A Mughal painted and resist dyed floorspread, Golconda, Deccan, India

the fine cotton ground, painted, mordant and resist dyed in red, blue, green and yellow, with a central arabesque panel of scrolling tendrils issuing leaves, saz rosettes, composite buds and lotus palmettes, bordered by a narrow arcade of palmettes and a band of scrolling leafy vine with rosette roundels, the border with quatrefoils enclosing lotus palmettes issuing vegetal and floral scrolls reserved on a red ground

The Amber Palace, Jaipur, India (inventory marks, dating from 1645 onwards)
Nasli Heeramaneck Collection, Bombay – New York

Report is in relation to orientation in the catalogue: Actually comprised of two separate panels. Each panel comprised of several joined widths. The image has been cropped around the edges, and the outer narrow yellow border and red edging is present in reality to the piece, albeit only visible in sections in the present image. As can be seen at the joins of the composite panels, the yellow narrow border is misaligned and this applies to the outer yellow narrow border, which results in the irregular outer edges. Both panels have been professionally restored. The have been carefully lined with brown cotton and both then backed with white cotton. Velcro along one edge for hanging, with small tabs of Velcro on both inner sides of panels. There are areas where the brown dyes have oxidised destroying sections of the original calico, and the brown lining is visible. This is visible to the brown in the leaves and sections of the flowers in particular, across both panels. Careful consolidation stitches have been used to hold the calico in place. There is variation in the intensity of the dyes which is commensurate with techniques used. The area where it is most noticeable is the green ground as visible in the photograph. Small repaired splits and joins in areas and loss of sections of the inner borders, as visible in the photograph. The picece has spectacular colour and beautifully executed design. Borders to both panels: The red four-sided border is approximately 34cm. high. The narrow inner and outer yellow borders to both panels are approximately 11cm. high. The white inner fringe against the green ground is approximately 5cm. high. Panel One: Border on the Left Side – (no border on right side) Left side of overall panel – Overall measurement: 513.5cm. high left side, 505cm. high right side, 267.5cm. wide across the top, 277cm. wide across the bottom (comprised of four joined strips). The strips from left to right are 80cm. wide, 78.5cm. wide, 79.5cm. wide and 38cm. wide. Irregular lower and upper edges. Horizontal strip of velcro (4.5cm. high) across the lower edge in the photograph (the top edge of the panel if hanging); which starts 6cm. from the left edge – and 8cm. from the right edge in the photograph. Seven small sections (5cm. high) of velcro have been applied at intervals along the inner edge (without the border), starting at 80cm. down top left and 76cm. down bottom left, they have been attached to join to the right hand large panel. Within the lower section of the third panel along from left, (79.5cm. wide panel), there is a horizontal join, 73cm. down, across the width of this narrow panel. Within this rectangular top section there is a further vertical strip on the far left edge, which is 7cm. wide, and 73cm. high. There is a 12cm. wide, 3.5cm. high hole to the central section of this same second narrow panel, revealing the brown lining, and it is near a strawberry fruit, running across the stem and green ground, and small bud. There are sections of the narrow yellow inner border lacking and revealing the brown lining, for example to the top of the left second panel, which is approximately 37cm. wide and 3cm. high, visible in the photograph, along with similar areas of loss to the bottom of this panel, which is visible in the bottom left of the photograph. There are some loose threads in this area. Panel Two: Border on the Right Side (no border on left side) Right side of overall panel – Overall measurement: 517cm. high left side, 514cm. high right side, 229.5cm. wide across the top, and 229.5cm. wide across the bottom (comprised of three joined strips). The strips from left to right are 76cm. wide, 74.55cm. wide, and 74cm. wide. Irregular lower and upper edges. Horizontal strip of velcro (4.5cm. high) across the lower edge in the photograph (the top edge of the panel if hanging); which starts 6cm. from the left edge – and 8cm. from the right edge in the photograph. Seven small sections (5cm. high) of velcro have been applied at intervals along the inner edge (without the border), starting at 80cm. down top left and 76cm. up bottom left, they have been attached to join to the right hand large panel. The marks inventory marks are along the top edge of this panel, and the indecipherable script is in the bottom right corner of the right hand panel, and therefore bottom right corner of the overall photograph. Bottom right corner there is a horizontal join 48cm. up from edge, the width of the narrow panel 74cm. wide. Within this section there is a small vertical section of calico missing revealing the lining underneath, approx. 6cm. long. There is a section half way up the right side edge in the photograph within the border section, which is visible in the photograph as the brown and mustard coloured section, and is is comprised of three narrow patches, 14cm. high by 4cm. wide, 25cm. high by 3cm. wide, and 10cm. high by 5.5cm. wide.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This exceptional floorspread belongs to an important group of 'Early Coromandel' textiles of which only a handful survive. Examples are found in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (28.159.2), The Brooklyn Museum, The Victoria & Albert Museum (IS.34-196), the Musée de L'Impression sur Etoffes Mulhouse, the Cincinnati Art Museum (1962.486) and the Calico Museum of Textiles, Ahmedabad (nos.403, 647).

