The Kashmir Shawl and Its Indo-French Influence

click here for more details, find new or used items	Frank Ames Our price £42.75 (£45.00) New from £35.39 Used from £25.65 Pages: 376 (Hardcover) ISBN: 1851492666 Pub: Antique Collectors' Club Ltd Pub date: 1999-01-01 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 537108

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Within this almost four hundred page book, Frank Ames has neatly packed an amazing wealth of information, mostly drawn from primary source material, describing the complete history of the Kashmir shawl. From the decorated shawl's earliest beginnings in 16th century Mughal India to its final chapter ending in 1875 when the whole industry colapsed, one can easily trace through brilliantly detailed illustrations, the myriad design changes that ultimately engendered the development of the 'Paisley' patterns in Europe.
Frank Ames' concise prose meticulously chronicles the impact of the social, political, and economical events over the mainly three hundred year development of Kashmir's artist expression as woven into the "kani" shawl, or the 'twill-tapestry, double-interlocked, woven shawl.

Highlighting Kashmir's shawl history beginning with the Mughal, then the Afghans and Sikhs until finally the Dogras, one obtains a clear sense of just how much design, pattern and even technique can be influenced by the changing tides of politics.
As one well-known historian of Indian art, Jean-Marie Lafont, exclaimed upon reading Ames' inciseful description of the Sikh Period "...the dynamism and the originality that he [Ames] was able to discern in this production must be acknowledged as a significant contribution to a major artistic expression in the subcontinent."
Ames has studied all the major shawl collections around the world including the famous Mughal collection of Kashmir shawls from the Benaras Hindu University Museum, all of which are wonderfully color illustrated in the book.
In this completely revised 1997 edition (third ed.), Pamel Clabburn offers a new chapter on the Jacquard loomed shawls of England.
Often referred to as the bible on the subject, this book appeals equally to those interested in art history as well as to textile collectors, curators, and to all those who have ever found fascination and enjoyment from the arts of India.

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