It wouldn't surprise me to find shawls like these in a craft museum, or even in a museum of natural history, to us they are significant as a form of art."

The Kashmir Shawl – HarperCollins Publishers UK

The central 'character' is a very valuable, finely woven and intricately embroidered Kashmiri shawl, found by Mair while clearing out her parents' posessions after her father's death. Mair is between jobs, has inherited some money, and decides to journey to India with the shawl as an excuse - she wants to find out what she can about her grandmother's life as a missionary in India before and during the war. Scott Shane's outstanding work Flee North tells the little-known tale of an unlikely partnership ... a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Skarratt, Ben (August 2018). "From India to Europe: The Production of the Kashmir Shawl and the Spread of the Paisley Motif" (PDF). Global History of Capitalism Project. I do admire authors who have researched their books well and give a true flavour of places they write about.

Valued for its warmth, light weight and characteristic buta design, the Kashmir shawl trade inspired the global cashmere industry. The shawl evolved into its high-grade, sartorial use in the 13th century and was used in the 16th century by Mughal and Iranian emperors, both personally and for honouring members of their durbar. In the late 18th century, it arrived in Britain, and then in France, where its use by Queen Victoria and Empress Joséphine popularised it as a symbol of exotic luxury and status. The Kashmir shawl has since become a toponym for the Kashmir region itself (cashmere, named after Kashmir), inspiring mass-produced imitation industries in India and Europe, and popularising the buta motif, today known as the Paisley motif after the factories in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland that sought to replicate it. a b c d e f g h Irwin, John (1973). The kashmir shawl. London: H.M. Stationery Off. ISBN 0-11-290164-6. OCLC 3241655. Worth, Susannah (December 1995). "Early 20th Century Embroidered Shawls". Needle Arts. 26 (4): 38–41. The shawls made in Kashmir occupy a pre-eminent place among textile products; and it is to them and to their imitations from Western looms that specific importance attaches. The Kashmir shawl is characterized by the elaboration of its design, in which the "cone" pattern is a prominent feature, and by the glowing harmony, brilliance, depth, and enduring qualities of its colours. The basis of these excellences is found in the very fine, soft, short, flossy under-wool, called pashm or pashmina, found on the shawl-goat, a variety of Capra hircus inhabiting the elevated regions of Tibet. There are several varieties of pashm, but the finest is a strict monopoly of the maharaja of Kashmir. Inferior pashm and Kerman wool — a fine soft Persian sheep's wool — are used for shawl weaving at Amritsar and other places in the Punjab, where colonies of Kashmiri weavers are established. Of shawls, apart from shape and pattern, there are only two principal classes: (1) loom-woven shawls called tiliwalla, tilikar or kani kar — sometimes woven in one piece, but more often in small segments which are sewn together with such precision that the sewing is quite imperceptible; and (2) embroidered shawls — amlikar — in which over a ground of plain pashmina is worked by needle a minute and elaborate pattern." from Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911 [3] Pashmina or kar Amir [ edit ] Shawl weavers in Kashmir circa 1903.

The Kashmir Shawl | PDF | Weaving | Carpet - Scribd The Kashmir Shawl | PDF | Weaving | Carpet - Scribd

What attracted me to this book was the Kashmir region. I was hoping to see a vivid picture of this place, known as one of the most beautiful places in the world, and of the people living there and the events leading to the conflict between India and Pakistan. Woven from the hair of pashmina goats that thrive on the high plains of Tibet and Nepal, luxuriously soft Kashmir shawls have been worn since antiquity. In Asia they were favoured by royalty — when they reached Europe, even Napoleon took note… At the same time, there are chapters interspersed that are from Mair's grandmother's (Nerys's) point of view, in the 1940s in India. Rosie Thomas does such a great job unfolding the story gently and evenly across both timelines. I couldn't put down the book! I relished every lush description of scenery across India and reveled in the development of Nerys's friendships with other expats in India. The differing marriages that are explored would make a great topic for book groups – what makes a marriage or fail, what is a failed marriage, how are marriages different, what forces do family and culture play on marriage, who is responsible for making a marriage work, etc.

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Thomas weaves two stories together into a romantic epic: Mair’s search for the origins of the shawl (as well as a search for her own future), and the historical story of her grandparents, particularly her grandmother’s experiences in 1940s Kashmir. I found the historical story much more interesting, if a bit melodramatic. We know you’ll discover the right designer Kashmir Shawl or Scarf for ANY occasion in our elite Seasons Collections!