Water Strider Bag. This exceedingly rare, large, Nasca bag is in the so-called “Nasca Proliferous Style”. a.d. 300 - a.d. 600. Rio Grande Valley, Peru. Highly stylized zoomorphic forms are typical of this type of textile from the Nasca region. Four figures on each face of the bag alternate in direction left and right. The figures on this bag always reminds me of Water Striders, those insects that are able to walk on top of water due to a combination of high surface tension and long hydrophobic legs that help them to stay on top of the water’s surface. They more likely represent human or animal figures that are deliberately stylized as to be ambiguous. Spiders are also referenced in some textiles of this proliferous style. The bag is complete and in good condition. The structure is a balanced plain weave with supplmentary weft wrapping. Any damage was professionally conserved to a cloth liner. The bag is stable and supple. The intense red insect dyed color of this textile is very well preserved as are the blue and yellow dyes. The ground weave and patterning yarns are three ply alpaca yarns. Pieces in this style do not appear often in the market these days. Most have been collected years ago and reside in mainly in museum collections. Ex Neri collection, Ex Private collection London. Size: 9.5 x 16 inches.