Embroidered Pictorial Shawl (Amlikar)
c. 1830-1850
Physical Qualities
Wool ground, silk embroidery, 68 x 67-3/4 in. (172.8 x 172.1 cm.)
Credit Line
The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland
Object Number
1950.1986.14
( "Textiles from the Cone Collection," 1986)
PICTORAL AMLIKAR
India
(19th century)
Wool ground, silk embroidery threads
The Baltimore Museum of Art:
The Cone Collection
BMA 1950/86.14
The "amlikar" or embroidered shawl first appeared early in the 19th century in response to the overwhelming European demand for the woven shawls of Kashmir. By 1830 these shawls had developed a distinctive pictoral style, filled with figures of people and animals depicting scenes from the poetical romances of Indo-Persian literature, such as the "Khamsa ('Five Poems')" of Nizami and the "'Iyar-i-danish ('Criterion of Knowledge')" pf Abu'l Fazl.
Claribel Cone harbored a particular fondness for these embroidered shawls which she called "Daccas." She purchased her own examples in the antique shops of Paris during the summer of 1927. The most treasured of these was her "Personage Shawl" whose figures, she believed, represented a needlework history of an Indian hill tribe.
Restored in 1986 through the generosity of Mrs. Benjamin Cone, Greensboro, North Carolina.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1950; Etta Cone.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, 02/23/1957
A. Jones, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, "Textiles from the Cone Collection,"
September 2nd - November 23rd, 1986, no catalog.
A. Jones, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, "Textiles from the Cone Collection,"
September 2nd - November 23rd, 1986, no catalog.
Brenda Richardson, Dr. Claribel and Miss Etta, Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1986, ill. p. 11. (Inaccurately identified as Delhi shawl of cotton).
