Man's White Ground Long Shawl
South Asian Textiles from the Permanent Collection: Kashmiri Shawls, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, March 10–May 26, 1991, no cat.
Weaving Splendor: Treasures of Asian Textiles, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 25, 2021–March 6, 2022, no cat.
Man’s White Ground Long Shawl
Kashmir, India, about 1830
Pashmina wool twill and tapestry twill, with silk and wool embroidery
Kashmiri shawl workshops in India developed this transitional shawl design to accommodate changing taste. The design elaborates upon a traditional Indian man’s shawl, where minimal woven floral decoration bordered a plain field. Here, the elongated panels at the ends, the
boteh (paisleys) in the corners, and the dense, detailed decoration reflect consumers’ desires for more ornate fashion.The textile marketed itself as an example of the best weaving work available. The inscription on the large scalloped border reads, "Commissioned by Nauzuhur. […] superior, finest of the fine." Whoever Nauzuhur was — a customer, a merchant, or the head of a workshop — the inscription ensures us that it is superior work, the "finest of the fine."
Lent by Mr. W. L. Comstock, 82-1934
Translation of Inscriptions on Man’s White
Ground Shawl
رادرود راکهزوریف راکیراگنز روهظون شیامرف
یلعا یلعا زاتمم راکانیم رادهرگنک
farm
āyish-i Nauzuhūr, zangārīkār, firozakār, daurdār, kangaradār, mīnākār, mumtāz, a’lā-yi a’lā“Commissioned by Nauzuhur. Rust-colored work, turquoise work, having a border, having crenellations, enamel (blue?) work, superior, finest of the fine”
To the left is the following inscription:
۱۰
میرک ای انل تکرب ظیفح ای
10
yā ḥafīẓ barakat lanā yā karīm“10. O protector, blessings to us, O generous one. S”
Translation courtesy of Wheeler M. Thackston and Hamama Bushra
William F. Comstock (1865–1939), Kansas City, MO, by 1934 [1];
His gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2021.
[1] Comstock deposited Man’s White Ground Long Shawl at the museum in 1934 as a gift. For unknown reasons, the acquisition was not finalized in 1934. Comstock was a wealthy investment banker in Kansas City who extensively traveled abroad in the 1920s and 1930s. Comstock likely acquired the shawl during a trip around the world on the Empress of Japan in 1930.
Kimberly Masteller, “Rarely Seen Asian Textiles on View at Nelson-Atkins,” KC Studio 13 no. 6 (November/December 2021): 93, (repro.).
Kimberly Masteller, “From Court to Marketplace: Persian and Indian Textiles in the Nelson-Atkins Collection and their Foreign Collectors,” Orientations 53, no. 3 (May/June 2022): 54-56, (repro.).
Ling-en Lu, Yayoi Shinoda, and Kimberly Masteller, “'Weaving Splendor: Treasures of Asian Textiles" and the Collections of Asian Textiles at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” Orientations 53, no. 3 (May/June 2022): 30, (repro.).
