Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 187
An Indo-Portuguese silk-embroidered linen 'five senses' coverlet (colcha) Gujarat, 17th Century
11 June 2020, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£30,000 - £40,000
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An Indo-Portuguese silk-embroidered linen 'five senses' coverlet (colcha)
Gujarat, 17th Century
Gujarat, 17th Century
of rectangular form, the linen ground entirely embroidered in predominantly blue and polychrome silk with a central rectangular panel containing a seated European lady stroking a dog, surrounded by a band of birds and animals interspersed with floral interlace, the spandrels with floral sprays issuing from urns with perching parakeets flanked by simurghs, all on a ground of animals and birds amongst floral interlace, the borders with scrolling floral vines with perching birds, the corners with seated European ladies within square cartouches, the figure to the upper left playing a string instrument, to the upper right smelling a flower, to the lower left looking into a mirror and to the lower right drinking from a cup, the blockprinted linen backing decorated with European style floral sprays
240 x 183 cm. approx.
240 x 183 cm. approx.
Footnotes
Provenance
Private Portuguese collection, Lisbon.
This coverlet is a fine and rare example of its type produced in India for the Portuguese market. It contains a combination of Indian, Persian and European elements that reflect the increasing cross cultural influences of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries owing to greater trade, settlement and exploration. The five senses, depicted by five figures dressed in the characteristic seventeenth century style, form the central theme of this coverlet. A Renaissance-style border interspersed with two pairs of simurghs and floral sprays surround the central medallion. Whilst the Portuguese were the first to commission luxury goods like prized silk textiles, other European patrons followed suit from the early seventeenth century.
Comparable examples of colchas depicting the five senses are in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Acc. No. 1998.587); the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Acc. No. 1988-7-4); the Museu-Biblioteca Condes de Castro Guimarães, Cascais, Portugal; the Art Institute of Chicago (Acc. No. 1982.18); and the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin.