Picture Details
Ginning and carding cotton
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
BL.Add.Or.1727Origin:
Kashmir, IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, 1850-1860Size:
343 x 247 mmDescription:
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This painting is from a volume of 86 drawings detailing trades and occupations in Kashmir. By the mid-19th century Kashmir had been absorbed into the British Empire and the work was probably compiled especially for a British collector. It is inscribed in Persian but the drawings are arranged from front to back in the European manner. The inscriptions cover the names of the implements and equipment and sometimes brief descriptions of the trade. One part of the painting portrays two Kashmiri women separating cotton fibres or lint from the seeds, using hand-operated rollers, in a process called cotton-ginning. Below this is portrayed a cotton-carder, called a dhoon in Kashmiri, with his equipment. Carding is a process whereby the raw cotton is pulled apart to remove all dust and impurities from it. Cleaned cotton is placed in a basket ready to be spun into yarn or used as filling for quilts.
