Chintz was originally a woodblock-printed, painted or stained calico produced in India from 1600 to 1800. The familiar design of small florals set on a neutral ground is so commonplace today for bed covers, quilts and draperies that few could imagine it was once considered so exotic as to be banned in Europe.
Around 1600, Portuguese and Dutch traders began bringing Indian chintz to Europe. English, French and other European mills couldn’t manufacture chintz, and their governments acted to protect them by banning the textile. However, like most laws these decrees had loopholes, and creative and entrepreneurial individuals found ways around the bans. By the time the prohibitions were finally lifted in 1759, English and French mills had perfected their own chintz manufacturing processes, and the French had even developed their own signature style: Toile de Jouy.
Image (“Avion – 415” in Cornflower by Pierre Deux) courtesy Kravet. Info courtesy Wikipedia.
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