Mae Festa 50 Years of Collecting Textiles - Peter Pap Oriental Rugs

AFRICA – Morocco
Women’s Shawl (Handira)
Early 20 th Century
Beni Ouarain Berbers
Wool, weft-faced plainweave bands alternating
with decorative bands featuring weft substitution;
twined wool fringe, plus trailing weft ends on
back for padding; two attached wool cords at
center of one long side for fastening around neck.
Ivory, dark brown (natural), red and yellow wool
and white cotton.
174 x 88 cm 68½ x 34¾ in (without fringe)
These distinctive long, narrow and relatively heavy shawls
would have been highly effective in cold weather in the
middle of the Atlas Mountains. White cotton is widely
employed, along with ivory and dark brown wool to create
the 38 decorative and highly varied bands on this shawl,
11 with a variety of diamonds, the rest with variations on
undulating, extended zigzags. The red and yellow wool is
exclusively used for narrow guard stripes to these bands,
and in the two neck cords.
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