M.2024.184.10
Moon Shawl (Chand-dar)
India, Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmir region for the Iranian market
18251850
Goat-fleece underdown twill double-interlocking tapestry-weave
64 x 61 in.
This moon shawl (chand-dar), with its signature moon-shaped disk at the center, dates to the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Woven by Kashmiri weavers, this example features blue, red, yellow, and white stripes with fine foliate designs densely rendered within each narrow band, a pattern that was favored in and likely made for export to Persian courts. Moon 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 or 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. Patterned stripes of alternating colors have been popular in Islamic textiles since the thirteenth century, at first with Arabic inscriptions and later with figurative motifs. Here, striped warps of the shawl are seen through the Mughal-style medallions composed of red and blue blossoms and vines. In each corner are quarter-moons, customary for moon shawls.
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