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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