Square Shawl ("amli")
Unknown Artist
mid-1800s
Medium
Wool: embroidery (large-pieced areas)
Dimensions
182.9 × 177.8 cm
Classification
Embroidery
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of the Burridge Family
Accession Number
1926.239
About this artwork
The central white medallion radiates into a swirling pattern of rosettes and teardrop-shaped “tree-of-life” motifs, also known as paisley, that spread over the entire surface. In the border is an undulating vine and a row of gate-like elements filled with individual trees. Kashmiri shawls were signs of high social status in India. Beginning in the late 1700s, the shawls were also coveted throughout Europe and America, until they began to fall out of fashion during the 1870s.