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Skirt cloth border

Skirt cloth border

  • Place of origin:

    Coromandel Coast (made)

  • Date:

    18th century (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Painted mordant-dyed, painted resist-dyed and painted cotton

  • Museum number:

    IS.57-1991

  • Gallery location:

    South Asia, Room 41, case 15

This cotton skirt-cloth (Thai: ‘pha nung’) was made on the Coromandel Coast of India for the Thai market. The design shows celestial adorers (‘thepanom’) depicted in red, with a centre-field trellis pattern with a blue ground. The cloth borders are particularly distinguished, with finely drawn mythical creatures (‘garuda’ and ‘kinnari’). The double-register end-panel has distinctively Thai-style motifs.

Skilful Indian textile workers made such cloth to order, using motifs and patterns specifically designed for the Thai market.

Physical description

Skirt cloth border (pha nung) of painted mordant-dyed, painted resist-dyed and painted cotton. With a Thepanom design in red, yellow and blue.

Place of Origin

Coromandel Coast (made)

Date

18th century (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown

Materials and Techniques

Painted mordant-dyed, painted resist-dyed and painted cotton

Dimensions

Length: 104 cm, Width: 78 cm

Descriptive line

Skirt cloth border (pha nung) of painted and dyed cotton, Coromandel Coast, 18th century

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

John Guy, Woven Cargoes. Indian Textiles in the east, Thames and Hudson, 1998, pl. 68, pl. 174.

Labels and date

PART OF A
SKIRT-CLOTH
Cotton, resist-dyed and mordant-dyed
Coromandel Coast, South-East India, for the Thai market
1800-50
IS.57-1991

Here the designs have been adapted for Thai taste by the same craftsmen who produced chintz for the western and domestic markets. The striking blue ground is decorated with heavenly worshippers, and the side borders show mythical beings, including the winged kinnara and eagle-headed Garuda.
Finely worked dyed fabrics like this were highly prized at the Thai court. [27/9/2013]

Production Note

Made for the Thai market. This shows the thepanom absorbed into textile design, in a distinctively Thai tumpal end-panel.

Materials

Cotton

Techniques

Dyed; Resist; Painted

Subjects depicted

Angel; Horse

Categories

Textiles; Clothing

Collection

South & South East Asia Collection

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