Invention of Chintz

Think of a bed cover covered in bright flowers on a pale cloth. That pattern has a name: chintz. Today the word may bring to mind old English sofas and curtains. Yet the story of chintz begins in India, and it changed trade, fashion and even laws in Europe.

This article explains what chintz is, where it came from, how Indian artisans made it, and why some European countries banned it. I have used only facts that I could check. Where sources differ, I say so.

What Is Chintz?

Chintz is a cotton cloth with printed, painted or stained designs. Most designs show flowers and leaves. The background is usually light and plain. Some chintz is also glazed, which gives it a smooth, shiny face.

According to Wikipedia, chintz began in Golconda, near present day Hyderabad, in the 15th century. The cloth is a kind of calico. That word comes from Calicut, now called Kozhikode in Kerala, a port with a link to cotton cloth trade.

Where does the word come from?

The word chintz comes from the Hindi word chint. It means “spotted”, “speckled” or “variegated”. An old idea says that the Hindi word came from the Sanskrit word chitra. Recent language research points instead to an older word, chitta, which meant spotted cloth. Either way, the name describes the dotted, flowered look of the fabric.

A Cloth of the Deccan

Indian chintz was made over many years on the south east coast and in the Deccan. Wikipedia notes that it was produced in Hyderabad between 1600 and 1800. It was popular for bed covers, quilts and curtains.

The designs drew on the art of the time. Chintz patterns are linked to Mughal art, with its fine flowers and plants. They also show touches from Persia, China and Turkey. Painted patterns that look like chintz can even be seen on the ceiling of the Cine Diddi mosque in Bijapur.

India’s cotton skills go back a long way. To read about the earlier story, see our article on the invention of cotton cultivation. A close cousin of chintz is the palampore, a painted bed cover. Read more in our post on the invention of the palampore.

How Was Chintz Made?

Making chintz by hand was slow work. Museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Winterthur Museum in the United States describe the main steps. Here is a simple summary.

1. Prepare the cloth. The cotton was washed and soaked in a mix of buffalo milk and myrobalan. Myrobalan is a fruit that gives a substance called tannin. This step helped the colours stay put and not spread.
2. Draw the design. An artist sketched the pattern in charcoal. The outlines were then drawn with a bamboo pen called a kalam.
3. Apply mordants. A mordant is a chemical that helps cloth hold dye. Iron gave black. Alum gave red.
4. Dye the cloth. The cloth was boiled in a bath made from chay root. The mordants reacted with the dye, and the colours became fixed.
5. Use wax to protect areas. Parts that were meant to stay white or red were coated with beeswax. Then the cloth went into an indigo vat to turn the other parts blue.
6. Finish. The wax was removed. Yellow dye could be added, and yellow over blue made green. Last of all, the cloth was washed and dried.

Each colour needed its own round of work, so the process called for patience and a steady hand.

Chintz Travels to Europe

Europeans learned about the cloth soon after sea routes opened. Vasco da Gama reached Calicut in 1498. Around 1600, Portuguese and Dutch traders began bringing small amounts of chintz to Europe. Then English and French merchants began sending much larger loads.

The cloth was also changed to suit European tastes. Western buyers wanted different designs, so Indian painters made patterns to order. By 1680, more than a million pieces of chintz were reaching England every year. A similar number went to France and the Dutch Republic.

At first, people used it mostly for curtains, furnishing fabrics and bed hangings. The famous diarist Samuel Pepys bought a set for his wife. Later, the cloth was also made into clothes. One idea says that this began when old furnishings were passed to maids who stitched them into dresses.

The wider story of India’s trade with other lands is told in our piece on Indo Roman trade relations. For the later rise of European trading companies, see the expansion of British East India Company rule in India.

The Bans on Chintz

The popularity of Indian cloth upset European weavers. They could not make it, and they feared losing business. Soon, several countries passed laws against it.

• France banned all chintz imports in 1686.
• Spain banned Asian textiles in 1717. In 1728, it also banned European imitations, so as to build its own cloth industry.
• Britain passed a law in 1720. It forbade the use of imported chintz as clothing and its use on beds, chairs, cushions or other household furniture.

The bans did not work well. There were gaps in the laws. The court of Versailles stood outside the law, and fashionable young courtiers kept wearing chintz. So the cloth stayed in demand.

How Europe Learned the Secret

European mills wanted to copy the cloth, but they did not know how the dyes worked. Help came from Frenchmen who were living in India. In 1734, a naval officer named M. de Beaulieu, who was based in Pondicherry, sent home letters and fabric samples at each stage of dyeing. In 1742, Father Gaston Laurent Coeurdoux wrote about the process as well.

The ban in France ended in 1759. By then, French and English mills could make chintz. At first, they copied Indian designs. Later, they added their own patterns.

One famous product was toile de Jouy, made in Jouy en Josas in France between 1700 and 1843. In time, the word chintz in English came to mean any machine printed cotton.

Chintz, Calico and Cretonne

Cloth names can be confusing, so here is a quick guide. Calico is the broad name for this type of cotton cloth. Unglazed calico was traditionally called cretonne. Chintz is calico that is decorated with printed or painted designs, and it may be glazed.

The key point is that chintz is defined by its look and finish, not just by the cotton itself. A plain white cotton sheet is not chintz. A cotton cloth with a flowering vine in many colours, and a smooth face, is.

Chintz Today

Since the 19th century, the word chintz has also been used for a style of flowery decoration. You see it on chintzware pottery and on wallpaper, as well as on fabric. Modern chintz often has bright flowers all over a light background. Some popular patterns use black backgrounds.

The word has another side. In modern English, “chintzy” can mean cheap or gaudy. It is said that the novelist George Eliot used it in 1851 about cheap British copies of real chintz. So a word that began as praise for a fine Indian cloth took on a very different meaning.

Common Mistakes About Chintz

• One ban only. Many people think there was a single ban. In fact, France, Britain and Spain each passed their own laws at different times.
• A million pieces in the 1600s. The figure of over a million pieces is a yearly number, and it refers to England by about 1680.
• Chintz is only a British style. The first chintz came from India. The British version came later.

For a book that tells the whole story, you can look for Cloth that Changed the World by Sarah Fee. It explains the history of Indian chintz in detail.

FAQs About Chintz

What is chintz fabric?

It is a cotton cloth with printed or painted flower designs, usually on a light background. Some chintz is glazed to look shiny.

Where did chintz originate?

It began in Golconda, near present day Hyderabad, in the 15th century. Chintz was later made along India’s south eastern coast too.

What does the word chintz mean?

It comes from a Hindi word meaning spotted or variegated.

Why was chintz banned in Europe?

Local weavers feared the competition from cheap, popular Indian cloth. France banned it in 1686, Spain in 1717, and Britain passed a law in 1720.

How did Indian artisans colour chintz?

They used mordants such as alum and iron, chay root dye, beeswax to protect parts of the cloth, and indigo for blue. Then they washed and dried the cloth.

Is chintz the same as calico?

Not exactly. Calico is a plain cotton cloth. Chintz is a calico that has been printed, painted or glazed.

Final Thoughts

Chintz started as a painted cotton from the Deccan. It travelled across oceans, filled European homes, and even led to bans. Its dyes and designs came from the skill of Indian artisans. So the next time you see a flowered cloth in a shop, think of the long road that it took.