The shawl bars, or weavers, of the Panjab, according to their means, keep up an establish ment of from 300 to 400 Shagird or apprentices of children from five years of age, to olcl men and women of eighty ; or else they supply a c,ertain number of overseers, called Usk-0, with yarn, delivering to them at the same time instructions as to the quality, colour, patterns, etc., of the goods, and these men carry on the manufacture at their own houses, with the help of ordinary weavers.
Though the shawl-weavers of Kashmir are thus scantily rewarded, the fabric they produce has often been sold in London at from £100 to £400 the shawl. \ But it is fair to state that the manu facture of a remarkably fine and elaborate shawl will sometimes occupy a shop for a whole year, two or three or perhaps four perso»s being con stantly engaged on it.
The shawls are divided into two great classes, viz. woven shawls, called Teliwala, and worked shawls. Shawls of the former class arc WOVCII ill separate pieces, which are, when required, sewn together with such precision that the sewing is imperceptible. These are the more highly prized. In worked shawls, the pattern is worked with the needle upon a piece of plain pashmina or shawl clot h.
Many shawls are made up of pieces, sewn to gether by a rafugar with such delicacy' that the suture is imperceptible. Merchants take advant age of this. When they buy a shawl which they think only partly good, they cut out of it such parts as displea.se them. They then draw on paper a design for a new piece to fill up the gap, and give it to a shawl-weaver to execute. As soon as the new piece is completed, it is sewn into the shawl, which is entirely changed in ap pearance, and often immensely increased in value by the process. Shawls are often purchased with indifferent borders, and improved by putting new. ones on. The border is always worked on a web of silk. as this gives it weight and solidity, and causes the whole fabric to set well.
In Kashmir, when a shawl is about to be made, a small square piece showing the design, by way of pattern, is made and carried to the maharaja's inspector. On approval, the piece is worked into t he shawl.
Great complaints have been made by European firms of the adulteration of the texture of Kashmir shawls, and there is no doubt that such adultera tion was practised, especially by mixing up Kash mir wool with real pashm. In order to provide
some guarantee against this, it was proposed that a guild of respectable traders should be formed, who should be empowered to affix on all genuine shawls a, trade-mark, which should be a gnarantee to the public that the material of the shawl is genuine pashm. At a meeting of merchants con nected with the shawl trade, held at Amritsar in 1861, to consider the then depressed state of the shawl trade in the Panjab, and its causes, taking an average of ten years, the transactions in shawl goods amounted to nearly £500,000 per annum, of which a large proportion belonged to Amritsar and its shawl dependencies, and the proportion of the Panjab trade to that of Kashmir was then stated to be as 3 to 6. The chief shawl-brokers in London and Paris had urgently impressed upon the Amritsar merchauts the suicidal policy of sending to the market shawls made of adulterated wool, for unless the manufacturers abstained from mixing sheep's wool with the pashm, or from using inferior pashm, the trade would undoubtedly die out. Adulteration was caused by the fraudulent admixture of coarse sheep's wool, such as Kirmani, Tibet, and even country lamb's wool. The beauty of a Kashmir or Amritsar shawl depends as much on the brillianey and durability of its unrivalled colours, and their being carefUlly harmonized, and the material of which it is made, as on the quality of the workmanship. Sheep's wool, however fine, never does assume that permanent brilliancy of colour which is the peculiar character of the pashm. Kirman, the ancient Carmania, has been celebrated from the days of the Persian empire for its woollen shawls, though they never were able to compete with the Kashmir manufactures in softness or brilliancy. The wool obtained from the ICirman sheep is long and somewhat thick and silky, but it does not retain the bright colours which distinguish a genuine Kashmir shawl. It is somewhat cheaper than the best shawl pashm, and,. being thicker, is more economical for the manufacture. The merchants, attracted by the apparent advantages of the Kirman wool, and knowing nothing of the hidden daresers in its use, largely adopted this wool as an Amixture with the genuine pashm.