I bought this gorgeous embroidered shawl today but am not sure of its age. The colours lead me to think it's 1920s but I could be way out. The embroidery is beautiful - love the birds (cranes or birds of paradise?). It has really deep knotted fringing which is thankfully not tangled! Not sure if is silk or possibly rayon - it does have the feel of silk to me though. I am ridiculously pleased with it and thought it was an absolute bargain at the price I paid.
The Chinese began making these for export in the middle of 19th century - the earliest ones are white on white embroidery. They were exported to the Spanish speaking world via the port of Manila in the Philippines, and are often called Manila shawls because of that - its what became part of the Spanish dance costume. The rest of Europe got them directly from the Chinese via trade from Canton and Macau. They were being embroidered in colours and were their most popular between the 1880s to the 1920s - the 1920s ones tend to be on coloured silk, the earlier ones tend to be coloured embroider on white silk. They lost favour in the 1930s and production shifted to other embroidered goods like pyjamas. I think yours is 1890s - 1910s, but its hard to be sure. The embroidery is really nice.
Thank you Jonathan, that is really helpful. Seems it's a bit older than I thought - am so glad that I liberated it from the plastic bag it was scrunched up in!
By chance I went back to the shop where I bought this shawl and found two more in plastic bags under a load of other stuff! Of course I just had to have them! The second one is much bigger than the cream one and the other black one and weighs a ton. Sadly the fringe on the largest one is quite tangled and has dried grass & fluff mixed in. I sat and detangled about a foot of it and got fed up - patience is not my greatest virtue! I'll just do a little each day and get there in the end!
What a great video - thank you for posting it. I shall have to get a detangling brush & get started in earnest
That video is so helpful to those of us who have encountered those tangle fringes on old shawls and scarves. Thank you, Marsha, for sharing that with us. And, the two shawls that were found at the thrift store are so lovely! Great find!
Beautiful shawls, especially that first one! Thank you for the video, Marsha. Thanks to Jonathan for the dating information as well.
