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Palampore

ca. 1700 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This chintz palampore (bed-cover or hanging) has been cut down from its original rectangular shape, presumably to fit a bed. The design shows an elaborate and exotic flowering tree growing out of an urn of European design, and flanked by vases of flowers that have clearly been copied from European prints. This type of imaginary tree is typical of the designs used by the chintz painters of the Coromandel Coast in south-east India for furnishing fabrics commissioned by western patrons.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Painted and dyed cotton chintz
Brief description
Part of a bed-hanging (palampore) of painted and dyed cotton chintz, Coromandel Coast, ca. 1700
Physical description
Part of a bed-hanging (palampore) of painted and dyed cotton chintz. Originally rectangular, the two upper corners have been cut off to form sloping edges. The upper edge is also missing. The ground is white.

Pattern painted with outlines are pounced from paper stencil-plates, then filled-in by hand with colours. The supplementary effects obtained by reserving the ground by the wax-resist method. The main pattern consists of a row of pyramidal hills upon which stand a large vase flanked by two small vases. From the large vase rises a tree bearing a variety of large flowers and leaves, and in the two smaller vases are bunches of similar flowers.

Applied borders on the sides and along the bottom with a pattern of winged boys in a garden, dogs, birds, and pavilions.

Colours are reds, violet, blues, yellow and black. Outlines in black and red. Over-painting for the green.
Dimensions
  • Length: 223.5cm (maximum)
  • Width: 190.5cm (maximum)
  • Central panel without borders length: 210.8cm
  • Central panel without borders width: 140.5cm
  • Length: 88in (maximum)
  • Width: 75in (maximum)
  • Central panel without borders length: 83in
  • Central panel without borders width: 58in
Dimensions taken from J.Irwin and K.Brett, 'Origins of Chintz', p.69.
Credit line
Purchased from M. Sylvaine[?] Gleiges
Object history
Museum numbers IM.49-1919 to IM.56-1919 purchased for £20.19s (840 francs).

Purchased from M. Sylvaine[?] Gleiges, 24 Avenue Gambetta Courbevoie, Seine, France. 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.

R.P. 1919-5353 and R.P. 1919-4459
Production
Made in the 'Coromandel Coast', South-east India, for the Western market. The border has been added later, and dates from ca. 1720.
Summary
This chintz palampore (bed-cover or hanging) has been cut down from its original rectangular shape, presumably to fit a bed. The design shows an elaborate and exotic flowering tree growing out of an urn of European design, and flanked by vases of flowers that have clearly been copied from European prints. This type of imaginary tree is typical of the designs used by the chintz painters of the Coromandel Coast in south-east India for furnishing fabrics commissioned by western patrons.
Bibliographic references
  • Irwin, John and Katherine Brett, Origins of Chintz, London, 1970. With a catalogue of Indo-European cotton-paintings in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. ISBN 112900534. pp.69-79, cat. no. 10, pl. 8
  • Crill, Rosemary, Chintz: Indian Textiles for the West, London, 2008. Plate 8, p. 42
  • The art of India and Pakistan, a commemorative catalogue of the exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1947-8. Edited by Sir Leigh Ashton. London: Faber and Faber, [1950] p. 216, cat. no. 1030
Collection
Accession number
IM.49-1919

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Record createdJanuary 14, 2004
Record URL
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