Collection: The Textile Museum Collection (GW 6.112)
Origin: Coromandel Coast (Madras), India | Date: 17th Century
Originating from 17th-century Madras along India's famed Coromandel Coast, this pattern is a masterclass in early Indian textile art. Originally crafted as a painted cotton curtain, the design features closely repeating buti (botanical sprigs) with distinct spiky leaf bases and delicate, nodding blossoms.
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True to historic chintz production, the original piece was created using a complex multi-step process of hand-drawn wax resists and painted mordants prior to indigo and madder dyeing. The result is a rhythmically balanced, refined floral repeat that defined the 17th-century global trade in luxury painted cottons.
Exhibition & Publication History
A celebrated work in The Textile Museum's permanent collection, this fragment has been featured in four major exhibitions:
- Master Dyers to the World: Technique and Trade in Early Indian Dyed Cotton Textiles (1982–1983)
- Old Yarns with a new Twist: Familiar Favorites from the Textile Museum's Collection (1984)
- Seldom Seen: Director's Choice from the Museum's Collections (2006)
- 1,000 Years of Indian Textiles (2022)
The original textile is also documented and illustrated in key scholarship, including Mattiebelle Gittinger's landmark study Master Dyers to the World (1982), Walter Endrei's The First Hundred Years of European Textile-printing (1998), and Rahul Jain's Textiles and Garments at the Jaipur Court (2016).
The Cloth
Decor Chenille
A short, dense pile with a velvet-like surface on a firm woven ground. Fine striations catch the light as it moves across the room, deepening the colour. Substantial weight keeps a clean line on upholstery and gives tailored drapery a decisive fall.
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Composition: 100% polyester
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Width: 56 in printable (57 in full)
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Weight: 400 gsm
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For: Upholstery, cushions, headboards, heavy drapery
Cotton Linen
A fine, even linen-cotton weave. Colour prints cleanly while the woven surface remains visible, keeping solid grounds from going flat without softening fine linework. Light in the hand, it falls in narrow, supple folds and filters light rather than blocking it.
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Composition: 55% linen, 45% cotton
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Width: 54 in printable
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Weight: 250 gsm
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For: Upholstery, curtains, table linens, pillows
