20th Century Hand Woven Silk Shawl from Northern Laos

A fine 20th century hand-woven silk shawl from Northern Laos. Silk weaving thrived in Laos from the 1300s up until the early 1900s when it fell into decline with the import of cheaper machine made textiles. There has been a significant revival in hand weaving in Laos in more recent times, to a great extent due to increased interest from the West. Lao silk is a wild silk and has a more natural look and feel than smoother Indian, European and Chinese silks. Families have their own particular patterns and designs, usually developed from old traditional Laoitian motifs. The Xam Neua region towards the Vietnamese border of north eastern Laos produces some of the thicker, hard wearing silks whereas the thinner and finer silks are mainly produces in the south in the Xieng Kouang region. On a hand loom, it can take a day to produce one metre of silk for a simple design whereas a only few centimetres may be woven in one day for a complex design.

200cm x 74cm (excluding 8cm tassels at each end) No 3589  €150