Jamdani Yardage thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Jamdani Yardage

c.1855 (made)
Place of origin

Dhaka, today the capital of Bangladesh, was traditionally known as a centre for weaving fine cotton muslin fabrics, and also for embroidering them. While there was a huge market for muslin in India and the Middle East, from the late 18th century it also became very popular in Britain and France for women’s dress. This delicately embroidered length of muslin would have been used to make one of the elegant ‘empire-line’ dresses fashionable in Britain at that time. Simple white cotton dresses would have been worn with equally fashionable Kashmir shawls to complete the softer style of draped costume that was the height of fashion in western Europe in the early years of the 19th century.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Brief description
Length of jamdani yardage with diagonal stripes, Dhaka, c.1855; Textiles
Physical description
Length of muslin patterned with diagonal stripes of pulled work, alternating with abstract diamond motif. Recorded in original acquisition records as jamdani work (discontinuous supplementary cotton weft patterning in muslin). One of five cut pieces.
Dimensions
  • Width: 84cm
Original dimensions: 9995 x 800mm, weight 320g; 34 ends p/cm, 28 picks p/cm
Object history
Transferred from India Museum 1879. Slip book entry 2738: 'Muslin Flowered, Jamdanee Kind, Dacca, Diagonal Stripes, Discolored from Show'. Appears in John Forbes Watson's The Textile Manufactures of India, Second Series (India Museum, London, 1873-77), No. 874.
Summary
Dhaka, today the capital of Bangladesh, was traditionally known as a centre for weaving fine cotton muslin fabrics, and also for embroidering them. While there was a huge market for muslin in India and the Middle East, from the late 18th century it also became very popular in Britain and France for women’s dress. This delicately embroidered length of muslin would have been used to make one of the elegant ‘empire-line’ dresses fashionable in Britain at that time. Simple white cotton dresses would have been worn with equally fashionable Kashmir shawls to complete the softer style of draped costume that was the height of fashion in western Europe in the early years of the 19th century.
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Indian embroidery / Rosemary Crill ; photography by Richard Davis. London: V&A Publications, 1999 Number: 185177310X, 1851772944 (pbk.) p. 55, cat. no. 44
  • Ashmore, Sonia. "Muslin", London, V&A Publishing, 2012. p. 77, p. 100, pls. 29 and 30 (detail).
  • Watson, J. Forbes, et al. Collection of Specimens and Illustrations of the Textile Manufactures of India. Second Series, India Museum, 1874.
Other number
2738 - India Museum Slip Book
Collection
Accession number
0214(IS)

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Record createdMarch 26, 2003
Record URL
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