Shawl (India), ca. 1800

Square Kashmir shawl with a design of cones primarily in reds, with an open ivory field. Each cone is 10 1/2 inches high, and is compartmented by a narrow border of floral vines. Currently the shawl has wide borders on two adjacent sides and narrow borders on the two remaining sides. It has been re-made from fragments of a long shawl. Originally each end would have had a wide border nine cones in width: one side of the square version has the full nine cone pattern, the other has seven cones. The two remaining cones exist as a separate fragment (1958-148-5b). The narrow guard border of a similar floral vine has been stitched to the two remaining sides. In this way the shawl could be folded diagonally to form the triangular shawl popular in the mid-19th century.