206 
The Garden Magazine, May, 1924 
MODERN FRUIT 
MOTIF 
“Printed linens are de¬ 
veloped to the highest 
point in France and 
have been since the 18th 
Century”; an effective 
toille de Rambouillet 
with red-orange fruits 
and white trellis against 
a background of rich 
blue (Courtesy of F. 
Schumacher & Co.) 
AFTER THE 
CHINESE 
An obviously Oriental 
and very amusing pat¬ 
tern in green and orange 
tones with dark outlines 
on natural linen ground 
(Courtesy of Proctor & 
Co.) 
changeably used, but the word “chintz”, derived from the Hindu 
word, is largely employed in England, and has been associated with 
the glazed and unglazed printed materials on soft fine cotton that are 
the direct descendants of the old India prints; whereas the word 
“cretonne” is derived from Creton, the name of an old French 
town, where certain printed cottons and linens were made. It is 
more in use in this country than in England and is apt to be applied 
to rather less choice and to heavier cottons than is the word chintz. 
1 he most usual pattern for the original India prints, on which 
many changes were rung, was that of a gracefully curving tree trunk 
rising from a mound of earth and breaking into many branches. 
From these branches spring all the flowers of the Orient, and among 
them cluster or hang its birds, and beasts and butterflies, blended 
marvellously into a conventionalized design, perfectly balanced in 
form and color. Only a learned Hindu pundit could fully explain the 
meanings of many of these elaborate patterns. In addition to Hindu 
love of color and pattern, there was an 
immense amount of symbolism back of it, 
all too intricate to go into in the short 
space of this article. 
The reasons why flowers, animals, and 
birds are so common in Persian, Indian, 
and Chinese designs, while they are almost 
wholly absent from designs of the nearer 
East, seems to have been more religious 
than climatic. There was some kind of ta¬ 
boo among the Semitic peoples, familiar to 
us all by reason of the Second Command¬ 
ment, against making any representation 
of any living object. It had something to 
do with the difficulties of establishing a 
pure monotheism. Among the peoples 
farther east, on the other hand, the repre¬ 
sentation of flowers and various animals is 
full of symbolism, commonly religious sym¬ 
bolism. 
REMINISCENT OF AN¬ 
CIENT INDIAN AND 
PERSIAN PATTERNS 
A galaxy of garden familiars 
—Poppies, Roses, Daisies, 
Tulips, Morning-glories, 
etc.—throwing bright 
blooms and leaves against a 
linen ground broken with 
stripes of yellow, green, and 
blue (Courtesy of Proctor 
& Co.) 
“THE MILLER, HIS 
SON, AND THE ASS” 
Delightful old toile de Jouy 
design chiefly reds and 
mauve against cream 
(Courtesy of F. Schumacher 
& Co.) 
chintzes and linens. Many of the best 
patterns are lineal descendants of those 
laboriously painted by hand on the fine 
hand-woven India cottons, which so 
closely resembled linens, and were used 
for wearing apparel and hangings, be¬ 
fore the adventurous Portuguese navi¬ 
gators introduced them into Europe in 
the late 15th century, by way of the 
Cape of Good Hope. 
Soon after that time, the Dutch, 
closely followed by the English and 
French, formed East India Companies 
and through them a flourishing trade 
in Indian prints was established be¬ 
tween India and Europe. They were 
first brought into England in the reigns 
of William and Mary, and Queen 
Ann, and became tremendously fashionable. In the 
middle of the 18th Century many Chinese motives 
were introduced into the designs of the prints and 
this became such a craze in England that it got the 
French name of Chinoiserie, having first become 
popular in France in the reign of Louis XV. 
What Chintz Really Is 
T HE word chintz is derived from the Hindu 
word “chint” pronounced chints, and from the 
sound of that our modern word chintz is derived. 
There is often confusion in peoples’ minds about the 
terms chintz, cretonne, printed linen. The facts 
seem to be that chintz and cretonne are both cotton 
materials with printed patterns, somewhat inter- 
