Textile Arts of India is the most lavish volume ever published on the magnificent textiles of India. Hundreds of full-color photographs, taken especially for this volume, present a glorious array of cloths: painted and block-printed, roller-printed, tie-dyed, woven, embroidered or exquisitely hand-painted with gold and silver leaf; as well as prized ikats. Dating from the seventeenth to the first half of the twentieth century, this dazzling collection presents a wonderful spectrum of designs, from graceful florals and simple geometric patterns to spectacular day-to-day life. An informative text traces the history of textile manufacturing in India and discusses the various methods of weaving, dying, and other means of decoration. Each textile is accompanied by an identifying caption.
* Features Indian textiles pieces from the Karun Thakar Collection, and The Textile Museum and Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection in Washington, DC* Published to accompany an exhibition at The Textile Museum at George Washington University in Washington, DC, opening January 2022The book features items from one of the world's foremost private collections of Indian textiles, the Karun Thakar Collection, together with key pieces from two recently united American collections, The Textile Museum and the Cotsen Textile Traces Study Collection in Washington, DC. The book and accompanying exhibition offer a unique approach to understanding Indian textile culture through reference to three distinct traditions: abstract, floral and figurative design.With essays by three leading international Indian textile curators, the publication's focus on textile ornament rather than date, region, usage, or technique provides new perspective and scholarship on this ancient artistic tradition. The book highlights the tradition's remarkable diversity, with objects ranging from folk embroideries to Mughal courtly weavings, and from early textiles traded to Egypt and Southeast Asia to 18th-century chintzes exported to Europe.
This magnificently illustrated and deeply researched volume takes the reader on a journey throughout the Indian subcontinent to explore the history and traditions of its textiles. India's rich and vibrant textile tradition boasts an enormous range of techniques and extraordinary level of artistry. Drawn from one of the world's finest collections of Indian textiles, this book presents a fascinating overview of several centuries of artistic production from every corner of India. Each section examines a different region to reveal its distinct textile traditions, patterns, and processes: Patola silks from Gujarat, lampas weaves preserved in Tibetan temples, mordant resist dyed cottons exported to Indonesia, silk saris from Murshidabad and embroideries from rural Bengal and Punjab. The book also delves into the roles that textiles have played in daily life over the centuries, from household and dowry textiles to devotional pieces and exquisite materials crafted for rich patrons. Each object is photographed from multiple angles and reproduced in meticulous detail. Many of the antique pieces featured here are exceedingly rare, which makes this book an invaluable resource. Gorgeously illustrated, this volume makes a stunning gift for anyone interested in the history and craftmanship of one of the world's oldest textile traditions.
"Published to accompany the exhibition The Fabric of India at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from 3 October 2015 to 10 January 2016"--Title page verso.
This vibrant volume showcases a stunning collection of Indian textiles from the V&A, and explores in depth their history, production techniques, and designs. Textiles have a long and distinguished history on the Indian subcontinent, from the dazzling woven silks worn by royalty to the simple block-printed patterns worn by the masses. Drawing from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s world-class collection, this beautiful and informative reference features breathtaking and varied textile designs, techniques, and colors. Each piece is examined in detail through close-up shots of the fabric and patterns, and demonstrates different weaving techniques, allowing readers to see precisely how the textile was made. Divided into three chapters by pattern style—“Floral,” “Figurative,” and “Geometric”—each chapter comprises an introduction to the style’s history along with its intended use. This authoritative volume overflows with distinctive colors and patterns to inspire and inform the reader about the history of Indian textiles and patterns, their intended use, and the methods by which they were made.
