Quilt (colcha) for the Portuguese market, cotton embroidered with silk, Bengal, early 17th century; Textiles

A large bedcover of wadded cotton, embroidered with yellow tussar silk. In the centre is a shield-shaped cartouche showing the Judgement of Solomon. Surrounding bands have embroidered Biblical, mythological and hunting scenes.

Bought from William Morris

Sold to the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) by the artist and designer William Morris. Morris was a noted collector and enthusiastically acted as an art referee on behalf of the museum, advising it on potential acquisitions. This colcha he sent to the museum with a short note in which he made an assertion which remained popular opinion until the mid-20th century; that pieces of this type were from Goa, where they had been worked under Persian influence. It was duly registered as such on joining the collections, and remained so likely until its transfer to the South Asia department in 1953, probably under the auspices of curator John Irwin. In fact, it was the idea of a Perso-Goan origin that John Irwin sought to dispel in his important 1953 article on Bengali export embroideries, writing that the Goan provenance still being applied to these embroideries in the 1950s may have originally ‘been intended to indicate only where they were known to have been exported for Europe rather than where they where they were made [but that ] Nevertheless, in matters of artistic attribution, a myth, once created, dies hard'.

This acquisition information reflects that found in the Museum records (Asia Department registers and/or Central Inventory) as part of a 2023 provenance research project.

Made for the Portuguese market

The embroidered bed covers of Satgaon in Bengal were prized in Portugal and in England from the mid-16th century to the mid-17th. They are embroidered with naturally yellow-coloured tussore silk, one of several types of the wild (i.e., uncultivated) silk that was abundant in eastern India. Their designs often make direct reference to a Portuguese patron (for example by incorporating a coat of arms). This one is more generically suitable for the European market, as it illustrates scenes from the Old Testament. The Judgement of Solomon in the centre is accompanied by scenes from the story of Judith and Holofernes in sections of the central panel, scenes from the Aesop fable of the eagle and the serpent, and hunting scenes with Portuguese riders and bands of scrolling vegetal decoration. It is also one of only two known Solomon-type colcha examples with a zodiac focus, having motifs representing seven planets as gods complete with their names inscribed.

The Portuguese set up their trading post in Satgaon in 1536, but were expelled in 1632, and these dates give a broad indication of the period in which these quilts were produced.

616-1886