This delightful handkerchief is embroidered in white cotton thread with a repeating design of figures, palm trees and what appears to be railway carriages. Trains were popluar motifs in both embroidered and woven fabrics in Bengal in the 19th century. This type of fine white-on-white embroidery is known as chikan work, a term of unknown origin, and it was done mainly in Dhaka (today the capital of Bangladesh) and Calcutta in eastern India, and then in Lucknow.