Studio: international art (50.1910)

Drawings from an Indian Cotton-Printer's Pattern Book

COLOURED DRAWINGS ON MUSLIN

especially in India, where a rigid uniformity of
style and manner rules all subjects alike. It is
true that they are on muslin, but they are done
with the ek bdl ka qulam—brush of one hair—the
excessively fine point on which the craft prides
itself, and there are refinements of
line and tint, of which the block-
cutter could take no account. Our
last illustration (opposite) shows,
though reduced in size, the rela-
tive coarseness of the block-printed
line. The drawing looked attrac-
tive, the block-cutter, wanting a
job, assured the employer that he
could render it perfectly, and if
the latter was disappointed in the
result, he only anticipated an
experience to which employers all
over the world are liable.

The nuqqdsh is, and I think
always was, a designer of all work.

He is still to the fore, though year
by year he has fewer opportunities,
and he must soon be “ snowed
under” by the modern profusion
of photographic, pictorial and
decorative work imported or of
194

local production. He is
no longer, as a matter of
course, a “ State servant ”
of an Indian Court, re-
ceiving an allowance
which, though more
honorific than substantial,
conferred a sort of
laureateship. Lithography
finds him some employ-
ment, but few amateurs
of position now care for
his illuminated romances,
mythological pictures or
historical portraits, care-
fully and elaborately
wrought. The ladies of
princely houses do not
now employ him on trac-
ing the embroideries
which used to give them
pocket money, while arti-
ficers concerned with
ornament have learned
by the stress of hard
times to do without new
designs—a fatally easy
lesson when they serve the agents of an unin-
terested public, and not, as of old, an instructed
patron or Court.

Writing in this place, there is no need to dwell
on the feeling for plant character or decorative

DRAWINGS IN GOLD AND COLOUR (FULL SIZE)