Piece of fabric

Bulgarians

Russian Empire, Kherson province, Tiraspol district, village Parkany

Early 20th century

Threads: silk: raw silk; threads: cotton

length 215.0; width 68.0

РЭМ 2737-7

The collection brought by P. Z. Ryabkov from the village of Parkany in 1910 includes a specimen of semi-silk fabric, whose manufacturing was widespread among the local Bulgarian population. The developed silk farming traditions enabled the Bulgarians to rear silkworms on their own, whose cocoons were later used to produce silk threads. Since silk manufacturing was a labor-consuming process, and the material itself was considered valuable and expensive, silk threads were only used in fabrics so manufactured as weft, with cotton forming the warp. The fabric obtained, the so-called kuprina, was used to make household textiles such as towels, coverlets, tablecloths etc. P. Z. Ryabkov in his notes describes the said fabric specimen as follows: “a piece of silk fabric from raw silk, its name is kuprina (silk). A tablecloth of 2 or 3 widths is sewn from this fabric. The silk is made from cocoons of home breeding; grain is ordered by mail. The pattern is checkers.”