Textiles

Part of a Hanging

• 88.5 x 84.5 cms

Cotton, quilted & embroidered with silk. Upper India, 18th century.

Design in chain stitch; quilting in running stitch, forming a diamond trellis. The chain stitch embroidery is worked in a pattern, which imitates the pietra dura inlaid marble of Mughal palaces. This architectural layout recalls the functions of such hangings as pardas to curtain the open colonnades against winter cold.

Mrs Meer Hassan Ali in India (mainly at Lucknow) 1816 - 1828. Writing of zenana life, says “a line of pillars form the front of a building… warmth is secured by means of thick wadded curtains are called purdahs… of coarse calico ingeniously contrived & ornamented according their individual taste.”

This textile was most probably made in the same workshop as the Summer carpet in the AEDTA collection which is referred to below.

Pub. Catalogue of the Indian Heritage Exhibition at the 'V & A' 1982, cat. 215

For a comparative reference, Plate 9 - Summer Carpet: Le Motif Floral Dans Les Tissus Moghols. Association Pour L’étude et La Documentation Des Textiles D’Asie 1995