Re: Egyptian shawl?

[Susan Fatemi <sjfatemi@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 08:49 AM 12/9/2005, you wrote:
> Does anyone know of a reliable source of information on the type of
> egyptian shawl called an 'Assiut', 'Assuit', 'Asyut', 'Assyut', or even
> 'Mummy lace' shawl?  The spellings are many.  This type of shawl
> consists of a relatively open cotton net ground with thin strips of
> silver tape passed through the knots and then folded, cut and hammered
> in place.  They were popular in the 1920's and were sometimes made into
> shift dresses or even coats.  I am particularly interested in what the
> metal is.


I'm not an expert, but I have 3 of these. I'm assuming they are authentic
"vintage." At least one of them does appear to be old, but the metal bits
appear to be copper(y), not silver. On the other 2, the metal is still
quite shiny
"silver" which makes believe it is not silver at all, but some other soft
white metal.

I suspect that they may have done what people have always done and used
whatever metal was available.

I believe some of the fabrics are rayon thread or mixed cotton and rayon.
They were indeed popular in the 20's -- one of the shawls I purchased was
labelled as "Victorian dresser scarf."  Caveat emptor, BTW, they are very
popular with belly dancers and there are many new ones on the market.



Susan Fatemi
Ph: (510) 665-3526
sjfatemi@xxxxxxxxxxxx