The Lamb of Tartary

The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary - illustration from The Travels of John Mandeville

This is a crazy story…

Back in the Middle Ages people in Northern Europe thought that cotton came from a plant in Asia that grew little sheep instead of flowers.. They thought that the sheep would bend down and drink from the dew.

John Mandeville brought this story to Europe in the 14th century but it goes back to ancient times. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote of trees in India "the fruit whereof is a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of sheep. The natives make their clothes of this tree-wool."

There was a lot of confusion about what was cotton and what was wool. Pashmina wool from the Himalayan goat was the finest and softest in the world. In the spring the goats shed their winter coat and it would get stuck on bushes, leading to the belief that it grew on trees.

The first Europeans to travel to Northern India brought back gorgeous shawls that became a fashion craze. Napoleon Bonaparte gave one to Josephine that was worth millions. The shawls were so fine that they could be pulled through a ring - hence the name “ring shawls”.

Josephine Bonaparte wearing a Paisley dress and shawl

In the early 1800s Paisley was already established as a major center for the production of fine fabrics and thread. Cashmere from India and cotton from the West Indies and the American South flowed into the port of Glasgow, and Paisley reproduced the Indian shawls. The tear-drop Bhota pattern became known as “Paisley”.