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Lot Essay
This scene shows workers engaging in weaving tapesty shawls. This required them to shoot coloured wefts into prepared warps, creating blocks of colour through building up layers of fine dyed wool threads. It was a task requiring total concentration: in 1831 Jacquemont recorded weavers skilfully manipulating "at least seventy bobbins" (Levi-Strauss 1987, p.185). It also used the whole body: the loom was kept under tension with a system of pulleys controlled by the weavers' feet. Visible in minute detail below the hands of the bald figure at the loom on the right, the beginnings of a shawl start to come to life beneath their fingers. Bishan Singh has captured the intent gazes of all of the weavers at work, with the red-turbaned figure leaning in slightly closer than the others as though negotiating a particularly challenging section.
The painting shows all the component parts of the loom, with a rotating wooden beam positioned next to the weavers upon which the completed shawl could be slowly rolled up. The warps would be prepared in advance. It was vitally important that the warps be as strong as possible, since any breaks would require careful repair work in order to reinsert a new warp. So each thread was dressed, thickly coated in a gelatinous solution of rice and water. These stiff wool lengths were then threaded onto the frame ready for weaving. In her 1988 catalogue, Murphy suggested that the striped warps on the left may have been for a striped textile. However, many Kashmir shawls were woven on striped warps, which become invisible from the face once the shawl is complete. These stripes may have helped a weaver navigate the warps, as well as leaving the ‘Harlequin’ finish characteristic of these textiles. A similar striped warp pattern can be seen on an illustration of warps being prepared in a 19th century painting album in the British Library (Add.Or.1704).
The manner in which shawls were woven was described painstakingly by Moorcroft. He recorded that the weavers would work on the reverse of the shawls. When a colour-change was required, the weft threads would overlap slightly to leave a slightly ridge on the reverse but no obvious join on the face. Having completed a new row, the work would be checked by the most senior weaver and then "the comb is brought down upon it with a vigour and repetition of stroke, which to a spectator not much conversant with the subject appear disproportionately great compared to the delicacy of the materials" (Moorcroft 1823, p.17). It was an immensely time consuming process. According to Moorcroft, if weavers worked without pause they might expect to complete ‘half the length of a barley corn’ in a day, and a whole shawl between 3 and 18 months depending on how extensively decorated they were.
Bishan Singh accurately reproduces the layout of a weaving workshop (dukan) as we understand it from contemporary texts. According to both Moorcroft and Jacquemont, three weavers would work at each loom, with one senior weaver accompanied by two juniors. According to Jacquemont, "the man seated in the centre is the most highly skilled", enabling him to keep an eye on both of his colleagues at once (Levi-Strauss 1987, p.185). By contrast, according to Moorcroft the most experienced would sit on the left, and will be responsible for the work of the other two, and pay their wages himself (Moorcroft 1823, p.17). In this painting, the group on the right seem to have put the youngest weaver in the middle, perhaps in order that both of his colleagues could supervise him at once. Moorcroft also suggested that it was normal for looms to be set up so closely together. Looms were placed "as near to each other as possible’ so that an overseer could ‘see the progress of the business of each loom at one glance" and so that the air remained "sufficiently warm to prevent the workmen having their fingers chilled" (Moorcroft 1823, p.16).
The presence of two groups of women in the scene deserves comment, given that weaving was considered an entirely male occupation. The woman in an orange shawl on the right of the scene seems to be engaged in preparing a skein of yarn for the weavers, unreeling a hand-bobbin onto a small wooden frame. It is possible that the others are also on standby should assistance be needed, or should the weavers require any more equipment. Strewn across the floor are additional pieces of paraphernalia. These include many pots and ewers, delicately realised using silver pigment and minutely pricked. One of these vessels on the right apparently contains small bobbins of white yarn, while one on the other side contains a pale substance, possibly the rice solution alluded to above. In the middle of the room is a huqqa pipe for a moment of leisure, and a smoking terracotta pot. This may well be the ‘pot filled with burning charcoal’ which Moorcroft noted was brought into the workshop on cold winter days (Moorcroft 1822, p.42).
The painting shows all the component parts of the loom, with a rotating wooden beam positioned next to the weavers upon which the completed shawl could be slowly rolled up. The warps would be prepared in advance. It was vitally important that the warps be as strong as possible, since any breaks would require careful repair work in order to reinsert a new warp. So each thread was dressed, thickly coated in a gelatinous solution of rice and water. These stiff wool lengths were then threaded onto the frame ready for weaving. In her 1988 catalogue, Murphy suggested that the striped warps on the left may have been for a striped textile. However, many Kashmir shawls were woven on striped warps, which become invisible from the face once the shawl is complete. These stripes may have helped a weaver navigate the warps, as well as leaving the ‘Harlequin’ finish characteristic of these textiles. A similar striped warp pattern can be seen on an illustration of warps being prepared in a 19th century painting album in the British Library (Add.Or.1704).
The manner in which shawls were woven was described painstakingly by Moorcroft. He recorded that the weavers would work on the reverse of the shawls. When a colour-change was required, the weft threads would overlap slightly to leave a slightly ridge on the reverse but no obvious join on the face. Having completed a new row, the work would be checked by the most senior weaver and then "the comb is brought down upon it with a vigour and repetition of stroke, which to a spectator not much conversant with the subject appear disproportionately great compared to the delicacy of the materials" (Moorcroft 1823, p.17). It was an immensely time consuming process. According to Moorcroft, if weavers worked without pause they might expect to complete ‘half the length of a barley corn’ in a day, and a whole shawl between 3 and 18 months depending on how extensively decorated they were.
Bishan Singh accurately reproduces the layout of a weaving workshop (dukan) as we understand it from contemporary texts. According to both Moorcroft and Jacquemont, three weavers would work at each loom, with one senior weaver accompanied by two juniors. According to Jacquemont, "the man seated in the centre is the most highly skilled", enabling him to keep an eye on both of his colleagues at once (Levi-Strauss 1987, p.185). By contrast, according to Moorcroft the most experienced would sit on the left, and will be responsible for the work of the other two, and pay their wages himself (Moorcroft 1823, p.17). In this painting, the group on the right seem to have put the youngest weaver in the middle, perhaps in order that both of his colleagues could supervise him at once. Moorcroft also suggested that it was normal for looms to be set up so closely together. Looms were placed "as near to each other as possible’ so that an overseer could ‘see the progress of the business of each loom at one glance" and so that the air remained "sufficiently warm to prevent the workmen having their fingers chilled" (Moorcroft 1823, p.16).
The presence of two groups of women in the scene deserves comment, given that weaving was considered an entirely male occupation. The woman in an orange shawl on the right of the scene seems to be engaged in preparing a skein of yarn for the weavers, unreeling a hand-bobbin onto a small wooden frame. It is possible that the others are also on standby should assistance be needed, or should the weavers require any more equipment. Strewn across the floor are additional pieces of paraphernalia. These include many pots and ewers, delicately realised using silver pigment and minutely pricked. One of these vessels on the right apparently contains small bobbins of white yarn, while one on the other side contains a pale substance, possibly the rice solution alluded to above. In the middle of the room is a huqqa pipe for a moment of leisure, and a smoking terracotta pot. This may well be the ‘pot filled with burning charcoal’ which Moorcroft noted was brought into the workshop on cold winter days (Moorcroft 1822, p.42).