Acquired in 1908 for the Museum's textile department, this tapestry mantle was long thought to be from nineteenth-century Mexico; in 1942, it was recognized as a remarkably early example of colonial-era weaving from Peru. Despite the European-style patterning, the presence of badgelike Precolumbian motifs called tocapu in the bands delineating the separate fields helps to date it to the sixteenth or seventeenth century.

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