Cleveland Museum of Art

Border of a Shawl

Date

c. 1825–30

Medium

wool: tapestry twill

Culture

India, Kashmir

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Kashmiri shawls were extremely popular in the early 1800s, especially among foreigners to the Indian subcontinent. Made in the mountainous region of northwest India from wool from mountain goats from nearby Ladakh, the fabrics were especially prized for their softness and their beautiful symmetrical designs, often called paisley in English. This textile fragment was once owned by Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877–1947), a Ceylonese (Sri Lankan) art historian and collector who is credited with introducing South Asian art to museums in the United States. The top of the teardrop design recalls fanned-out peacock feathers.

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