Kashmir (Cashmere) Shawls and textiles
Kani woven shawls and textiles
Celebrated for centuries as a royal textile in Europe, Middle East and Asia, the Kani shawls of Kashmir, derive their name from finely finished wooden bobbins called "kaa-ne" that are used in weaving a pattern of the shawl, in a double-interlocked twill tapestry technique. The finest of these shawls were made of the undercoat of the Cashmere goat, so named, because it came from the geographical region of Kashmir, which was called "Cashmere", at the time. The wool fiber of the Cashmere goat, commonly called "Pashmina", from the Persian word "Pashm" for wool, is one of the finest wool fibers in the world, measuring at less than 14 microns in width. (For comparison, the human hair is 70 microns wide). It was only with a fiber so fine that a highly complex pattern could be woven on a geometrical loom and a 9 ft.x 4 ft. shawl would be no heavier than 30 ounces - a feat, I challenge any other textile to duplicate!
The oldest shawl in my collection dates to about 1750s. It is a woven as a single piece, an extremely rare type of a shawl and displays the classic, repeats of near-natural mughal floral sprigs. I also have a few other single-piece shawls that are commonly reflected in the European portraits of the early 1800s. Majority of the shawls in my collection are from the 1800s, the century when the popularity of the Kashmir shawl, in Europe reached its peak.
Embroidered shawls and textiles
The embroidered Kashmir shawl takes a secondary place, if not negligible place to the kani woven shawls, among collectors and connoisseurs but after acquiring examples of embroidered Kashmir shawls from early 1800s, I had to differ. It is true, that the early embroidered shawls, as they are, did not require the time or the skill that the kani shawls of that time, demanded. Indeed, the embroidered Cashmere shawls first gained popularity as cheaper and quicker alternatives to the labor intensive and time consuming kani shawls. But there is evidence in my collection that embroidered Kashmir (Cashmere) shawls were no less an art form, way before their popularity as copies of kani shawls. And ironically, it was the kani shawl that was able to outlast the kani shawls, the last of which were woven in the 1880s. So much, so that from the turn of the century and well into the 1970s, it was it was the embroidered shawl that was considered to be the the de-facto Kashmir (Cashmere) shawl - the kani shawl being relegated to nothing more than a faded memory. Needless to say, the embroidered Kashmiri shawl continue to enjoy a privileged status to this day. It also helped spawn a a variety of other embroidered textiles including the very popular women's and men's clothing, table linens, bedding and drapery. While the kani shawl weaving has recently, been somewhat revived, it compares little, with even the most common kani shawls made during its waning years.
Links to the collection
