CALICO-PRINTING 577 



Egypt in a wonderful way. They are first imbued, not with dyes, but with dye- 

 absorbing drugs, by which, though they seem to be unaltered, yet, when immersed 

 for a litle while in a cauldron of the boiling dye-liquor, they are found to become 

 painted. Yet, as there is only one colour in the cauldron, it is marvellous to see many 

 colours imparted to the robe, in consequence of the influence of the excipient drug. 

 Nor can the dye bo washed out. A cauldron, which would of itself merely confuse 

 the colours of cloths previously dyed, is thus made to impart several pigments from 

 a single dye-stuff, painting as it boils' The last expression, pingitque dum coquit, is 

 perfectly graphic and descriptive of some processes in calico-printing. 



Calico-printing is of very ancient date in India, and probably this country is the 

 birthplace of the art, since, beyond doubt, cotton cloth originated in India, and the 

 abundance of dye-stuffs, and the facility with which cotton receives dyes, rendered the 

 staining it with figures a natural consequence, and there is good reason to suppose 

 that the Egyptians learnt the art from India, since the Indians were highly civilised 

 twenty-two centuries ago ; and there was undoubtedly communication between India 

 and Egypt before the time of Pliny. There is an account of Indian calico-printing by 

 Father Cceurdoux, a missionary at Pondicherry, and in a manuscript account sent 

 from thence by M. du Fay, and communicated to the Eoyal Academy of Sciences at 

 Paris by the Abb6 Mazeas, also from the report by M. Beaulieu, of operations per- 

 formed under his inspection at Pondicherry. Bancroft. 



These accounts describe the mode of producing the chintz calicoes, which were 

 celebrated in Europe before the art had been introduced and simplified there. From 

 these accounts of the cumbrous and tedious processes adopted by the natives, we have 

 no difficulty in understanding the necessity that arose for the intervention of European 

 skill and science, and can readily comprehend how it is that the European printer, 

 to say nothing of superior artistic excellence, can compete successfully in India with 

 the proverbially low-priced labour of Hindostan. After the cloths were partially 

 bleached, they underwent several alternate steeps in goats'-dung, beating, washing, and 

 drying in the sun ; they were then soaked in an astringent solution obtained from 

 myrabolams, mixed with buffaloes' milk ; squeezed out of this, they were dried in the 

 sun, and, by pressure with wooden rollers, made smooth enough to have a pattern 

 drawn on them with a pencil, applying various mordants : the general course was to 

 paint on a mordant of iron liquor, similar in constitution to that at present used in 

 calico-printing. This formed a black with the tannin substance previously applied. 

 The next step was to give the blue, and for this purpose the cloth required to be 

 freed from the astringents by maceration in goats'-dung, well washing and drying in 

 the sun ; the parts intended to be white were then protected by a coat of melted wax ; 

 the cloth was then dipped in an indigo vat : when dyed, the wax had to be thoroughly 

 removed by boiling in water, steeping in dung, washing with a sort of impure soda, 

 renewed steeping in dung, washing and drying in the sun ; after this the cloth was 

 treated, as before, with the astringent milk mixture, dried and smoothed. It was then 

 ready to receive the red and chocolate mordants, the red being simply alum mixed 

 with a little soda to render it basic, and the chocolate, this red mixed with the iron 

 mordant ; (the use of acetate of alumina not being known, the albumen of the milk 

 and the tannin combined with and fixed the alumina on the cloth). After careful sun- 

 drying, the cloth was well steeped and rinsed in water to remove the excess of 

 mordants, &c., and then dyed with madder or chaya root. After this they were washed 

 with dung and soap, exposed to the sun, and watered occasionally till the white parts 

 were bleached. Yellow, made from alum and myrabolams was now pencillediin, and 

 green formed by the yellow going over the blue. This process gave chintzes, the 

 colours of which were generally very bright and lively, and most of them exceedingly 

 durable. M. Koechlin Eoder, of Mulhouse, brought home from India a rich col- 

 lection of cloths in every state of preparation, which are in the cabinet of the 

 Societi Industrielle of that interesting emporium of calico-printing. The native 

 implements for applying the wax and colouring bases are placed alongside of 

 the cloths, and form a curious picture of primeval art. There is among other 

 samples an ancient pallampoor, five French yards long and two and a half broad, 

 said to be the labour of Hindoo princesses, which must have taken a lifetime to 

 execute. 



Calico-printing was not, however, in all oriental countries executed with the pencil. 

 The shawl-printers of Cashmere use small wooden blocks for their complicated 

 patterns. Mr. Buckingham states, that at Orfah, in Mesopotamia, the printers employ 

 wooden blocks of 4 to 6 inches square, and use them nearly in the same manner 

 as the block-printers in this country ; and it is well known that the Chinese employed 

 block-printing long before any species of printing was known in this country. 



Calico-printing has been for several hundred years practised by the oriental 

 methods in Asia Minor and the Levant ; but it was unknown as an English art till 



VOL. I. P P 



