Coverlet
Category
Textiles
Date
c. 1575 - c. 1600
Materials
Cotton, Silk thread, Cotton wadding
Measurements
2220 mm (Width); 3070 mm (Length)
Order this imageCollection
Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire
NT 1129504
Summary
A 16th century quilted coverlet made in Bengal, India. Stitched in fine back stitch in coloured silk thread of yellow, orange, red and blue on a plain cotton ground, it is lightly wadded with cotton waste and lined with purple 18th/19th century silk edged with silk satin ribbon held in place with running stitch. It features an intricate design with a central medallion surrounded compartments containing figures in Portuguese dress hunting, eating, playing chess and being carried in palanquins and geometric shapes with arrangements of lotus-petal medallions and star borders, with further successive borders of varying widths arranged with circles within squares. It is labelled 'Bengal (Malda District?) Quilt 16th century white cotton embroidered with coloured silks FRAGILE - ground discoloured and embroidery faded'.
Full description
Embroidered Indian cotton and silk textiles were highly prised in Europe for their quality and the vibrancy of their designs. Indian workshops adapted their production to suit the tastes and requirements of overseas European markets from the sixteenth century when Portugal was the dominant power on the trade routes crossing the Indian Ocean. The production centres for embroidered textiles located along the Indian coast were easily accessible to European traders. Portuguese colonial communities that settled in Bengal and Gujarat commissioned specific, large scale embroidered pieces for export that they named colchas. The textiles became fashionable in Europe during the early 17th century when they were commonly used as bedcovers but also for furnishings in palaces and churches. Generally colchas were embroidered in monochrome yellow tussah silk on a plain cotton ground and featured designs on classical, biblical and Hindu themes that mixed geometric shapes with figurative motifs such as hunters in European dress or European ships. Rosemary Crill argues that this more colourful late 16th century example is one of the most important Indian textile to survive in Britain today (Levey: 2007). There is only one other known embroidery of comparable design in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon, Portugal. There are two Indian embroideries listed in the 1601 Hardwick Inventory made to accompany the will of Elizabeth Talbot (Bess of Hardwick), Countess of Shrewsbury (c.1527-1608), described as 'a quilt of yellow India stuff embroidered with birds and beasts' and 'quilt of India stuff embroidered with beasts'. Although this demonstrates that colchas were common enough at this time for there to be two examples in an elite English household in Derbyshire, Crill suggests that the descriptions do not correspond sufficiently closely to this embroidery to justify identification in the inventory. It is possible that this quilt may have belonged to William Cavendish, 1st Earl of Devonshire (1551–1626), the son of Bess of Hardwick, and made its way into the collection from his home at Oldcotes or his London property. Cavendish had investments in global trading companies including the Russia Company, the Somers Island Company, and the North-West Passage Company, as well as considerable investments in the East India Company.
References
Levey 2007: Levey, Santina. M., The Embroideries of Hardwick Hall: A Catalogue. London: National Trust; 2007., pp. 389-90 Karl 2016: Barbara Karl, Embroidered Histories: Indian Textiles for the Portuguese Market during the 16th and 17th centuries, 2016