Beautiful Things: Indian Palampore or Genovese Mezzaro “Tapestries”

18th Century Palampore at the V&A

“A palampore is a type of hand-painted and mordant-dyed bed cover that was made in India for the export market during the eighteenth century and very early nineteenth century. Only the wealthiest classes could afford to buy palampore; therefore, the few examples that have survived are often quite valuable today. Palampore were primarily exported to Europe and to Dutch colonists in Indonesia and what was then called Ceylon.”

They’re not true tapestries because in the case of a true tapestry the design is woven into the piece rather than applied with tints/dyes/embroidery. The term tapestry is however often used – even in the case of the famous Bayeux tapestry, which is actually an embroidery.

In the 19th century artisans in Genova starting producing textiles that closely resemble Palampores and are called Mezzaros. In France they produced Indiennes that are in the same visual family, but normally don’t have the well defined borders.

Here’s one of three sets of textiles of this family that was made into curtains and was here at number 42 (in the grey salon) when we arrived. I still haven’t decided what to do with them, but I’m leaning towards selling.