Floorspread of painted and dyed cotton, Southeast India, possibly for the Golconda Court, c.1630-1640; Textiles; Floor Coverings

Cotton floorspread with a design drawn and painted by hand. Rectangular field of buff colour painted in bright colours in which red, brown and green are predominant. On the long sides are sportsmen shooting partridges and pigeons, a man toasting wine to his beloved, two men drinking together, a man holding a gun, and a duck. These figures stand on a flowery undulating ground from which spring trees bearing flowers and fruit, and with birds on the trees. Two series of trees meet at the half-way line and cover the whole surface. The border is composed of repetitions of palmettes amid floral latticework in colours on a purplish ground between fillets of scrolling floral stems in white on a red ground. The panel is composed of four separate strips of cloth sewn together before painting.

Formerly in the tosha-khana (stores) of the Palace of the Maharaja of Jaipur.

The extraordinary detail of the scene on this floorspread was achieved through a complex process of hand-drawing and dyeing called kalamkari or chintz. The South-east Indian coast was renowned for its kalamkari textiles, and this piece is one of the finest surviving examples. The Iranian elements in the design - the hunters' costumes, for example - are typical of the arts of the Deccan sultanates, although the floorspread was formerly in the toshakhana (textile store) of Amber Palace, Rajasthan. It bears the stamp of the Raja Jai Singh of Amber (1622-68) on the reverse.

IM.160-1929