Kirking shawl design (1850).
December is a month when I normally shun the secondhand shops so as to avoid being taken for a cheapskate trying to save money while Christmas shopping. Sometimes it pays to break your own rules, however, as with this discovery, Paisley Patterns: A Design Source Book (Studio Editions, 1989) by Valerie Reilly. This falls into the class of those books you didn’t know you’d wanted for years until you hold it in your hands, being a marvellous history of the evolution of the Paisley pattern from its origin in Kashmiri shawls to its development among the shawl weavers in the Scottish town of Paisley (and elsewhere) during the 19th century. With 100 colour plates it’s impossible to give a fair representation of the book’s contents but many of the examples are astonishingly abstract and worlds away from what we normally consider Victorian design.
Silk shawl design (1860).
The pre-psychedelic splendour of Paisley (and its “Oriental” character) was what led to its popularity during the 1960s. There was plenty of Paisley clothing around in the 1970s as a result, I had a particularly garish turquoise tie when I was about 11-years old and I think it was this which first set me wondering what the design was and who invented it. As Valerie Reilly notes, the boteh teardrop shape is a motif that’s as old as civilisation and its original use in patterns can’t be pinned to a single location. One of the nice things about this book is the quantity of shawl designs taken from the Paisley Museum that have sufficient detail for you to see how the pattern makers went about creating a design. The book is out of print but a swift search on Amazon reveals a couple of similar titles. The article below is a good overview of the evolution of the shawls and their designs.
• Kashmir and Shawls of Paisley Design at Victoriana.com
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• Flowers of Love
Believe it or not, I have actually had this book in the past! I have some similar ones now. I love that stuff!
My beloved Pepin Press has a Paisley book advertised but it doesn’t seem as good as this one.
I love Paisley patterns :) I have them everywhere – from fabrics to decorate and to wear, as comforters on rainly days – stain glass window panes, enamelled boxes. Jewellery ans wall paper! Even my sleeping bag for camping. Now I just need to own these gorgeous books :)
Where is the “Silk shawl design (1860)” picture from? I found this website last month, and purchased “The Paisley Pattern by Valerie Reilly (Hardcover – Dec 1987)” from Amazon, but it didn’t have these pictures! Can you be very specific about the name? It’s important that I have this book.
Hi Mohan. The silk shawl patterns are plates 26a and 26b in my edition of the book. Have you checked to see whether any pages have been removed from your copy? This does happen, especially with used books. One other piece of information: mine is the US edition, 1989.
Thanks for the prompt response. I mistakenly ordered “The Paisley Pattern” when I should have gotten “Paisley Patterns: A Design Source Book (Studio Editions, 1989)”. Thanks again.