Large & Unusual Antique Printed Paisley Shawl - Damaged

This is a very beautiful and unusually large printed paisley shawl - a summer weight crinoline shawl - found here in the West of Scotland. It does, however, have a major fault, which I will detail up front (and you can see the problem on some of the pictures!) The shawl measures 66 inches by 124 inches, i.e. very long. Right in the middle, though, are about ten or eleven areas, each from one to three inches long, of wear, which has resulted in the fabric splitting, lengthways. Some of these are worse than others - some are, essentially, just very thin places.These are effectively in two rows, which run parallel and are very central, which means that on either side of them, you have plenty of fabric which is undamaged. I'm not sure what has caused this (unless the shawl was hung somewhere, and split along points of stress) nor am I sure what I would do with these - a good seamstress could darn them,  and I've seen paisley shawls where some previous owner had done just that to what was obviously a precious possession. You could patch them, from beneath. with some soft cotton. You could, carefully, cut the central damaged piece out and join the two sections, and still have quite a substantial shawl. Or - I suppose - you wouldn't feel too bad about cutting this into two pieces, and using it in many other ways - cushions, wallhangings, upholstery, throws etc. There is a fringe along the shorter ends, and this is hand stitched - and the shawl even has imitation printed epaulette ends. The boteh are in the elongated older style at both ends, and the design - as well as being  really beautiful colours - consists of lots of lovely little boteh, and tiny flowers.  

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