Hanging of tapestry-woven wool in 2/2 twill backed with red silk and faced with striped satin. Made in Kerman in south-east Iran in the 1870s. Purchased from Messrs. Londos & Co. London for £15.
Kerman dominated sal production in19th century Iran and although Yezd was in competition, the products of the Kerman looms were finer.
'The material called koork, of which the shawls are made, is the under wool of a particular kind of white goat. Numerous flocks are to be seen in the neighbourhood of Kerman ... I made enquiries at Kerman why the koork-producing goats were only to be found in that neighbourhood, and was informed that in that district the rapid descent from the high plateau of Persia to the plains near the sea afforded the means of keeping the flocks throughout the year in an almost even temperature and in abundant pastures, with a much shorter distance between summer and winter quarters than in other parts of Persia and that such an even climate without long distances to traverse in the course of migration was necessary to the delicate constitution of the animal, or rather to the softness of its wool. The whole of the koork is not made use of in the looms of Kerman, a large quantity being annually exported to Amritsur in upper India, where it is manufactured into false Cashmere shawls.' Quoted from 'Persian Art' by Major Murdoch Smith [London, 1877 p.48]. [2002]