Page 56 - Bonhams Catalog Cohen and Cohen Jan 24, 2023 New York

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AN INDIAN EMBROIDERED TEXTILE MADE FOR THE The Portuguese established a colony in Bengal around 1537 and
PORTUGUESE MARKET by 1570 were exporting quantities of embroidered textiles, known
Bengal, India, 17th Century as calchas, to Europe. The embroidered designs include decorative
A rare and fine Indo-Portuguese textile, with elaborate embroidered motifs borrowed from both the Indian and European tradition. They
decoration, the central panel with a scalloped roundel centered by include features of Italianate Renaissance origin and also motifs from
a tulip cartouche with two birds and scrolling floral decoration and 16th century Spanish and Portuguese art such as the double-headed
surrounded with eight alternately double-headed eagles and double- eagle, as well as hunting scenes. Several styles of the Bengal work
headed doves, each with arrow-pierced hearts above their heads, and are recorded, and this appears to be kashida, worked in chain stitch
around this design can be found a variety of animals including deer, and using muga or tussur silk. Usually, kashida embroideries are
leopards, lions, crowned birds, winged angel heads (cherubim) and monochrome, so this (and lot ?) are very rare and unusual in using
four European hunters with raised rifles, the corners of the large central polychrome silk and cotton panels. Among the sixty-four kalas (arts)
rectangle with elaborate cartouches, and all surrounded at the edge mentioned in the Kamasutra is that of vastuvidya, anything made
with a border design of conjoined scrolls with pipe-smoking human skillfully, which includes viracana, the making of quilts and covers
heads at the terminals and divided by vases of flowers. often with embroidery. (see Teotónio R. de Souza, Ed. 1985, Indo-
102in (260cm) x 76in (193cm) Portuguese History: Old Issues, New Questions, p. 136 (in Chapter 12:
Indian Textiles in Portuguese Collections, by Lotika Varadarajan)
$20,000 - 30,000
Another member of the Sousa famiy, Archbishop Braga D. Luís de
十七世紀 印度孟加拉 大件為葡萄牙市場所製刺綉 Sousa (1637-1690), was Portuguese Ambassador to Rome between
1675 and 1682 and is recorded as having Indian textiles in one room
Published: in his “sumptiously furnished palace” (Karl 2016, p. 72)- which might
Cohen & Cohen, Think Pink!, Antwerp, 2013, pp. 100-101, no. 66 possibly have been these examples.
Exhibited: References: Karl, Barbara 2016, Embroidered Histories, Indian Textiles
Casa Museu Dr Anastacio Goncalves, Lisbon, Uma familia de for the Portuguese Market during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
coleccionadores, Poder e Cultura, no. 62 and possibly earlier acquired Centuries (Wien Köln Weimar: Böhlau Verlag) p. 72.
by D. Frederico Guilherme Sousa e Holstein (1737-1790), Governor of
India (1779-1786)
出版：
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Think Pink!》，安特衛普，2013年，
頁100-101，圖版編號66
展覽：
里斯本Casa Museu Dr Anastacio Goncalves，《Uma familia de
coleccionadores, Poder e Cultura》，圖版編號62，並或 印度總督D.
Frederico Guilherme Sousa e Holstein (1737-1790)所購

54 | BONHAMS