Shawl

Printed shawls were often cheaper versions of woven ones, but not all were of inferior quality. This example with a silk warp and woollen weft was a lightweight shawl for summer.

Only the blue dye and the blue component of the green dye have taken on the silk warp - this has left minute areas of the white warp visible and so creates the appearance of a woven pattern by avoiding the solid blocks of colour usually associated with printed fabrics. The restricted colour range is typical of that popular in the late 1820s and again in the early 1840s.