SHARP 



SHAWL 



375 



Sharp, WILLIAM (1749-1824), an engraver, 

 republican, and enthusiast, who was born in 

 London, and died at Chiswick. See his Life by 

 W. S. Baker (Phila. 1875). 



Sharp*-, CHARLES KIRKPATRICK, virtuoso, 

 was born at Hoddam Castle, Dumfriesshire, 15th 

 May 1781, and in 1798 entered Christ Church 

 College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1802. 

 In 1813 lie fixed his bachelor home in Edinburgh 

 ( No. 93 Princes Street ), and here he died in March 

 1851. A Scottish Horace Walpole ( with a differ- 

 ence), he was a great collector of pictures and 

 curios, was a clever versifier and a cleverer 

 draughtsman, wrote for the Anti-Jacobin, contrib- 

 uted two original ballads to the third volume of 

 Scott's Minstrelsy, and edited several club-books, 

 but is chiefly remembered nowadays by his immense 

 correspondence, two big volumes of which have 

 been edited by Alexander Allardyce (Edin. 1888). 



See the Memoirs prefixed thereto and to his Etchimi* 

 and Proie Fragment! ( Edin. 1869 ), and a third in Mark 

 Napier's Memoiri of Montrone (4th ed. 1856). 



Sharp**, SAMUEL, biblical scholar, was born in 

 London, March 8, 1799, a descendant of Philip 

 Henry and nephew of Rogers the poet, in wlm-i- 

 bank he workeel till sixty. From an early age he 

 took to the study of Egyptology, and his Egyptian 

 Inxcriptiont (1836-41-56) showed creditable learn- 

 ing and more than creditable industry. Later 

 books were a History of Egypt ( 1846 ) and a History 

 of the Hebrew Nation ana Literature ( 1869 ) ; a 

 translation of Griesbach's text of the New Testa- 

 ment (1840), a revision of the Authorised Version 

 of the Old Testament (1865), besides works mi 

 Hebrew grammar, on the chronology of St Paul's 

 epistles, me. Sharps was a man of singular amia- 

 bility, a Unitarian in religion, honest and painful 

 Ix-yond most ; but his work suffered from the 

 deficiencies in his training, the over-ingenuity 

 natural to a self-educated man, and the lack of 

 knowledge of the work of contemporary German 

 scholars. He died in Highbury, July 28, 1881. 

 See the Life by P. \V. Clayden (1883). 



Sharpshooters, an old term applied in the 

 army to riflemen when skirmishing or specially 

 employed as marksmen. Any soldier or sailor 

 might now be called a sharpshooter under certain 

 circumstances. 



ShAstra, or SH ASTER (Sansk. S' Astra, from 

 s'&s, 'to teach'), means literally a book ; but the 

 term is especially applied to the authoritative, 

 religious and legal, books of the Hindus. 



Shat-el-Arab. See EUPHRATES. 



Sli;n iiiii. See BEARD. 



Shaw. JACK, life-guardsman. See PUGILISM. 



Shawl (Persian shdl). As may almost be in- 

 ferred from the simplicity of its form, this garment 

 is of high antiquity. Even the elaborately-wrought 

 :tn<l beautiful shawls of India and Persia have 

 been continuously made from an early time. Sir 

 <;MII L'>' liirdwood (Industrial Arts of Imlin] 

 suggests that the description of rich apparel in 

 Kwk. xxvii. 23, 24, may refer to Cashmere shawls 

 imported into Tyre through Aden. The patterns 

 of these shawls, but little changed in the course of 

 centuries, are sometimes produced by weaving and 

 sometimes by a kind of embroidery, but in either 

 case the work is slow and tedious. Cashmere 

 shawls are made of a very fine material called 

 pashm or pashmina, consisting of the inner or 

 under- wool of the shawl-goat of Tibet (see CASH- 

 MERE GOAT). This wool is separated with much 

 care from the longer hair of the animal, and is then 

 cleaned and spun with great delicacy into a fine 

 thread, the best quality of which sells as high as 

 from 2 to 2, 10s. per Ib. The dyeing of the yarn 



is a very important and difficult operation, almost 

 all the colours from native dyes being permanent. 

 Unfortunately aniline dyes were and may still to 

 some extent be used, but they are now practically 

 prohibited. 



In the case of those shawls which have their 

 patterns produced by needlework or embroidery 

 the ground consists of a plain pashmina fabric, and 

 the thread used for the pattern is of the same 

 material. The shawls with loom-woven patterns, 

 notwithstanding their intricate nature, are made 

 on very rude and primitive looms. Three or some- 

 times four weavers are engaged at one of these 

 looms, and instead of using shuttles they work 

 with numerous wooden needles ( each being supplied 

 with coloured yam), which have slightly charred 

 ends but no eyes. The shawls are woven face 

 downwards, and the work is carried on at the back 

 or reverse side, on which the needles hang in rows. 

 After the threads are worked in to suit the pattern 

 across one line of weft, they are knotted to the 

 warp and driven firmly into their place by the reed 

 or comb. On an average five shawls are produced 

 on one loom in a year, but a loom may be occupied 

 during this period with only one shawl if it is of 

 very fine quality and of an elaborate pattern. 

 These shawls are, however, often woven in separate 

 pieces and so neatly joined together that a shawl 

 so made looks as if it had been woven in one piece. 



Exceptionally fine Cashmere shawls are high in 

 price. Mr Baden Powell (Manufactures of the 

 Punjab) states that one of first-rate quality, 

 weighing 7 Ib., will cost in that country as much 

 as 300. This price is made up of the following 

 items : Material, 30 ; wages of artisans, 150 ; 

 duty, 70; miscellaneous expenses, 50. But in 

 the case of an exported shawl we must add customs 

 duty, cost of carriage, commission to broker who 

 manages the sale and ex'Mjrt, something for the 

 risk of robbery, which by some routes is great, and 

 other incidental expenses. These shawls are, 

 however, made as low in price as 15 for one in 

 efcht colours and of comparatively simple design. 



Inferior shawls are manufactured in the Punjab 

 by artisans who at various times have emigrated 

 from Cashmere. They are woven at Amritsar, 

 Ludhiana, Jalalpur, Nurpur, and a few other 

 places. For these the fine pashm is mixed with 

 another kind of goat's wool called koork from 

 Herman in Persia. Shawls somewhat resembling 

 those of Cashmere, though much less costly, are 

 largely manufactured at Kemian itself, the koork 

 of which they are made being, like the pashm from 

 the Tibetan goat, the under-wool of the animal. 

 But the most beautiful shawls woven in Persia are 

 made of silk, and these too are like fine Cashmere 

 shawls in general appearance. Both in India and 

 Persia shawl-cloth is made into tunics and other 

 shaped articles of dress for both men and women. 



The production of shawls was until recent years 

 a very important manufacture in France, and gave 

 occupation to a large number of designers in Paris, 

 who not only furnished designs for those woven in 

 their own country chiefly at Paris, Lyons, and 

 Nimes but also for shawl-manufacturers in Eng- 

 land and Austria, and even for some woven in Cash- 

 mere. In 1867 it was estimated that the annual 

 value of the French shawl trade amounted to 

 nearly a million pounds sterling. Shawls of various 

 kinds are made at different places in England, and 

 in past years many of these were designed in the 

 Indian style. At Paisley in Scotland, where for 

 many years previous to 1860 the manufacture of 

 shawls was of great importance, the trade origin- 

 ated in the beginning of the 19th century. They 

 were made of silk, wool, or cotton, either separ- 

 ately or in combination ; but the best-known class 

 of Paisley shawls was manufactured of fine wool 



