Ceremonial cloth and sacred heirloom early 18th century
handspun cotton, natural dyes, mordants
National Gallery of Australia
Conserved with the assistance of Brian O'Keeffe AO and Bridget O'Keeffe AM
Gift of Michael and Mary Abbott 1988
India was renowned for the production of textiles which were exported all over the world. Prominent in Islamic art traditions, trellis and bouquet designs were fashionable in Europe, America, the Middle East and Asia. This textile, created using the colour-fast techniques of mordant painting and dyeing, as well as batik, was traded to Indonesia where it was cherished as a sacred heirloom. Imagery inspired by Indian trade cloths was often incorporated into local textile production where it was reinterpreted using a range of techniques.