This is a spectacular piece that can be classed amongst the finest examples of Central Asian ikat weaving. It involves seven colours which was the maximum used in Central Asian ikats. The colours appear to be: crimson/madder red, deep purple/aubergine, golden yellow, ivory/white, teal or turquoise blue, mid blue, and dark brown or near-black. The achievement of seven distinct colours in a warp ikat on silk required extraordinary technical skill — each colour necessitates a separate binding and dyeing operation on the warp threads, and the sequence must be carefully planned so that later dyeings do not destroy earlier ones. The colours must be applied in a specific order, generally from lightest to darkest. Of the two major ikat weaving centres – Bukhara and the Ferghana Valley, this appears to be from the Ferghana valley. Bukhara ikats tend toward more formal, symmetrical compositions.