Magical Mystery Mantas

My husband loves to explore auctions and occasionally he even discovers a treasure. He came home one day with two boxes that were listed as “Vintage Peruvian Mantas.” At first glance I judged them to be nothing special. They were old, dirty, and mostly in terrible condition. But he was so happy to have found a textile treasure for me that I decided it might be worth my time to wash them and look more closely.  

For the next two months, I had a big plastic tub in the guest bath where I soaked one manta at a time in mild soap, then rinsed. I included several Color Catcher sheets with each textile because they were not only filthy but also most were not completely color fast. The house smelled strongly of dirty sheep caught in the rain for most of that period. All the mantas needed more than one soaking and rinsing with water (some up to three or four times) as well as a final soak and rinse with vinegar.  Luckily, we live in Arizona so drying them wasn’t a problem.

I used a grabber to carefully agitate each manta to get the dirt out but not shrink or felt the textile.
Some of the Color Catchers after they were used to catch the fugitive dye.
Many of the textiles looked like this. Some had only sections that were this damaged, while other sections were intact. These mantas had definitely been well used.
Some mantas were very faded. On this one, you can see faint images of a design in the traditional black and red of the Jalq’a community.
A faded and worn manta but with the design section still beautiful.

I gradually came to the realization that I had badly misjudged the Mystery Mantas. I’m not an expert, but I was pretty sure that they were not woven in Peru or Mexico. I based this on the designs and that they were woven with yarn that was much more finely spun than most of the Peruvian or Mexican pieces I’d seen. So, I took some photos and sent them to other members of the ATA Board and several of them agreed they were probably Bolivian. The clinchers were the ones that had sections woven in the red and black style of the traditional textiles from the Jalq’a community in Bolivia. 

Jackpot!  Score one for my husband, the Auction Hunter! 

Many of the textiles' designs appear to be woven with finely spun single-ply yarn, like drawing with a fine tip pen.
Three mantas woven with traditional Jalq'a red and white designs.
This piece looks almost like lace work laid over a striped fabric.
Not quite as fine as the other samples but still very detailed work.
This one shows brilliant colors.

Some of the textiles have been set aside for ATA auctions and the rest are now part of my special collection. And now I really want to go on the ATA tour to Bolivia. Maybe one of these textiles would like to go back home.  

The moral of this story is: Never judge a box of Mystery Mantas without looking at them very closely. 

Lead photo: Some sections of this manta may include synthetic yarn or natural fiber that is dyed with synthetic dyes. (I didn’t burn test any of the mantas to determine yarn type.) I’m fascinated with the animals that look like a series of rainbow monkeys.

Picture of Virginia Glenn

Virginia Glenn

Virginia is a retired educator with a degree in Spanish from UCLA, a MA in Special Ed from CSULA, and a PhD in the same field from USC. She learned to weave in the mid 70’s and has collected textiles on her travels around the world, with a special passion for Latin American textiles. She hopes to use her fluency in Spanish to help the Andean Textile Arts board achieve their goals of supporting weavers in the Andes.
Share the Post:

Related Posts

Don't Miss Out!

Sign Up for Our Newsletter

Want a behind-the-scenes look at Andean textile culture? Our triannual newsletter is your source for insider information.