Images(3)

Textile, woodblock printed

Datec. 1780

OriginEngland

MediumCotton (tabby weave)

Dimensions73" x 27 1/4" Repeat: 51" 56 warps per inch; 72 wefts per inch Selvage width: 27 1/4"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1952-474,2

DescriptionRectangular panel woodblock-printed on cotton in a design that includes a flowering tree growing from a mound (sometimes referred to as a "tree of life"), surrounded by birds and exotic fruit. Printed in madder colors with pencilled blue on white ground.
Label TextPanel for Quilt or Curtain
England, ca. 1780
Cotton, block printed, with the addition of pencil blue
Museum Purchase, 1952-474, 2

British printers imitated fashionable and expensive Indian mordant-painted-and resist-dyed cottons. Here, the English printer copied the central flowering tree design found on many Indian palampores, substituting the technique of block printing for the more labor-intensive mordant-painting and resist dyeing used in India. The design forms a large-scale repeat on yard goods. The customer could purchase one or more repeats to make curtains or a bed quilt.

A repeat from an identical panel was used to embellish a quilt accession number 1955-171.

MarkingsRed and black registration marks.