Dictionary Definition
chintz n : a brightly printed and glazed cotton
fabric
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Noun
Derived terms
References
Extensive Definition
Chintz is calico
cloth printed with flowers and other devices in different colours.
The word Chintz is Hindi and derived from the Sanskrit "chitra"
which means many-coloured or speckled, originally from India.
Chintz was originally a painted or stained calico
produced in India from 1600 to
1800 and popular for bed covers,
quilts and draperies. Around 1600,
Portuguese and Dutch traders were bringing examples of Indian
chintz into Europe. These early
fabrics were extremely expensive and rare. By 1680 more than a
million pieces of chintz were being imported into England per year,
and a similar quantity was going to France and Holland. With
imported chintz becoming so popular with Europeans during the late
1600's, French and English mills grew concerned, as they could not
make chintz. In 1686 the French declared a ban on all chintz
imports. In 1720 England's Parliament enacted a law that forbid
"the Use and Warings in Apparel of imported chintz, and also its
use or Wear in or about any Bed, Chair, Cushion or other Household
furniture".
Even thought chintz was outlawed, there were
loopholes in the legislation. The Court of Versailles was
outside the law and fashionable young courtesans continued wearing
chintz. In 1734, French naval officer, M. de Beaulieu, who was
stationed in Pondicherry, India, sent home letters along with
actual samples of chintz fabric during each stage of the process to
a chemist friend detailing the dyeing process of cotton chintz. His
letters and samples can be seen today in the Musee' Nationale
d'Histore Naturelle in Paris.
Another Frenchman, Father Coeurdoux also supplied
details of the chintz making process, in 1742, while he was trying
to convert the Indians to Catholicism. In 1759 the ban against
chintz was lifted. By this time French and English mills were able
to produce chintz.
Europeans at first produced reproductions of
Indian designs, and later added original patterns. A well-known
make was toile de
Jouy, which was manufactured in Jouy, France between
1700 and
1843.
Modern chintz usually consists of bright overall
floral patterns printed on a light background.
Chintz is also pottery covered with a dense,
all-over pattern of flowers or, less often, other objects. The
pattern is applied by transfer printing as opposed to the more
traditional method of painting by hand. The main firms making
chintz——Grimwades (trade name Royal Winton), A.G. Richardson &
Co. (trade name Crown Ducal), James Kent Ltd., Shelley Potteries
Ltd., and Elijah Cotton Ltd. (trade name Lord Nelson)——were English
and turned out a great variety of chintz dinnerware, teaware, and
ornamental pieces mostly in the 1920s-50s.
In contemporary language the word "chintz" and
"chintzy" can be used to refer to clothing or furnishings which are
vulgar or showy in appearance.
Books on ceramic chintz
- Eileen Rose Busby, Royal Winton Porcelain: Ceramics Fit for a King, Antique Publishers, 1998.
- Susan Scott, The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Chintz, 3rd ed. Charlton Press, 1999.
- Kelly L. Moran, Shelley Chintz: Unlocking the Secrets of the Pattern Books, Thaxted Cottage, 1999, ISBN 0967692504.
- Jo Anne P. Welsh, Chintz Ceramics, 3rd ed., Schiffer Publishing, 2000.
- Francis Joseph Publications, The Chintz Collectors Handbook, 1999.
- Muriel M. Miller, Collecting Royal Winton Chintz, Francis Joseph Publications, 1996.
External links
chintz in German: Chintz
chintz in Italian: Chintz
chintz in Japanese: 更紗
chintz in Dutch: sits
chintz in Slovenian: Činc