Textiles were the second-most-traded commodity in all of world history, preceded only by grain. In the Ottoman Empire in particular, the sale and exchange of silks, cottons, and woolens generated an immense amount of revenue and touched every level of society, from rural women tending silkworms to pashas flaunting layers of watered camlet to merchants traveling to Mecca and beyond. Sea Change offers the first comprehensive history of the Ottoman textile sector, arguing that the trade's enduring success resulted from its openness to expertise and objects from far-flung locations. Amanda Phillips skillfully marries art history with social and economic history, integrating formal analysis of various textiles into wider discussions of how trade, technology, and migration impacted the production and consumption of textiles in the Mediterranean from around 1400 to 1800. Surveying a vast network of textile topographies that stretched from India to Italy and from Egypt to Iran, Sea Change illuminates often neglected aspects of material culture, showcasing the objects' ability to tell new kinds of stories.
More than 500 images explore the free-form embroidered creations of the tribal people of India's renown Gujarat Province. Dating back 30 to 100 years, they include original garments, temple offerings, welcome banners, and second-generation quilted works that combine precious remnants for new decorative uses. These items have trickled onto the world market where they are treasured by decorators and collectors. Textile artists, designers, and ethnologists alike will delight in these examples of the boundless imaginations of itinerant tribal women who make much of little in their elaborate, mica and bead-studded creations. Abstract, geometric, floral, and religious imagery celebrates the boundless exuberance of their quest for beauty.
"When a rich man in seventeenth-century South Asia enjoyed a peaceful night's sleep, he imagined himself enveloped in a velvet sleep. In the poetic imagination of the time, the fine dew of early evening was like a thin cotton cloth from Bengal, and woolen shawls of downy pashmina sent by the Mughal emperors to their trusted noblemen approximated the soft hand of the ruler on the vassal's shoulder. Textiles in seventeenth-century South Asia represented more than cloth to their makers and users. They simulated sensory experience, from natural, environmental conditions to intimate, personal touch. The Art of Cloth in Mughal India is the first art historical account of South Asian textiles from the early modern era. Author Sylvia Houghteling resurrects a truth that seventeenth-century world citizens knew, but which has been forgotten in the modern era: South Asian cloth ranked among the highest forms of art in the global hierarchy of luxury goods, and had a major impact on culture and communication. While studies abound in economic history about the global trade in Indian textiles that flourished from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, they rarely engage with the material itself and are less concerned with the artistic-and much less the literary and social-significance of the taste for cloth. This book is richly illustrated with images of textiles, garments, and paintings that are held in little-known collections and have rarely, if ever, been published. Rather than rely solely on records of European trading companies, Houghteling draws upon poetry in local languages and integrates archival research from unpublished royal Indian inventories to tell a new history of this material culture, one with a far more balanced view of its manufacture and use, as well as its purchase and trade"--
First published to celebrate the opening of the Nehru Gallery at the V & A, Arts of India is a comprehensive introduction to the arts and culture of India. The Indian art collections at the V & A are unrivalled outside the Indian subcontinent.
A ready reference for students, research scholars, and academicians in the field of clothing, textiles, and design A comprehensive text, written in a structured and coherent manner Includes over 1300 photographs of textiles, processes, designs and equipment Painted, Printed and Resist-dyed Textiles, Volume I of Traditional Indian Handcrafted Textiles, is a comprehensive text, put in a structured and coherent manner as a ready reference for all students, research scholars and academicians in the field of clothing, textiles and design. This book puts forth various traditional handpainted, printed and resist-dyed textiles, from different regions of India. It focuses on examining the history of textile traditions, their characteristic features, and analyzes the techniques of painting, printing and resist-dyeing; it includes documenting and understanding processes, colors, materials and motifs with their symbolism. Photographs have been provided to help the readers identify the textiles. Woven Textiles, Volume II of Traditional Indian Handcrafted Textiles, is a comprehensive text, put in a structured and understandable manner as a ready reference for all students, research scholars, and academicians in the field of clothing, textiles, and design. This book puts forth various traditional handwoven textiles from different regions of India. It focuses on examining the history of these textile traditions, their characteristic features, and analyzes the techniques of weaving and types of looms used. It includes documenting and understanding the weaving processes, colors, raw materials, and motifs used in the handwoven textiles. Photographs have been provided to help the readers identify the textiles.