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there were two schools of cotton-painting established along the Coromandel coast of South East India; at Pulicat near Madras and at Golconda in the Deccan. This floorspread belongs to the Golconda group (Irwin, John & Brett , Katharine, The Origins of Chintz, London, 1970 p.13). The Golconda school was centred at Petaboli (Nizampatam) and its subject-matter was typically Persianate in style and heavily influenced by Safavid carpet motifs. The Muslim rulers of Golconda were of Persian origin and particularly looked to the Safavid court for decorative inspiration. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, who ruled from 1580-1611 married one of the daughters of Shah' Abbas and between 1603 and 1609 kept an embassy of a hundred Persians at his capital. Persian carpet-weavers who settled in nearby Ellore during the sixteenth century were said to make 'the best carpets after the manner of those in Persia' (Records of Fort St George: Diary and Consultation Book, 1679-80, Madras 1912, p.100).

A mid-seventeenth century Golconda coverlet in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and another in the Victoria & Albert Museum display the same distinctive lotus arabesque borders reserved on a red ground seen on a number of Persian carpets of the same period.

What distinguished these Early Coromandel cotton-paintings was the predominant and sophisticated use of red dye that was sourced from the chay dye-plant which thrived in the high calcium esturine sands of Golconda. These Early Coromandel cottons were a result of a very labour intensive process that involved Hindu families from different castes who would be responsible for various aspects of the mordant dying and painting process. The technology of mordant dying has been known in the subcontinent since the second millennium BC, with evidence revealed in the Indus Valley fragments found at the site of Mohenjo Daro. The most complex of the Indian dye processes involved the colour red, as displayed so beautifully in this floorspread. Although it is thought the original technique of dyeing red may have come from the Near East – hence the name 'Turkey red' – it may be said that it was India that brought it to perfection. The process involved preparing the cloth with an oil or fatty substance, then mordanting with alum, followed by dyeing with alizarin which was derived from the chay madder plant (Gittinger, Mattiebelle, Master Dyers to the World: Technique and Trade in Early Indian Dyed Cotton Textiles, Washington DC, 1982, p.21).

The port of Masulipatam served as the trading emporium for both schools. The French traveller Jean de Thevenot in his description of Masulipatam in 1666 describes the floorspreads as 'much finer and of better colours than those of any other parts of the Indies' (Jean de Thevenot, Relation d'un Voyage, Paris, 1684, p.310). Masulipatam was the major port not only for the European and Persian trade in cotton-painted textiles but also for the rest of India. Early Coromandel cottons were highly prized at the Mughal court and records indicate that Akbar's (r.1542-1605) tent hangings were sourced from Masulipatam (Abu'l Fazl A'in-i akbari). "To sit and eat upon at courts of the Mughul period, printed and painted cotton dastarkanas, or floorspreads, sometimes referred to as 'summer carpets', were stretched out, held down at the edges by ornamental weights, or mir-e farsh (lords of the carpet)' (Welch, Stuart Cary, India - Art and Culture 1300 - 1900, Exhibition catalogue, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985, p.272). Three pictorial  floorspreads (from the Pulicat-Madras group); one now in the Victoria & Albert Museum (Guy, John & Swallow, Deborah (ed.), Art of India 1550 - 1900, London, 1999, fig.137) and two others in the Calico Museum of Textiles (Irwin, John & Hall, Margaret, Indian Painted and Printed Fabrics, Ahmedabad, Calico Museum of Textiles, 1971, pl. III) were once in the collection of the Amber Palace, Jaipur. The Victoria & Albert Museum floorspread and this floorspread are marked with a series of stock-taking dates, ranging from 1639 to 1650 and a circular stamp identified as that of Mirza Raja Jai Singh of Amber (r.1622-68).  'During the luxurious late seventeenth century, scores of artistically marvellous textiles, representing months or even years of work by skilled craftsmen, were used once or twice, and then discarded as too worn for princely use. Those in charge of the palace stores, however, laid up stocks of floorspreads, dress lengths, velvets, and other yardage in untold numbers and looked after them so well that a few.....survived pristinely in `godowns' to this day" (Welch, opcit, p.272). (`godown'  being a term used in India and East Asia for a storage warehouse, especially at a dockside).