20/20 Project Blog 3: Hannah Sabapathy

My 20/20 residency at the Harris has focused on the textiles in the volumes of John Forbes Watson’s, The Textile Manufactures of India (1866). It would be hard to view these books and not think about colour.

The volumes were created with the hope that British manufacturers would copy and imitate South Asian fabrics to sell more British fabrics in these locations. The volumes themselves provide many details, such as where the textiles were made and/or purchased, how much they cost, when they were bought, how they were worn, and what they were made of.

No 200, Volume V Woman’s garment, (J. Forbes Watson, 1866).

However, any details about the makers or crafts people are entirely absent. This reinforces a hierarchy of information. Some aspects are considered important while others are discarded. The pieces of information that do feature are those that are commercially valuable. It is worth noting that the fabrics were not specifically collected for the purpose of the volumes, they came from the India Museum store, including textiles collected for the Paris Exhibition in 1855. The details Forbes Watson recorded were probably inherited from the already labelled fabrics.

Within the context of British imitations of South Asian textiles, colour is very important. We can gain a lot of insight into the thought processes around this from Forbes Watson’s companion volume, The Textiles Manufactures and Costumes of the People of India (1866) in which he discusses and highlights the importance of colour to British manufacturers. He says:

‘The native dyer and printer has attained great skill in fixing his colours, and this point is one which deserves serious consideration. It must always be remembered that the body-clothing of the Hindu is frequently washed, and by a process which is extremely rough. It is essential therefore, that the colours should be thoroughly fast. A failure in this entirely destroys the value of the fabric, and hence many of the prints sent from this country have fallen into disrepute, — our manufacturers not having fully recognized the necessity of sending no printed goods to India but those in which all the colours are fast.’ p90.

This emphasises the importance of colour in selling British products in South Asia. Preston was gifted a set of these volumes because it was such a key centre for textile manufacturing during this period. If we consider the backdrop of the Lancashire Cotton famine (1861 -1865) and the acute need at this point for new markets for British textiles, anything that would help sell textiles to a South Asian market had to be addressed. South Asian textiles had long been admired for their range of colours and the fact they did not fade or wash out. Forbes Watson admits the skill and expertise acquired to make these fabrics. In order to appeal to the Indian market British textiles had to provide the same shades and colour fastness.

Forbes Watson states:

‘Many important facts stand saliently out as the result of this analysis; such, for instance, as that by far the larger proportion of the clothing of the people of India is made of cotton; that there are certain colours or tones of colour which are favourites…’ p4.

The production of colour dyes had undergone a transformation in Europe during this time with the discovery of coal tar dyes by William Perkin, who created mauveine by accident in 1856. There was soon a proliferation of different synthetic dyes, and towards the end of the century Germany began to dominate synthetic dye production. Below is an image of Hofmann’s violet, created by August Willem von Hofmann, William Perkin’s teacher.

P. 194, (W. Crookes, A practical handbook of dyeing and calico printing,1874).

From the 1870s the flow of synthetic dyes into South Asia increased, with India becoming an important customer. Prior to this, South Asian dyes were derived from plant, animal and mineral sources. They were mixed with mordants which were a key part of the process to fix dyes. Madder was an important plant used in both Asia and Europe for dyeing. Alizarin naturally occurred in madder, and alongside purpurin was one of two colourants in the plant. In the mid-nineteenth century chemists found a way to create it synthetically and further developments meant it could be extracted from coal tar. This meant dyes using alizarin during this period came from both organic and synthetic sources. The image below shows naturally occurring madder alongside its manufactured counterpart synthetic alizarin.

P. 326, (W. Crookes, A practical handbook of dyeing and calico printing 1874).

Turkey red fabrics (which were named after the dyeing process) produced in Britain used madder but with the inclusion of bullock’s blood as a fixative. This would have been contrary to Hindu religious beliefs at this time.

As the new synthetic dyes were improved this meant the colours were less time consuming to create and more predictable in outcome. However, in South Asia this also meant a loss of some knowledge of plants, materials and elements of craft techniques that had been developed over hundreds of years.

Forbes Watson felt that colour imitation and its’ combination with the right garment was necessary for British manufacturers to be successful. In the companion volume, Forbes Watson highlights favourite colours in the South Asian market, often reds, and sometimes associates this with the garments they are appropriate for.

‘Nos 36 and 37, like No.33… are from Madura in Madras, and afford additional examples of that dark red which is so favourite and so suitable a colour for this class of turbans.’ p19.

No 37, Volume V Woman’s garment, (J. Forbes Watson, The Textile Manufactures of India, 1866).

Going through the volumes it is noticeable that certain colours dominate, in particular red, and fewer blue shades are featured. Perhaps Forbes Watson was concentrating the focus on British industrialists in certain areas? Or perhaps the colour range was already dictated by the fabrics they were selecting from? Colour also provides us with sound rationale as to why these fabrics were cut up and presented in volumes rather than reproduced. If particular shades were so important, a reproduction in the form of a print would be an inaccurate representation of colour, rather they had to be the actual textile.

This also allowed British manufacturers to gain an understanding of the quality of the fabrics, as the edge of the fabric was left free for the viewer to touch. How much Forbes Watson’s work influenced British manufacturers in terms of design is hard to determine.

20/20 Project

The 20/20 residency was launched in November 2021 by UAL Decolonising Arts Institute and with funding from Freelands Foundation, Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants Programme and UAL. The project will support 20 emerging ethnically diverse artists of colour to take up residencies with 20 public art collections across the country, leading to 20 new permanent acquisitions.

Read More About the 20/20 Project

Keep up to date with Hannah Sabapathy on Instagram.
#2020Project