Featured Victorian Shawl info request

I have Victorian shawl that I would like to know more about the embroidery work . Is there a special name for the needle work? Can anyone narrow down the date of this work by style. Thank you.

 

Beautiful!

 

In this case I think the form of the garment will be more informative than the style of embroidery. Similar embroideries are described as Chinese, Canton-Manila work. These are pieces made in Canton, China, and traded out through Manila in the Philippines to Spain and elsewhere. They were often used as Spanish dance shawls called mantons, and as decorative piano shawls. The ones I have found that are shaped like a cape, as yours, are described as having been remodeled from flat Canton shawls during the late Victorian/Edwardian period, and may have been used as wedding capes.


https://www.1860-1960.com/xa6399p0.html


https://www.1860-1960.com/xa6095p0.html

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-edwardian-canton-embroidery-170210349

https://gem.app/product/embroidered-canton-shawl-cape-c-1900

 

Here's something similar from the Spanish on-line auction site todocoleccion.net, a competitor to eBay. Described as an opera cape from the Isabelina period which is roughly Victorian.

https://www.todocoleccion.net/antig...a-mano-manton-manila~x184191223#sobre_el_lote

It was always my understanding that mantónes de Manila were produced in China but the embroidery on yours looks more Filipino to my eye. So does the weight of the fabric. Does it feel like silk to you (as it should be if antique Chinese) or could it possibly be piña cloth? That would explain the translucence and the skimpiness of the fleco or fringe. The fringe is one of the elements used to evaluate the quality of a traditional Chinese mantón de Manila (along with the design, the fabric, and whether the embroidery is as finished on the reverse as it is on the front) so may suggest a different point of origin.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piña

Debora

 

Embroidery on piña cloth.

Debora

 

Wow . thanks for everyone's responses. Thank you 2manybooks for the good description and the links. You are all adding to my store of knowledge which helps me list my items, buy items with confidence and simple knowledge to savory.

 

Wowza! Away from my desk for a week and look at that beauty! WoW! What a beauty!

Cheerio Leslie

 

I might add... If Filipino in origin rather than Chinese and made of piña cloth, likely to be of greater collector interest.

Debora

 

I will check the pina cloth out. Thanks

 

If you cannot tell by sight and feel, you can distinguish silk from the plant fibers (pina or abaca) by a simple burn test, if you can a pull a few loose fibers. Hold the fibers with tweezers, and carefully apply a clean flame (one that does not contribute a noticeable odor of its own, such as a butane cigarette lighter or alcohol lamp). Watch how the fibers burn, note the smell, and observe the characteristics of the ash. Pina or abaca would react similarly to cotton or linen.
Here is a chart describing the reactions of a variety of fibers:
https://images.taunton.com/downloads/th/T168_Burn_Test_Chart.pdf