a Scottish Private Collection, Edinburgh 2012, no. 412 Note: This silk bag, originally purchased in 1998 as a Qarakhanid silk bag, Inner Asia, 12th-13th century, later exhibited in the Arts from the Land of Timur exhibition in 2012 and catalogued as a Semirechye piece, has been suggested by several Asian art specialists to be a Liao dynasty textile after the exhibition. Roughly a thousand years old, this fine silk bag is a rare survivor and a testimony to the extensive trade network passing through Central Asia during the eleventh/twelfth century. The quality of the silk and craftsmanship itself, largely lost today, further bears witness to the importance of the silk-route from China. Comparable flower pattern is illustrated in Liao Textiles and Costumes, Zhao Feng (ed.), Hong Kong, 2004, fig. 183; an embroidered bag with similar form and fasten-cord design in the Mengdiexuan Collection, Hong Kong is also illustrated in the same book, fig. 302. A further comparable weft-faced compound twill with flowers, cranes, and clouds decoration, dated to the Liao dynasty, 10th century, is in the Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. nos. 1992.112a