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Furnishing fabric
Bannister Hall - Enlarge image
Furnishing fabric
- Place of origin:
Preston (printed)
London (sold) - Date:
1850-1860 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Bannister Hall (printers)
C. Hindley & Sons (retailer) - Materials and Techniques:
Block-printed and glazed cotton
- Museum number:
T.219:18-1925
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, Room 125, Edwin and Susan Davies Gallery, case 1
This printed cotton furnishing or chintz (a cotton with a glazed finish) was used for summer curtains and loose covers on furniture. It would have been relatively expensive to buy. Hindley & Sons' clientele could be broadly defined as well-to-do. In an article in Studies in the Decorative Arts (1998) Laura Microulis describes an analysis of 737 orders which showed that approximately 70 per cent had come from the gentry or the middle class.
Part of the stock of Hindley's, this cotton was printed for them by outside contract printers. The leading firm at this time was Thomas Clarkson of Bannister Hall, Lancashire, which was probably responsible for printing this example. Hindley's (also known as Charles Hindley, C. Hindley & Sons, and Hindley & Wilkinson) was founded by Charles Hindley in Berners Street, London, in 1817. The firm became one of the leading full-service house furnishers, and in 1844 expanded with the purchase of the Miles and Edwards (founded in 1822), which specialised in the sale of textile furnishings. It then moved to 134 Oxford Street, where the principle department was the 'Chintz Room', which displayed specimens of chairs and sofas covered with printed furnishings for clients to examine before placing their orders.