SHAWL MANUFACTURE. The H indeed have been the instructors of our manufacturers in the production of shawls. There are two modes of working the pattern in an Indian shawl; the one by em broidering it upon the material, and the other by working it into the web during the process of weaving. The first mode is a sort of needle work, and forms the less valuable kind of Indian shawl. In the pro duction of the more costly kind, a number of skewers made of ivory or wood, about the size of a common packing-needle, are used ; they are sharpened at both ends, and covered with different coloured wools. With these simple aids, the pattern is worked stitch by stitch into the web. The backs of these shawls show the effect of this minute and laborious handicraft, and present a totally different appearance from the European shawls, the patterns of which are woven entirely on the loom. These Indian shawls are mostly made from the inner hair of a goat reared on the dry cold table-land of Tibet, obtained after the long shaggy outer hair has been removed. No hair obtained from goats reared elsewhere has ever equalled this. Each goat yields about 2 lbs. per year. The best hair sells for 1 rupee per pound in Tibet. The wool is worked up into shawls in Cashmere, Lahore, and Delhi ; especially the first named. Sometimes a sum equal to 300/. English will be given for a real Cashmere shawl.
Paisley excels all other towns in the United Kingdom in the manu facture of shawls, in quantity and (with one exception) in quality. The common kinds are woven iu the power loom ; while the finer kinds require the more detailed aid of the hand loom weaver. In the common shawls cotton is mixed with the wool ; but for the finer articles the best wool of Germany, of Australia, and even of Cashmere, is employed.
Some of the finest of these shawls are equal to anything produced iu any other country, The Paisley weavers are mainly dependent on French patterns, which they modify iu details; but the School of Design in that town is gradually training up a corps of designers whose taste may influence in an important degree the shawl manufacture.
The printing of shawls has not been much attended to until within the last few years ; but now this art is carried to a very high pitch of excel lence. At first it was adopted only for the commoner kinds of Scoteh shawls. Red woollen shawls, printed in black designs for borders and centres, were at one time much in vogue. Then came imitations of them in cotton dyed Turkey red. Then chintz styles, upon white and light-coloured grounds. Next came in a fashion of printing the warp threads before the weaving. At length the manufacturers succeeded ih producing blocks which would imitate the elaborate Cashmere pattern ; this gave a great impetus to the printed shawl trade. Many establishments in Scotlaud now attend to this branch of manufacture, and strive to obtain new and good designs. The principal shawl printing establishment in England is at Cray-ford in Kent, where as many as a Minch-ea blocks, and sixteen hundred printings, or applica tions of the several blocks, have, in mane instances, been necessary for the production of a single pattern. What an amount of labour is hero involved, may be seen by referring to CALICO PRINTING.