Fringe
ca. 1855 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This decorative golden fringe was made for embellishing dress or textiles. To make tinsel, bars of silver or silver gilded with gold leaf were drawn through increasingly small holes in iron plates in a process called wire-drawing. Once the desired thiness of the wire was achieved, it could be hammered flat to create long strips of tinsel. The tinsel could be used flat, or wrapped around a silk core to make metal-wrapped thread (zari). This strip of fringe was made by plaiting tinsel into a band of silk thread.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Silk, flattened silver-gilt wire |
| Brief description | Length of decorative fringe made of silver-gilt tinsel twisted with silk thread, Madras, 1855 |
| Physical description | Rolled length of decorative fringe made of silver-gilt tinsel twisted with silk thread |
| Dimensions |
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| Object history | Transferred from India Museum 1879. Purchased by Mr. W. E. Underwood, collector of Sea Customs of Madras, for the Paris International Exhibition of 1855. Slip book entry 569: 'Gold Fringe / Tamil: Sanga / Madras / 1855 / Purchased by Mr Underwood' |
| Association | |
| Summary | This decorative golden fringe was made for embellishing dress or textiles. To make tinsel, bars of silver or silver gilded with gold leaf were drawn through increasingly small holes in iron plates in a process called wire-drawing. Once the desired thiness of the wire was achieved, it could be hammered flat to create long strips of tinsel. The tinsel could be used flat, or wrapped around a silk core to make metal-wrapped thread (zari). This strip of fringe was made by plaiting tinsel into a band of silk thread. |
| Bibliographic reference | Bryant, Julius and Weber, Susan, John Lockwood Kipling: Arts and Crafts in the Punjab and London Newhaven: Yale University Press, 2017
p. 533, cat. 92 |
| Other number | 569 - India Museum Slip Book |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 05940(IS) |
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| Record created | June 25, 2009 |
| Record URL |
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