The Collection

The story of this piece

A single great peacock stands in the centre of a red garden — its tail feathers fanning across the lower field while flowers crowd the space above. The border carries a row of smaller peacocks in flight. The red ground is dyed with madder root from Bashir's recipe.

A note on the hand. Shameema works sozni — the finest needlework Kashmir produces. She prefers walnut-dyed thread and works only in daylight, beside a window that faces east. Her father was a copyist of Quranic manuscripts; she says she inherited the steady hand, not the calligraphy.