Cleveland Museum of Art

Square Shawl ("amli")

Date

mid-1800s

Medium

Wool: embroidery (large-pieced areas)

Culture

India, Kashmir

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The central white medallion radiates into a swirling pattern of rosettes and teardrop-shaped “tree-of-life” motifs, also known as paisley, that spread over the entire surface. In the border is an undulating vine and a row of gate-like elements filled with individual trees. Kashmiri shawls were signs of high social status in India. Beginning in the late 1700s, the shawls were also coveted throughout Europe and America, until they began to fall out of fashion during the 1870s.

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