SOLD Chintz & Paisley Patterns * 2 Books * £20 €50 $90 Shipping Included

A lovely hardbacked Victoria and Albert Museum publication of 144 pages in very good condition is the definite work on chintz - or sits as it is called in the Netherlands where it also had wide appeal. 

The 17th and 18th centuries witnessed a craze for chintz from the East Indian Company. The Indians had perfected the technique of mordant dyeing which made their cloths dazzlingly bright and remarkably colourfast.

The word chintz is derived from the north Indian word chint meaning to sprinkle or spray.

Painted textiles had been made in what is now India for centuries for the domestic markets - this all changed when western traders entered the textile market and from the 1600s on, the cloths started to arrive in Europe.

The pieces illustrated in this book are all from south-east India - the area known as the Coromandel Coast.

There are examples of bed hangings, bed covers, petticoats and jackets all beautifully photographed.

The Official Illustrated History of the Paisley Pattern is another hardback book of just under 100 pages also in very good condition.

Originally produced only in Kashmir from the fine underfleece of the capra-hirca goat, the shawls were the desire of every 18th century lady of fashion.

19th century entrepreneurial spirit was not slow to exploit the possibilities of imitation. Paris, Vienna, Edinburgh, Norwich and Paisley fought fiercely and unscrupulously for the lucrative market.

Superior piracy and plagiarism combined with determination and inventiveness to see Paisley triumph in the shawl war.

For the town of Paisley fashion proved a fickle basis for prosperity. Over-dependent on its one product the town felt depression keenly and in 1842 the town went bankrupt. However, the Paisley pattern is a survivor and enjoys periodic returns to popularity.