Manchester Printed Fragment

This brightly colored cotton fragment was printed in Manchester, England in the 19th century for the Indian market. It features eleven portraits, probably of a maharajah and his family, that were decoratively printed onto the fabric. The central seven portraits are framed by a large floral border and the four individual portraits in each of the fragment’s corners are individually enclosed in floral roundels. The edges of this textile indicate that it has likely been unstitched from a cushion or previous display backing.

The Industrial Revolution had a huge impact on the global textile industry. Machines quickly took the place of individual skilled weavers, lowering the prices of textiles generally and making it more difficult for handmade Indian textiles to fetch the same prices they once did in England and flooding the Indian market with England’s more cheaply made cotton fabrics. This also lead to interesting intersections of styles and English-made products designed to appeal Indian buyers, like this Manchester printed fragment.