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Shawl Border (Pallu)
c. 1820
- Medium
- Wool, double interlocking 2:2 'S' twill tapestry weave; main warp fringe
- Classification
- Costume and Accessories
- Dimensions
- a: 40.6 × 127.2 cm (16 × 50 in.); Weft repeat: H.: 65 cm (25 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Kashmir
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Textiles
- Credit line
- Bequest of the Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The earliest Kashmir shawls introduced to Europe were made of white cashmere wool with decorated ends containing rows of stylized floral buta motifs. The pattern became known as paisley in English, after the town in Scotland that was a center of shawl weaving. The fine wool of a shawl’s central area was always the most fragile component, and this long shawl has been mended with two nearly invisible seams across the central white field. Europeans valued Kashmir shawls so highly that even fragments of the decorative borders were preserved, collected, and treasured.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
