Indian goods

Indian goods, in 17th- and 18th-century Europe, any of a vast variety of furniture, paper hangings, textiles, paintings, and enamels that were being imported from South and East Asia into Europe. The imported goods were not limited, as the term would seem to imply, to goods imported from India, which in fact constituted only a very small proportion of the trade. Although a variety of objects had been imported into Europe from the late 16th century, their impact was not widespread until the end of the following century. Carried by ships of England’s East India Company from China, Macau, India, and Japan, these goods were auctioned in London and sold to the general public through shops such as that of “Mrs. Mary Hunt, Indian Woman, at the Golden Ball in Portugal Street,” where one could find “Fine Indian Cabinets, Indian Tea Tables and Boxes; a fine Indian chintze bed … a large parcel of Indian fans, a large parcel of China and Indian Pictures.”

“Indian” furniture consisted of lacquered cabinets, screens, tables, and the like, often made in China to European patterns. In some cases—especially in France, where menuisiers and ébénistes specialized in this kind of work—panels of Japanese lacquerwork, imported through Nagasaki and Canton (Guangzhou), were mounted on locally made cabinetwork ornamented with ormolu (gilded bronze or brass). Wallpapers with traditional Chinese patterns and small framed paintings and prints first appeared on the European market in the 1690s. The technique of painting in enamels on metal had been introduced into China by means of missionaries in Beijing, and large quantities of these so-called Canton enamels were sold in Europe and America during the 18th century. Another popular category of Indian goods consisted of carvings in soapstone, ivory, tortoiseshell, and mother-of-pearl—ranging from chessmen to elaborate models of Buddhist temples. (Jade carvings did not appear in the West until the 19th century.) Another essential part of the trade of the East India Company were all varieties of porcelain, often made to European specifications. Chinese textiles were used for bed furniture, curtains, and the like. By the end of the 18th century, when Westerners had acquired more sophistication regarding these imports, the inaccurate blanket description Indian goods fell out of use.