£18,750
Five Centuries: Furniture & Works of Art inc. Property of the Earls of Crawford & Balcarres | 609
Auction: Five Centuries: Furniture & Works of Art inc. Property of the Earls of Crawford & Balcarres
worked in yellow tussah silk threads chain-stitched on a pale cotton ground with a central profile portrait of a ruler within bands of musicians, hunters, boats, fish and animals
Provenance: The Earls of Crawford and Balcarres, Balcarres House, Fife, Scotland
Note: Coverlets of this type are attributed to the area of Satgaon in Bengal, India and were produced primarily for the Portuguese market during the mid-16th to the mid-17th centuries. The yellow tussah silk chain-stitched on a cotton ground in a monochrome palette are characteristic of these textiles and reflect European tastes, while the embroidery techniques are indigenous to where they were produced. They are often referred to by the Portuguese term ‘colcha’ or coverlet. Colchas demonstrate the exchange of goods and ideas between different cultures during the 1500 and 1600s, and indeed the mixed iconography depicted often reveal a concoction of mythological, Hindu, and Christian imagery. European textiles, tapestries and prints appear to have influenced their design, as well as merchants who would have provided their own ideas. Colchas were initially made as diplomatic gifts or souvenirs, but in time were brought to Portugal for domestic use, and through trade links made their way throughout Europe.
Similar colchas are in the collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York; the British Museum, London; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; and the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon. For examples selling at auction, see Christie’s, Arts of India, London,12 June 2014, lot 34; Christie's, Indian & Islamic Costume & Textiles, London,14 October 2005, lot 487; Sotheby’s BC/AD Sculpture Ancient to Modern, London, 9 July 2020, lot 118; and Bonhams, Islamic & Indian, London, 30 April 2019, lot 150.