COROMANDEL COAST, EAST INDIA, CIRCA 1770

Though made in India for the European market, the inspiration of the design of this textile comes from China. The bamboo stems and craggy rocks are in line with the contemporary European taste for chinoiserie. Indian craftspeople were keen to take advantage of the new markets opened to them in Europe, where large block-printed textiles were used as bed covers or shawls (John Irwin and Margaret Hall, Indian Painted and Printed Fabrics, Ahmedabad, 1971, p.36). The texture of the rockery on the present lot resembles an example in the Calico Museum, Ahmedabad (published by Irwin and Hall, op cit., no.28, plate 15). The sinuous vine in the border, which lacks any kind of dividing line between it and the border, has more in common with earlier examples such as one in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (IM.226-1921).