Featured PERSIAN? ARABIC? SOUTH ASIA?

this tapestry / couch throw / table cloth or whatever is I believe latter part of 19th C. size about 7x5 feet. near the very center is what looks like a signature or cartouche, possibly arabic or farsi; or something more obscure. the hand-work is truly impressive with infinite detail. one design element is the 'sacred pear' (boteh)seen in middle eastern rugs and indian textiles, i.e. paisley.

thanks for all comments.

 

Yours is a Paisley shawl.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_shawls

Debora

 

I'd say pretty accurate.

 

It would be helpful to see more of the back side. From what you have posted, it appears to be a genuine kashmir shawl, rather than paisley. The paisley shawls were machine woven imitations of the kashmir shawls, which were hand woven. On the paisleys, there are usually long floats (threads travelling from one point to the next place where the color is needed), which is a product of the machine technique. The edges of the hand woven kashmir shawls are typically done with separate blocks of fabric, stitched together and embroidered, which looks like what is going on with yours. The Arabic/Persian signature in the center is also typical of the original shawls.

 

I did not know that! I mean I've known there are machine woven imitations, I just didn't know that "paisley shawl" refers to the machine woven ones.

 

I'm with 2many, it is a genuine Kashmiri shawl, not a European copy. Koshur, the language of Kashmir, is written in both Persian/Arabic and Devanagari scripts, hence the Arabic-looking signature.
Kashmiri shawls were widely traded, and became very popular in the West, which is why there were several European weaving centres copying the style. Paisley, near Glasgow, Scotland, became the most famous.

 

The first English shawls inspired by the Kashmiri shawls were made in Norwich in the late 18th century.
http://www.ctacostume.org.uk/norwich-shawls.html

Weavers in Paisley, Scotland, began making them in the early 19th century. The term then came to be applied to the design, and particularly the tear-drop shaped motif (boteh/buta in Persian).
I'm afraid the term has been rather loosely applied to any of these types of shawls.

 

After reading this thread this morning, I went out and bought one - (a Paisley though) from the 1840's.

Actually no money changed hands - I traded my worn 1930's Tekke Bokhara rug for the shawl and a nice Chinese hardstone carving.

 

Antiquers has a bad influence on anyone who gets trapped here.
Sounds like my kind of trade though, nice.

 

True Paisley shawls are still very collectible.I have one and wear it.

 

@Ownedbybear Here's the one I bought, no holes and in good condition ..sorry the pics aren't better ...it's very big!

 

very nice!

 

That's a beauty.

Brownie points for anyone who knows the link to computing without the use of Google.

 

I use Startpage, which uses several search engines, including google. I think you can select to search without google, but having tried several search engines in the past, I find the multi-search engine option best. That means including google. It's those bots of theirs.

 

OK, points for anyone who knows the answer without any kind of searching on t'Interweb.

 

@Ownedbybear OK. I give up.

Answer please?

 

Paisley was often woven on what are known as Jacquard looms, which used punched cards to create the pattern. Those became the basis of the punched cards used to programme early computers. IT goes back a long way.

 

I knew that...