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INDIAN CHINTZ or INDIENNES
Terminology : 18th century printed cotton were named Calico ( from Calcuta in India) or Chintz ( from the Hindi name cint derived from the Sanskrit word citra meaning spotted or variegated) or Indiennes( French name meaning “from India”). Chintz is a word that has a special meaning in England where it designates a printed cotton which is finished with a stiff glaze by a process of calendering. Here it is used interchangeably with cretonne.
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History
2000 BC: first Indian cotton painted fabrics. Archeological research at Mohenjo-Daro shows that the technology of mordant dyeing existed on the Indian subcontinent 2000 BC.
Before 1000 AD: India and China trade fabrics
Around 1300 AD: Chou Ta-kuan, the Chinese observer of life at the Khmer capital of Angkor wrote that "preference was given to the Indian weaving for its skill and delicacy."
1550 AD: Indian printed cotton fabrics were sold to Japan by Portugeses.
1599 AD: The « London East India Company was granted an English Royal Charter by Elizabeth I on 31 December 1600. The company main trade was cotton, silk, indigo dye, tea, opium.
1602 AD: The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602.
The first Indian printed fabrics that arrived in Europe were considered luxury goods. they were an immediate success, such a sucess that European manufacturers protested against that unfair competition.
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Fabrication Technics :
Fabrics were printed with carved block of teak wood.
The brightness of their colors comes from the used of Indian natural dyes: red from garance, blue from indigo, yellow from gaude.
On the Coromondeol coast of India various mordant dyeing techniques were used to produce kalamkaris. Beeswax , mud or clay (depending on the area) were used as a resist method. ( Mattiebelle Gittinger, Master Dyers to the World: Technique and Trade in Early Indian Dyed Cotton Textiles) |
INDIAN CHINTZ DESIGN MOTIFS
The most frequents motifs were fruits, flowers, trees, birds . Inspiration come from the observation of the exhuberant vegetation and fauna in India, Java and Iran.
For instance grenada is a very common motif in chintz: grenada is a symbolic fruit meaning properity and wealth.
Chintz from Persia use often different motivs: Tigers, lions and eagles ( symbol of
strengh and power), camels, peacock ( symbol of wealth) , doves ( symbolof peace), rats and goats.
Indian textile design was influenced by other civilisations: Greece, Persia, China ( afterthe mongol's invasion in the XIII century) .
Order in chaos was the fundamental principle in design.
Repetition, alternation, expansion, synthesis were the rules.
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Readings:
M.A. Hann: Techniques of Decoration and Coloration, The University of Leeds
Guy, John. Woven Cargoes: Indian Textiles in the East. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1998.
Roques: La manière de nègocier dans les Indes Orientales (BN Paris , Fonfs Francais 14614)
Journal of Indian textile history
Lettres du Père Jesuite Coeurdoux 1742-1748
Osumi, Tazemo. PRINTED COTTONS OF ASIA: The Romance of Trade Textiles.
Kumar, Ritu. Costumes and Textiles of Royal India. London: Christie's Books, 1999
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Useful Links:
Indian textiles history : http://www.indiaprofile.com/fashion/india-textile.htm
Places to visit
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