Taking a team of 10 artisans over a fortnight to print, the heavy silk hanging was made in Mumbai to be exhibited at a Festival of India held in Germany more than 25 years ago.
Outlines of the 7" curved shapes were printed first, then filled in with colored patterns printed through paper stencils... each infill is unique.
Discussions with a printer also revealed that the hanging is in the Sanganeri style of block printing, which was developed in Sanganer near Jaipur.
A textile center for hundreds of years, brightly colored, high quality block-printed cottons or calicoes from Sanganer were coveted by Europeans and Asians alike. Calicoes formed a lucrative part of the trade items travelling the marine Silk Road and later helped build the fortunes of the great European trading companies.
Strangely, a very similar pattern to the one in this textile is commercially produced in Japan today. The motifs and colors of the modern Japanese version are called Sarasa. Indian printed calicoes (often from Sanganer) provided many of the designs for Sarasa. These calicoes were brought to Japan by early trade and were prized by the aristocracy.
So today, both India and Japan seem to have a historical claim to this charming pattern.
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