Kashmir shawl, unknown maker from India

Exhibition Label:
“Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art,” Nov-2005, Mary Dusenbury
The focus of this comparatively early shawl is on the lustrous cashmere fiber used in its construction. Its shallow, unobtrusive borders, typical of the early nineteenth century, enhance rather than dominate the main body of the textile.
The shawl represents changes that European influence had on eighteenth century Kashmiri prototypes. The flowering plant motif typical of
seventeenth and eighteenth century shawls has already evolved into the familiar ‘cone’ motif of nineteenth century shawls and the shawl is almost twice as wide and somewhat longer than Catalogue #13. Its width represents a response to European demand for a larger, wider shawl than the Kashmiri prototype, a garment that could be used by fashionable women in place of a cloak.