Four Seasons shawl

Unknown

mid-19th century · Wool and silk · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

A shawl was a required fashion accessory during much of the nineteenth century. In the early 1800s long, rectangular, stolelike examples, hand-woven in India with boteh (pine cone) or paisley patterned end panels, were coveted for use with Empire-style dresses. This style was followed by the square shawl and then, with the introduction of wider skirts, by "plaids"—a term used not to describe the pattern but to connote a very large and long shawl, usually ten feet by five feet. Stylistically, this shawl demonstrates both a "four seasons" layout—in which the ground color is different in each of the quadrants—and an organization a la pivot, indicating the manner in which the vegetation swirls around a central point. The design for the shawl is probably French, but it may have been purchased by a Scottish manufacturer and jacquard-woven in Paisley. [Alice Zrebiec, 1995]

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid-19th century

Medium

Wool and silk

Culture

French or Scottish

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Edwin E. Butler, in memory of her father Dudley B. Fuller, 1926