• Journal of Conservation Science
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.120-134
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• 2021

A Woolen carpet from the late Joseon Dynasty was unearthed in the process of repairing Seongjeonggak in Changdeokgung. Since relics are rarer than documentary records, the woolen carpet is highly valued as a relics. It is presumed to have been woven in the late 19th or early 20th century because there is a record of repairing Seongjeonggak in 1907. In the carpet, a pattern is made by inserting colored yarn dyed yellow and red onto a reddish-purple ground weave. The selvage of the woolen carpet used cotton thread, and jute is used for the warp and weft of the ground weave. The colored patterns is made of wool in the form of loop pile. Cut piles may appear occasionally when the colored yarn changes, but are almost invisible from the surface because they are pressed tightly with a shuttered weft. Making carpets with jute and wool is thought to be influenced by the Brussels carpets of the mid-18th century. Furthermore, the woolen carpet is torn and the pattern is completely unclear; however, it is understandable that the pattern is partially repeated. Microscopic and Fourier transform-Infrared spectrometer(FT-IR) analyses were performed for the above investigation. To identify the dyes used in relics, we compared them with natural dyed fabric samples based on chromaticity measurements and Ultraviolet/Visible spectrophotometer(UV-Vis) analysis. These analyses revealed that the woolen carpet's dyed green yarn did not use indigo, and reddish-purple ground weave is estimated to have used Caesalpinia sappan.