This is a detail of a silk garment, woven on a hand-loom in Mandalay Palace. The bands of undulating rope design, filled with floral and leaf patterns in a range of stunning colours on a red ground, exemplifies the renowned and uniquely Burmese textile known as <i>acheik-luntaya</i>. This garment would have been worn by a lady of the court either as a <i>tabet</i> (stole) or a <i>yinzi</i> (breast cloth), forming an ensemble when worn with a wrap skirt known in Burma as an <i>hta-mein</i> and jacket known as an <i>ein-gyi</i>.
The garment dates from the reign of King Thibaw (r. 1878-1885), the last ruler of the Konbaung dynasty. It was found in the apartment of Queen Supayalat, the chief queen of King Thibaw, by the donor's husband, Colonel Pollard, who was a member of the British force that annexed upper Burma in 1885.