COROMANDEL COAST, SOUTH INDIA, FIRST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

The blossoming tree became one of the most popular designs for chintz textiles exported to Europe throughout the 18th century and into the 19th century. These exquisite painted textiles were first imported to countries such as England for use as bed and wall-hangings and quickly migrated to many other types of furnishings and clothing. The blossoming tree of the classic palampore is in fact a fascinating hydrid created for the delectation of the western market by European textile traders and would have born very little resemblance to the textiles produced for the indigenous Indian market. There is a clear influence of English Elizabethan and Jacobean crewel-work, which were in turn heavily indebted to the designs of late 16th and early 17th century Flemish verdure tapestries and these elements combined with the hybrid flowering tree led to the iconic palampore design. The tree and the rocky mound or landscape around it are a synthesis of Persian and Chinese elements. The field design of the present lot is very closely related to a quilted chintz bed cover in the Tapi Collection (Ruth Barnes, Steven Cohen and Rosemary Crill, Trade, Temple & Court; Indian Textiles from the Tapi Collection, Mumbai, 2002, pl.38, pp.96-97). The border design of the present lot is much more elegant and delicate than the Tapi cover, and appears similar to an example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. IS.182-1965, (Rosemary Crill, Chintz, Indian Textiles for the West, London, 2008, pl.6, pp38-39.).