Inside the Story · No. 19 · Thursday 22 October 2026 · Craft · South Asia and Western

Drawn in India for Japan

These peonies and pines were drawn by hand on the Coromandel Coast of India between 1700 and 1750, for a buyer in Japan, and the museum holds only the right half.

The inside story of a design inspired by a chintz drawn on the Coromandel Coast for Japan, 1700 to 1750.

Chintz Bed Cover or Hanging with a Japanese-inspired Pattern, Right Half, The Cleveland Museum of Art

The source

Chintz Bed Cover or Hanging with a Japanese-inspired Pattern, Right HalfCotton: drawn resist, painted mordants, dyed · India, Coromandel Coast, 1700 to 1750 (first half of the 18th century) · Overall: 284.5 x 136 cm (112 x 53 9/16 in.)The Cleveland Museum of Art · Chintz Bed Cover or Hanging with a Japanese-inspired Pattern, Right Half, 1700 to 1750. India, Coromandel Coast, first half of the 18th century. Cotton: drawn resist, painted mordants, dyed (2 reds, 2 blues, purple, brown, green); overall: 284.5 x 136 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2003.43. CC0. · object Cleveland Museum of Art accession 2003.43 (web id 163006) · CC0View at The Cleveland Museum of Art ↗

The museum says this chintz was made in India for the Japanese market. Its technique line reads drawn resist, painted mordants, dyed: the resist and the mordants were put on by hand with a pen, and the dye baths brought up two reds, two blues, purple, brown and green. Cloth like this, drawn on the Coromandel Coast for Japan, was called sarasa there, which meant calico or chintz (the GWU Textile Museum).

What we saw

Five parts, traced from the photograph

1The large heads of the long side borderFirst, the heads along the long border. Eleven of them: red peonies, chrysanthemums on a star of dark leaves, rayed peonies, and two cone-shaped heads.

2The pine clustersThen the pine clusters in the field. Round clumps of needles, blue and grey-green, drawn on a yellow branch.

3The striped rocksThe striped rocks. A triangle of pink and cream stripes with a dark serrated cap, and the tall patterned cliff beside it.

4The end borderThe end border. Five heads in a row: two rayed peonies, a chrysanthemum, a scaled bud with lotus-like buds, and a peony in the corner.

5The serrated leavesAnd the serrated leaves, blue with a cream edge, all along the borders.

5 prints, each from a different part

Each print starts from a part of the source

Source detail: The large heads of the long side border

From this partThe large heads of the long side border

Print 1 · All-over

Peony and Pine

For the first print, I took the border heads down to the field, with the pines and the leaves.

Peonies and chrysanthemums at nine centimetres, pine clumps between, in a half-drop. On the cloth's own cream, and on its red. For dress material.

Repeat: Half drop repeat · tile 1920 × 1440 px · 32.5 × 24.4 cm
Made for: Surat and Ahmedabad dress-material processors; boutique labels selling chintz-floral kurtas and dupattas; Western dress and blouse fabric buyers who want a documented eighteenth-century chintz
Why it sells: Nine-centimetre heads on a half-drop with pine clumps and leaves between is a full-coverage dress all-over; the cream colourway sells for summer, the red for the festive season, from the same screens.

Women's dress material and dupattas110 cm width10 colours on digital (8 on rotary with the two blues merged)cotton cambricrayon or georgetteTen colours

From this partThe pine clusters

Print 2 · All-over

Pine and Rock

Then the pines with the rocks.

A landscape at shirt scale: striped rocks and pine clumps, red showing all round. For men's resort shirts.

Repeat: Half drop repeat · tile 1520 × 880 px · 25.7 × 14.9 cm
Made for: Export menswear and resort brands building SS27 conversational prints; Indian shirting mills wanting a landscape print that is not a palm
Why it sells: Six-centimetre rocks and four-centimetre pine clumps on red read as a conversational landscape at shirt distance, with no direction problem for cutting.

Men's resort and holiday shirting150 cm width8 to 10 coloursdigital on cotton poplinlinen or viscoseTen colours

From this partThe large heads of the long side border

Print 3 · All-over

Peony Ditsy

Then the end border, made small.

Its heads at three to four centimetres, tossed with small leaves. A ditsy for blouses and kidswear.

Repeat: Mirror repeat · tile 2400 × 2400 px · 40.6 × 40.6 cm
Made for: Kidswear exporters; blouse-piece printers in Surat; nightwear labels wanting a small floral on a dark ground
Why it sells: A four-centimetre head tossed every way at one head per seven centimetres is a classic ditsy: no direction, no registration risk beyond the head itself.

Blouseskidswear and nightwear110 to 150 cm width8 coloursdigital or rotary on cotton voilepoplin and rayonTen colours

From this partThe large heads of the long side border

Print 4 · Border

Peony and Rock Border

Then the big heads, with the rocks as a hem.

Four heads on a vine I drew, and the striped rocks as a mountain row along the edge. A saree border.

Repeat: Border repeat · tile 2800 × 1250 px · 47.4 × 21.2 cm
Made for: Surat saree process houses for festive georgette and crepe; dupatta printers selling body-plus-border sets with print A or C as the body; home-textile brands for curtain hems
Why it sells: A 47 cm repeat of ten-centimetre heads on a vine over a mountain hem is readable at hem distance and gives the border a weighted edge without a plain band.

Saree and dupatta border21 cm deep8 to 10 coloursengineered along the selvedge or as a separate border screenalso a curtain hemTen colours

From this partThe large heads of the long side border

Print 5 · Placement

The Border

And last, the border itself.

One real stretch of the long border, four heads at true size, as a placement. Nothing moved.

Repeat: Placement print, not a repeat
Made for: Saree pallu engineers; home-textile brands wanting the documented cloth itself; the series page, where the real stretch sits beside the four designs
Why it sells: At true size the real border is already a finished panel; it sells as the authentic piece next to the four prints designed from it.

A pallu panel or a dupatta end70 x 29 cmand cushion or table-runner frontsdigital only10 coloursTen colours

The palette

Every colour here was already in the source.

#992130Madder red ground · from the source

#652026Dark red (the shading and outlines in the red) · from the source

#464749Indigo blue · from the source

#616561Light blue (the faded indigo of the pines and petals) · from the source

#8B8A7CGrey-green (indigo over yellow) · from the source

#DFBA88Cream (the undyed cotton) · from the source

#B5834BYellow (the branches) · from the source

#D86154Pink (the lighter red of the rock stripes and petals) · from the source

#7E564DBrown · from the source

#31282CBlack line and the purple of the star leaves · from the source

Why now

Madder red, indigo and cream, the cloth's own colours, for AW27 dress material, resort shirting and saree border development; the cream colourway for summer.

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Source: Chintz Bed Cover or Hanging with a Japanese-inspired Pattern, Right Half, India, Coromandel Coast, 1700 to 1750 (first half of the 18th century), Cotton: drawn resist, painted mordants, dyed. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Chintz Bed Cover or Hanging with a Japanese-inspired Pattern, Right Half, 1700 to 1750. India, Coromandel Coast, first half of the 18th century. Cotton: drawn resist, painted mordants, dyed (2 reds, 2 blues, purple, brown, green); overall: 284.5 x 136 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 2003.43. CC0., object Cleveland Museum of Art accession 2003.43 (web id 163006). CC0. View the object.

Facts from: clevelandart.org, collectionstories.museum.gwu.edu.