Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Cap with leaves and flowers

  • Description

    In the winter of 1868/69 the tea planter and explorer Robert Shaw travelled from northern India to Eastern Turkestan (now Xinjian, China). His journey was partly to help British India’s secret service in the exploration of Central Asia which was politically and geographically contested by the British Empire and Russia.

    Shaw was the first Englishman to visit Yarkand and Kashgar, and he related his adventures in his book Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand, and Kashgar. He described the splendid clothes he encountered and mentioned on several occasions receiving gifts of coats and other garments.

    The finest of these were presented by Yakub Beg, then ruler of Kashgar. Shaw’s detailed description makes the collection of Central Asian ikat garments one of the best recorded.

  • Details

    Associated place
    AsiaChinaXinjiang Kashgar (possible place of creation)
    AsiaChinaXinjiang Yarkand (possible place of creation)
    Date
    1801 - 1869
    Associated people
    Robert Shaw (1839 - 1879) (owner)
    Material and technique
    silk, dyed purple, quilted, and embroidered with coloured silk and wool; blue and black braid; cotton lining, printed
    Dimensions
    13 cm (height)
    19 cm (diameter)
    Material index
    organicvegetalfibre cotton,
    organicanimalhair wool,
    Technique index
    dyed,
    coloured dyed,
    Object type index
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Transferred from the Indian Institute.
    Accession no.
    EAX.7399
  • Further reading

    Barnes, Ruth, ‘Dressing for the Great Game: the Robert Shaw Collection in the Ashmolean Museum’, Khil`a, 1, (2005), p. 1, illus. p. 4 fig. 5

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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