Kashmir shawl fragment, Mughal period, circa 1700.

22cm x 152cm.

This Mughal fragment with its undecorated ground and feely spaced botehs represents an important link between the inchoate curvilinear botehs typical of the later part of the 18^th century and the 17^th century patterns.
It’s uniqueness lies in the fact the bouquet illustrates a variety of floral species all grouped within a clearly defined curvilinearity. This, as opposed to the often encountered single floral type with triple flexion sinuosity (tribanda) found on high Mughal period decorative arts.
The link is reinforced by the nature of the floral details which appear to be directly inspired from 17^th century archetypes. These botanical details clearly indicate that the artist has not simple replicated flowers from stereotypical delineations, or from known templates, but has attempted to represent them as they are in nature.

Under the Mughal emperor Jahangir, an abrupt awareness of botanical details, such as floral tubes, sepals, and stamens emerged, giving rise to works of art where artists, led by Mansur, fascinated by these phyllotaxic details, created paintings that featured often only a single floral species, graceful and natural.

In this fragment we not only find such artistic flourishes but also encounter at the base of the boteh the ‘Chinese ideogram’ securing device, something seen only on 17^th century (albeit rarely) shawls. (The ideogram theory is described in detail in my book The Kashmir Shawl, 1986 and later editions). Further 17^th  century details can be seen in the large red ‘cog’ or ‘pin’ wheel flower top right.

In the hashias or narrow borders that frame the botehs, we come across the crocus meander which further points to a shawl woven three hundred years ago.

The crocus, perhaps Jahangir’s favorite flower, was a frequent decorative meander used in shawl hashias, and  a source of fragrant saffron, of intense dye color and medicinal aphrodisiac. I have yet to find this hashia pattern in an 18^th century shawl.

In 1983, while on a trip through Uttar Pradesh,  I discover in a town called Najibabad a rare group of very early and wonderful fragments included six palla pieces (the decorated end borders of the shawl). When they were laid out and put together they formed three complete pallas, representing the remains of two identical shawls (dochalla in Hindi). The fragment therefore contains a seam mid-way joining two sections of five botehs on the left and seven on the right for a total of twelve (clearly visible in the photo), which represents the correct number of botehs when the shawl was first woven.
At the time Madame Riboud was a very active buyer and she bought one immediately while the second one, through the advice of Dan Walker (then curator Islamic art at the Met), was acquired by the Wolf’s in 1997, before it was officially donated to the Met in 1998.
Condition wise, it has suffered here and there as can be seen in the images. However, it’s magnificence still shines through as a stunning and very rare example of Kashmir Mughal art.

References:

Collections:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, acquired 1998, acc. no. 1998.217

Riboud Collection Paris, acquired 1983. Entire collection bequeathed to Guimet in 2000. Guimet’s accession number: MA 10881 (AEDTA 3000).

Exhibitions:

The Arts of Kashmir (cat.), 2007, Asia Society, NY,  p. 201

Kevorkian Gallery of Islamic Textiles, Marshall and Marilyn R-Wolf collection, Sept 1996 – Jan 1997,

Publications:

The Kashmir Shawl and its Indo-French Influence, Woodbridge, UK, 1997 and 2003 editions, color plate 143, p. 282

Woven Masterpieces of Sikh Heritage, Woodbridge, UK  2010, p. 30

Hali, issue 139, p. 73 A Kashmir Paradigm Shift: Qajar and Zand Paintings as Evidence for Shawl Dating (Ames)