Shawls from the Textile Museum of Canada

I should be sleeping. Instead I am looking at shawls.

Take a look at this early 19th century border plaid shawl from the Textile Museum of Cananda. They call several of their shawls buggy shawls. This small plaid shawl is interesting in that it is said to be hand spun. It is late 19th century. I would love a closer look at this shawl. It has an unusual design to the twill weave. It also has a pair of borders on set of sides but a single on the other. I would like to see if the opposite, unbordered side has signs of being cut. It also looks rather heavy. That may just be the photograph though. The soft, natural texture to the color of this late century shawl is lovely. Take a look at the fringing, which is uneven and looks hand fringed. This is another must see in person shawl. Just take a look. You will see it in an instant. They have it noted as hand spun and woven. I wonder if it is possible it was done on a smaller loom at home To me it looks like it may have been a larger shawl with the center removed or something else causing the center merge. Based on mid-19th century shawls, I would think this should be a square, but it is not as are many of the shawls found here. Pondering… The vertical red border plaid’s stripe are stunning here. They have a half dozen other ‘buggy shawls’.

This is an unusual shawl from the paisley family. It is from the second quarter of the 19th century. The movement of the motifs is rather nice. This double square is more common for the paisley family, these are as well one two three and others. This one shows that not all centers are red, white or black. You can find them in yellows, bright blues, greens. This is an example of a double field, one in red, one in white. Here is a second, which I think (but not sure) may be using the technique used for reversible shawls. I just love how this kashmire paisley plays with color.

They left a wide range of dating for this lace shawl. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get these reproduced?

Oh, no. My contacts are drying out with 30 pages left to look at…. more when I can.