Wall Hanging

Bronze-colored satin mashru (silk warp; cotton weft) embroidered with zardozi work (metal thread embroidery), floss silk, glass beads, and beetle wing casings. The composition, scale, and subject matter of a centralized tree in an arched niche of this hanging recall the tradition of elaborately worked zardozi qanat (tent hangings) in Mughal courts. However, this is likely a later example, perhaps made for the European export market in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century when there was a fashion for ornate beetle wing embroideries. Beetle wing embroideries for European export during the colonial period were mostly produced in Chennai (Madras) and Calcutta; however, this type of zardozi work could have been produced in many different centers for zardozi work, including Agra, Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lahore, Lucknow, Surat, and Varanasi (Benares). Backed with red cotton. Related objects in the Penn Museum: 29-96-83, 29-96-84, and 29-96-216 (a near-exact match).