A Study on the Copy of ‘Golden Thread Twin Crane Mandarin Square’ Excavated (Estimated) in the Tomb of Jeong Tae-Je (1612-1669) Through Restoration of the Napsasu and Yeonchaesa

The Seok Juseon Memorial Museum of Dankook University houses a pair of ‘Golden Thread Twin Crane Mandarin Square’ presumably excavated from the tomb of Jeong Tae-Je (1612-1669). This artifact is particularly notable for its unique embroidery technique and thread. Previous studies have identified the embroidery technique as ’Napsasu’ and the thread as ‘Yeonchaesa’, which is made by wrapping colored thread around a core. Unfortunately, the techniques for creating Napsasu and Yeonchaesa are no longer practiced in Korea. This study aims to analyze this artifact’s base fabric, embroidery technique, thread, and pattern. Based on this analysis, this study attempts to restore the discontinued Napsasu and Yeonchaesa techniques to complete the Mandarin Square. The base fabric of Jeong Tae-Je’s twin crane mandarin square is a silk fabric known as Eunjosa, which is 37.5 ㎝ wide and 38.5 ㎝ high. It is embroidered on woven silver gauze fabric with a two-ply twist thread. A diamond pattern is expressed throughout the base fabric, and the main design features a pair of cranes. The threads used for the embroidery are cotton, silk, and gold. The embroidery technique is single-sided, meaning it is embroidered on only one side of the fabric. In this study, the restored Yeonchaesa used cotton yarn as the core, then its outer surface was wrapped with two strands of silk. For the Napsasu embroidery thread, thin four-ply of cotton yarn were twisted together to form a single ply. This thread was used to embroider through the holes between the sparse Eunjosa base fabric threads, resulting in a pattern with the exact thread count as the original artifact. Finally, the restored Yeonchaesa and Napsasu techniques were applied to complete a pair of Mandarin Squares, replicating the original artifact.