Credited to Belarus. The kontusz sash derives from Persian and Ottoman models and is equally claimed as Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth heritage; only the Slutsk type is local. End year approximate.
How it began
In the middle of the 18th century Michal Kazimierz Radziwill, a magnate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, set out to make silk sashes at home that could compete with imports. A belt workshop was first set up at Nesvizh and then moved to Slutsk, a town already known for its weavers. Sources give the date as the 1750s, and 1758 is the year usually cited for the Slutsk manufactory.
The Radziwills brought in Jan Madzarski, a master of Armenian descent who had worked in Istanbul and Stanislawow, to run it and train local weavers. His son Leon ran the manufactory from 1777 to 1807.
Before it existed
Long patterned sashes of precious yarn had been fashionable among the nobility of the Commonwealth since the 16th and 17th centuries. A sash worn over the kontusz, the nobleman's outer robe, signaled rank, family tradition and wealth. Until local production began, these expensive belts were imported from the East. They were known as Persian belts and reached the Commonwealth through the Ottoman Empire.
How it works
A classic Slutsk sash is 3.5 to 4 meters long and 35 to 40 centimeters wide. It was woven from silk thread, with some threads wrapped in very fine gold or silver wire, and then passed through a roller that gave it smoothness and shine. One belt could hold up to 200 grams of gold.
Each sash has two patterned ends, called heads, with flowers, stems and medallions, and a middle of plain or ornamented stripes. Many were woven with two to four faces in different colors, so the owner could fold it to show gold and red for a holiday or black for mourning. Weavers marked each belt with a signature such as "Me fecit Sluciae." Only men did the weaving. At its height the manufactory had up to 55 weavers and about 20 to 25 looms, and made around 200 belts a year.
How it spread
Madzarski adapted the Persian model by making it narrower and shorter, and Slutsk weavers added floral designs based on local plants. The style was soon copied. Workshops in Grodno, Slonim, Kobylka, Krakow, Gdansk and Lyon produced similar sashes, some carrying the Slutsk mark although they were not made there. Production at the Radziwill manufactory continued into the middle of the 19th century. One Belarusian source dates the closure to 1848.
What lasted
About 1,000 Slutsk sashes are thought to survive, nearly all outside Belarus in museums in Poland, Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania and in private hands. Belarusian museums hold 11 complete belts and many fragments. A collection from the Nesvizh Palace was transferred to the State Art Gallery in 1939 and disappeared at the start of the war.
The sash became a national symbol in Belarus. Maxim Bogdanovich's poem "Slutsk Women Weavers" made it a literary image, although the weavers were in fact well-paid men.
Where it stands today
A state Slutsk Belts program for 2012 to 2015 funded research into the historic technique. In 2012 and 2013 the Slutsk Belts arts and crafts enterprise in Slutsk began making copies and replicas using silk with gold and silver thread, along with souvenirs. The enterprise runs a museum of the history of the sashes where visitors can watch production.
