This beautiful piece is a genuine antique dating to around 1920. It was made in Egypt and is called and Assuit shawl or locally as a Tulle-bi-telli translating as net with metal.
The handcrafted workmanship in this piece is outstanding and combines ancient metal working traditions and contemporary materials by flattening thin strips of metal, often copper, silver or nickel and hand weaving them into a delicate net mesh. This makes for a very heavy garment which has gorgeous drape.
The name comes from the city of Asyut where this technique originated. The shawls typically feature geometric designs and although similar they never appear to be exactly same.
This shawl is a ecru colour with silver threading. There is very little damage to this piece, amazing considering the age of the piece. There is no tarnish I can see. I would think the colour of the netting was once a lot brighter but I will leave cleaning to the new owner. There are some edges that have unraveled as shown and there are a few small holes in the net, also shown. There is a small red smudge which may be lipstick, also shown.
There are three tassels to the centre back of the shawl. One is missing the silver wrap around the top section.
The shawl is 2200mm long x 900mm wide.
