A silk and metal-thread embroidered coverlet or floorspread, Goa, India

worked with exuberant floral sprays and border, and with a very unusual burgundy coloured quilted ground

Unusual aubergine coloured ground. Some minor loss to metal threads of embroidery, commensurate with technique and age. The embroidery is finely executed with exuberant colouring. Some minor stains to the ground in the lower section, not immediately noticeable. Lined with burgundy coloured silk, which is split in one corner. Small section of fringing loose and revealing the innerlining between the lining and the panel, and needs reattaching to the edge of the panel. There is raspberry coloured staining to the extreme corners of the panel. This is a very unusual coloured quilted ground. Very decorative panel, versatile size, balanced colour and composition.
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For a comparable Indo-Portuguese embroidered coverlet, Goa, for European export market, circa 1720, see Lanto Synge, Art of Embroidery, History of Style and Technique, The Royal School of Needlework, London, 2001, Chp. Eleven, Indian Export Needlework, pp.310-323, pl.305, pg.317. This cited example is on the more commonly found ivory quilted ground and not the unusual purple ground of the present panel. The main field of rows of evenly placed flowering bushes is reminiscent of the Mughal floral carpet motifs of the 17th century, which in turn influenced designs of the Indian embroidered and printed fabric floor-spreads and coverlets, which were also produced with variations in styles for the European market.

The often substantial floral floor-spreads and coverlets echo the gardens surrounding the palaces, and are present in prestigious portrait paintings of this period showing the central role played by evocative and beautifully worked textiles in the life of the court. A charming representation of two similarly coloured and exuberant floral floor-spreads, is found in a painting of Maharaja Jaswant Singh I at a music performance during a monsoon, Jodhpur, circa 1670, whose reign over three distinct regions coincided with the completion of two major imperial garden projects and his building of a garden and pleasure palace by the Sur Sagar Lake. See Garden and Cosmos – The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, Ed. D. Diamond, C. Glynn and  K Singh Jasol, Travelling Exhibition 2008-2009, organised by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution in collaboration with the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, India, Published London 2008, Origins of Jodhpur Court Painting, pp.51-69, Cat. no.6, pp-62-63.

For comprehensive discussion on the Indian centres of textile production, their designs and markets, see Arts of India: 1550-1900: The Nehru Gallery of Indian Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Ed. John Guy and Deborah Swallow, V&A publications, 1990, Chp.6, Europeans and the Textile Trade, pp.153-171.