Embroidered Histories : Indian Textiles for the Portuguese Market During the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

In the late 16th and the first half of the 17th century, private Portuguese merchants gained a foothold in India and gained direct access to local markets and textile production centers. By integrating European templates, they adapted part of Bengal and Gujarat's textile production, creating new, near-standard and high-quality, high-end luxury products for the European market, which is covered by this study. 1. Auflage 2016; Print-ISBN 978-3-205-20209-7; Table of Contents 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 9 EMBROIDERED HISTORIES 11 COLCHAS IN THE SOCIOECONOMIC NETWORKS OF THE TIME 19 CONSUMERS AND TASTE 24 DATES, ITINERARIES, PROVENANCES AND SOURCES 27 Early Travel Accounts and Historical Writing 28 Colchas in the Early Records of the EEIC 33 THE PRODUCTION CENTRES 40 Gujarat 41 Bengal 44 COLCHAS BETWEEN INDIA AND EUROPE 50 Merchants as Agents of Exchange: Filippo Sassetti and the Medici 50 Portuguese Inventories 55 Colchas in the Habsburg Gift-Giving Networks 64 RECEPTION AND USE 69 MATERIAL, COLOUR, TECHNIQUE AND DESIGNS 74 BENGAL COLCHAS 80 The Phases of Production 80 The Groups of Production 82 Iconography of Bengal Colchas 88 COLCHAS FROM GUJARAT 97 Division into Groups 98 CONCLUDING REMARKS 109 CATALOGUE 129 BENGAL 131 GUJARAT 250 BIBLIOGRAPHY 277 APPENDIX 294 List of Abbreviations 294 Image Credits 294 List of Colchas Considered for this Study 295 INDEX OF RELEVANT PLACES AND PERSONS 313 Stickerei;,Indische,Textilproduktion;,Teppiche;,globaler,Handel Stickerei,Indische Textilproduktion,Teppiche,globaler Handel Early modern India was an economic core region producing manifold textiles for export. During the sixteenth century a new customer entered the stage and expanded its influence from the city of Goa - Portugal. From early times, the Portuguese had bought and commissioned textiles, among them large embroideries from Bengal and Gujarat, which are the focus of this study. By providing European prints as models for the professional local embroiderers they created a novel product that was successful in Portugal and beyond throughout the seventeenth century. The textiles were deemed valuable and rare enough to be included in different travel accounts, letters and inventories, enabling us to trace their place of production, their transportation to Europe and their reception . Their intricate iconographies reflect political problematics of the time and shed light onto the intercultural circumstances of Portuguese colonial life.-- Provided by Publisher