Printing on Cotton at Ahmedabad, India in 1678 by Paul R. Schwartz on Mullen Books

Printing on Cotton at Ahmedabad, India in 1678

Schwartz, Paul R.

Ahmedabad, India: Calico Museum of Textiles, 1996. Second Edition. Softcover. Tan wraps with red/black lettering. Printed glassine dust jacket. 29 pp. with 6 bw plates (10 photographs) and a bw map. NF contents/covers but museum ex-lib. copy with some usual marks. Text entirely clean. Item #162172

This booklet contains part of an uncatalogued manuscript (not in facsimile form) found in Paris's Bibliotheque Nationale in 1965 by John Irwin. The author, Georges Roques, and agent of the Compagnie des Indes, likely wrote it between 1678 and 1680 and addressed it to the company's chief agent at Surat. The manuscript was referred to Paul Schwartz, an expert on the history of dye chemistry, who edited the three chapters on cotton-printing at Ahmedabad. That was published in the Bulletin de la Societe Industrielle de Mulhouse in 1967 (in French), and Margaret Hall subsequently translated Schwartz's information herein to English for this booklet, published in Ahmedabad. As of this second edition, the remainder of the Roques manuscript remained (remains?) unpublished. This booklet contains a preface, the title "essay," 3 facsimile extracts, and Examination of the techniques employed, according to Roque's account, notes, and two appendices (dimensions of cotton cloths; index of subjects contained in the Roques Manuscript). The 6 bw photo plates are contemporary from 1968 Ahmedabad.