Page 407 - The Ashley Book of Knots

THE ASHLEY BOOK O~ KNOTS

2482. A more elaborate Chinese lantern cord is made of narrow

sage-green cotton sinnet, platted as '/I: 2967, twenty-seven inches in

length. The tassels are of red silk thread and the TURK'S-HEADS are

of parti-colored wire-wound silk and silver-covered wire. To tie:

Double a long cord. As the take-up differs with the size of the cord,

it is difficult to specify the length. Leaving a five-inch loop, tie a

FOUR-CROWN BUTTERFLY KNOT ('/1:811).

Below this are two THREE-LEAD, FOUR-BIGHT, TWO-PLY WIRE

2.4'a3 TURK'S-HEADS, the upper one silver-covered, the lower blue-silk-

covered. Close to this is a tassel of red silk thread, three and one half

inches long.

2483. A second FOUR-CROWN BUTTERFLY ('/1:2482) is added below

the tassel and then the elaborate KNOT '/I: 2483 (detailed at the left)

is carefully pinned out Qn the board. The horizontal bar of the

original knot was stiffened with a piece of bone, two and one half

inches long, in shape exactly like the mahjong counters we used to

play with. There are two THREE-LEAD, FOUR-BIGHT, TWO-PLY

TURK'S-HEADS which encircle the center cords. The positions of the

TURK'S-HEADS are indicated by double-headed arrows in the right

upper diagram. The upper of these two TURK'S-HEADS is of silver,

the lower red.

Suspended from the ends of the crossbar are tassels made over

round buttons one half inch in diameter. The tassels are four and

a half inches long and of red silk. Above each of these are two

TURK'S-HEADS, the upper one silver, the lower one blue. Tasselmak-

ing is described in Chapter 41.

Close to KNOT '/I: 2483, but not interlocking with it, is another knot

('/I: 2482).

An inch and a quarter below the last-mentioned knot is the top of

a glass disk, one and five eighths inches in diameter, of imitation jade.

The disk is perforated at the center and a red silk TURK'S-HEAD

24 51
('/I: 248 I) holds the strands together through this. A smooth seizing,

a quarter of an inch wide, of dark linen thread, holds the disk in

place at both top and bottom. The seizing has been wound with silk

thread to make a blue stripe around the center at either side of the

TURK'S-HEAD. The outer edges of the seizing are of dark blue, the

center light blue and the whole stripe is not more than one sixteenth

of an inch wide.

2484. An inch al'l.d a quarter below the disk is tied a BUTTERFLY

KNOT of the same form as '/1:2455, already shown in this chapter.

An inch below this knot are two TURK'S-HEADS, the upper one

silver, the lower one red. These are of larger wire (about one thirty-

second of an inch) than those previously described, which so far

have been of uniform size.

Below these two TURK'S-HEADS is a round silver-lined glass bead

five eighths of an inch in diameter and below this is a bright green

wire TURK'S-HEAD, about a quarter larger than those last described.

Close to this is a ten-inch tassel of red silk made over a wooden

mold seven eighths of an inch in diameter.

Methods of making tassels are shown in Chapter 4 I.