The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Chintz door curtain, multi-colored fabric with a glazed finish, covered with ornate patterns of dark pink flowers with dark blue, almost black stems against a cream background. In a central archway with a triangular arch, the pattern also features birds, two peacocks facing each other at the base. This shape and pattern repeats in columns on either side and a band above. Above and below run bands of alternating mustard-yellow and white or red and blue diamonds with flowers in them.

Chintz door curtain

1800s

Iran, Isfahan, Qajar period

(1779–1925)
Cotton: plain weave; chintz; hand drawing and block printing: bleach, mordant, and dye
Overall: 213.7 x 135.9 cm (84 1/8 x 53 1/2 in.)
Sundry Purchase Fund 2014.20
Location: Not on view

Description

Lightweight white cotton cloth was transformed into this beautiful chintz, admired for its vibrant and durable colors, stunning pattern, fine quality, and rarity. Peacocks and a variety of birds appear amid vines with fanciful blossoms in the niche field and main border. Striking end borders feature blossoms in leaf-outlined diamonds on alternating ground colors of white, mustard, red, and blue. The complex chintz technique involving hand drawing, block printing, bleach, mordant, and dyes was developed in India. By the 1600s and 1700s, chintz was designed to target European and Asian markets and often featured large tree-of-life patterns. Chintz was also made in Iran by the 1400s, but this rare door curtain from the 1800s is among the oldest known examples.
  • ?–2014
    (Morita Antiques, Tokyo, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2014–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Mackie, Louise W. Symbols of Power: Luxury Textiles from Islamic Lands, 7th-21st Century. Cleveland; New Haven: Cleveland Museum of Art; Yale University Press, 2015. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 390–391, fig. 9.54
    Mackie, Louise. “Acquisition Highlights 2014: Textiles and Islamic Art.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 55, no. 2 (March/April 2015): 20-21. Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 21 archive.org
  • Floral Delight: Textiles from Islamic Lands. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 9, 2014-May 4, 2015).
  • {{cite web|title=Chintz door curtain|url=false|author=|year=1800s|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2014.20