M.2024.184.510
Moon Shawl (Chand-dar)
India, Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmir region
late 18th century
Goat-fleece underdown twill double-interlocking tapestry-weave, pieced, with wool embroidery
62 × 63 in. (157.48 × 160.02 cm)
This moon shawl (chand-dar), with its signature moon-shaped disk at the center, is the earliest complete example of a Kashmir shawl in LACMA’s collection. Such shawls first appeared in Kashmir, located in the northwestern Indian subcontinent, around 1680, modeled after a type of sixteenth-century Islamic carpet or from bookbinding and manuscript illumination. Worn in a variety of ways on the upper body by both men and women, the style eventually became fashionable among the elite of not only Kashmir but Europe and Persia as well. The round medallions of this example are composed of small blue floral motifs with a central point of red, a popular moon shawl design of the second half of the eighteenth century. In each corner are quarter-moons, customary for moon shawls, but the four half-moons at each side are rare for this style.
Kashmir shawls like this one were prized for their luxurious feel, light weight, and warmth. Their preciousness resides in the extraordinary tactile properties of ultra-fine pashm (cashmere) fibers, which were brushed from the underdown of Capra hircus (goats) that roamed the Himalayas hundreds of miles from Kashmir. The imported fibers were processed, spun, and woven into shawls decorated with buta and floral motifs, achieved with tapestry weaving on a standard horizontal loom. Unlike any other tapestry-woven fabric in the world, Kashmir shawls were made with a two-by-two twill weave throughout, with wefts double-interlocking at the transition between each colored thread to prevent slit openings. Known locally as kani, this technique resulted in textiles with the astounding clarity of design and cohesiveness in the drape of the fabric unique to Kashmir shawls. These textiles required an extremely high level of skill to weave and were laborious to produce, especially as designs became progressively more intricate through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Clarissa M. Esguerra
2024