RARE ELEPHANT PARADE SHEET (JHUL) India, late 19th or early 20th century Beautiful embroidery entirely tapestried with gold and silver threads, embellished with sequins, the motifs in high relief, the first register decorated with a floral composition in mirror around a cypress tree and a band embroidered with tigers chasing antelopes, the upper register embroidered with a lattice of rosettes on a green silk ground, the borders decorated with a floral meander, the reverse lined with red cotton stamped with a weaver's mark in devanagari, tasselled border, frayed silk, good condition. Size: 192 x 237 cm (without border). Rare Ceremonial Elephant Embroidered Gilded Trappings (Jhul), India, 19th or early 20th century This impressive gold cloth was used to adorn an elephant during important processions. Scenes of princely parades featuring richly caparisoned elephants are commonplace in Indian art, attested from the Indus civilisation through to the Mughals and the early twentieth century. The luxurious textile, worn in pairs on the animal's flanks, reinforced the majesty and regal character of the elephant. Highly prized textiles requiring exceptional embroidery, these jhuls were often given as gifts on the occasion of princely ceremonies. For example, jhuls were presented as gifts at the coronation of the Maharaja of Jodhpur Takht Singh in 1843 (Shakshi Gupta, "Elephant Regalia: A Living Tradition" in Overview, 18 June 2018 available online at sahapedia.org). For a discussion of this and other examples of jhuls, read Shakshi Gupta, "Metal Embroidery on Elephant Trappings (jhul)" in Textiles and Clothing Research Centre, vol. 1, no. 2, August 2017, pp. 13-17. Gupta published a jhul similar to ours, embroidered in high relief with a design of lions facing each other, on display in the hall of the National Museum in New Delhi.