Chromolithographs postcards

20th century advertisements found on cloth and individual fabric lengths, printed on paper

This collection of ephemeral sales and advertising chromolithograph labels were designed in India, printed in Britain, and then returned to India to be attached to cloth for subsequent sale in the bazaars. Several of the labels record the location of the mills in Britain and their associated outlets in India, and the majority of the labels depict pop culture themes like gods from Hinduism, the Sikh gurus, or scenes from the epics (such as the Ramayana, Mahabharata, etc). Inscriptions can be found on the printed surface of many of the labels, and the script used depended on where the cloth was to be sold in India. While collections of Indian textiles made for both the home and export market are relatively common, British mill-made cloth exported back to India and the labels that would have accompanied them (usually destroyed after the unpacking or sale of the textiles) are rare.