A cushion cover that is made of cloth of two contrasting colors; the inner panels are a rich red, and the outer panels are light green/blue. The red panel has floral motifs, and the bluish panel has an undetermined pattern, maybe depicting fire or symbolizing a bird such as a peacock. The thread used to weave the patterns seems to be gold and/or silver thread. Sharaf un-Nisa's cusion cover may be made of silk. She may have sewn this herself.
Provenance:
Palmer Family Archive, Devon, England; Elizabeth Sharaf un-Nisa Ducarel
The woven cover appears to have been manufactured with consideration of how much silk was used, based on the lack of excess threads. The blue/gray section may have possibly been a form of mashru, or a mixture of silk and cotton, noting its noticeable roughness and relative dullness. Based on the similarities of other textiles, it likely stems from the region near Patna, or the area now known as Bihar in India. The red cloth features a small, single-stemmed flower that is commonly depicted in seventeenth-century Mughal and Persian silk textiles. It's unclear exactly what the pattern on the blue/gray section exactly is, but it may be a rendition of a bird such as a peacock. Source: Singh, Vipul. The Artisans in 18th Century Eastern India: A History of Survival, Concept Publishing Company, 2005, pp. 63. Google Books. https://books.google.ca/books?id=Pp9hxBMGOmQC&ppis=_e&lpg=PA63&dq=silk%20fabric%20patna%20eighteenth%20century&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=silk%20fabric%20patna%20eighteenth%20century&f=false.
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