Palampores: India’s Dyers Discover Mordants - By: Kimberly Wulfert

In the 16th century, India's textile workers discovered how to make color adhere to cotton, thus making it colorfast. Before this important discovery, colors and designs printed onto cotton, would soon wash out and fade in the sun. Berry and vegetable dyes were not fast. Linen wasn’t much better and clothes were drab and colorless. People valued wools and silks, which held color well, but whole cloth quilts made of silk were rare in American homes. Silk was too expensive for the average person and wool was too hot in some climates

The Far Eastern Indians changed the face of fabric when they discovered mordant dyeing. Mordants were simple metallic salts, like alum, tin, and iron. Tannin and gall from tree bark were other mordants often used. Properties of mordants opened up cotton fibers so they grasped the dye's molecules and then they closed up again forming a nearly permanent bond. Dyes were applied to cloth after the mordants -- with carved wood blocks or in large dye pots.

Everyone in Western Europe and Britain wanted "painted" cloth once they found out about it in the early 1600's. They wore it, hung it on their walls, made floor cloths, covered furniture and, of course, covered beds! Panels of cotton cloth with a Tree of Life printed on them were called Palampores. Today we consider them as examples of the first chintz, meaning spotted cloth. When a Palampore panel was backed, filled with cotton, and sewn together - it became a popular quilt in Europe throughout that century and into the 18th century, eventually finding its way to America.

Palampores were first made by painting with brushes onto cotton, later the patterns were printed with blocks. They were always in a similar all-over design of floral and natural motifs set around a tree of life symbol in the center. The center area was the largest area, and a wide border enclosed it on four sides. Sometimes the cornerstones had a different design in them and they looked like squares were set in. Swags, pots of flowers, and ribbons were more likely to be in the wide borders. The tree in the middle grew out of a rocky or hilly ground and could have one or multiple trunks, but always had multiple branches.

Wealthy families imported Palampore panels and quilts, but they were never printed in America, or could be. In fact, the secret of mordant dyeing was kept in the Far East until mid-17th century. When France and England figured it out and could print cotton chintz with wood blocks, it became so popular the silk and wool manufacturers feared being put out of business. Laws were enacted in England and France prohibiting their printing on 100% cotton including chintz and from importing chintz from India. About 100 years later the laws were repealed and printed chintz cotton soon was manufactured as a luxury item and was an artistic trade in Western Europe.

Thanks to the Indian dyer’s discovery of mordants, cotton could be printed in deep, richly colored designs. Cotton is a cellulose fiber with molecules shaped unlike the carbon-based protein molecules of natural dyes. So, they do not attract each other naturally. Wool and silk molecules are liked shaped and do not require the help of mordants to produce colorfast results.

There are many different kinds of mordants, but the main ones used in dyeing cotton prints were mineral salts: aluminum, iron, tin and copper. Alum was the most widely used, as it helped get shades of red and rust from madder. Iron was also used a lot, with madder, logwood or by itself, to darken or dull colors and to produce blacks and dark browns. Tin gave an extra brightness to reds, oranges and yellows, and it resisted iron, which was a plus when using the multiple dyes. The least mentioned mordant seems to be copper, which was less harsh on cotton than tin, but could still be harsh. It brought out green tones, and darkened dyes, generally.

An analogy of mordant dyeing would be a bridge over water. The mordant forms a bridge between the dye and the cotton, enabling the dye to travel into the molecule and bond with it. And the palampore panels formed a virtual bridge between America’s textile and quilt designs and India’s. We began to trade with them after the Revolutionary War ended. We sent our ships directly to them in the 1780s and brought back plain woven cotton for printing and dyeing here, as well as dyes and of course palampores.

Panels of cotton cloth with a Tree of Life handprinted were called Palampores. When batting, a back and quilting were added, they became bedcovers. The Far Eastern Indians changed the face of fabric when they discovered mordant dyeing that made colors handpainted on cotton fast. Everyone in Western Europe and Britain wanted "painted" cloth once they found out about it in the early 1600's.

This article is written by quilt historian, researcher and speaker Kimberly Wulfert, PhD. To learn more about antique quilts, their history and photographs visit my educational website http://www.antiquequiltdating.com and http://www.antiquequiltdatingguides.com to date your own quilts.