A PAGE FROM THE DESIGN BOOK OF THE COURT EMBROIDERERS OF KUTCH. GOUACHE ON PAPER (FIG. 2). PHOTO: JIM MASSELOS - TAASA Review March 2013

A PAGE FROM THE DESIGN BOOK OF THE COURT EMBROIDERERS OF KUTCH. GOUACHE ON PAPER (FIG. 2). PHOTO: JIM MASSELOS – TAASA Review March 2013

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This article was originally found in the March 2013 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 22, Issue 1, Page 8).

The full article is available for free to TAASA Members.

A design book and, to a lesser extent since they were not so comprehensive, the sample cards summarised the essence of the art of the court embroiderer.

They were records of forms, and of variations within those forms.

They delineated the basic vocabulary of the embroiderer, its preoccupations and parameters, but excluded unusual commissions. A design book from the family of the last Kutch court embroiderers survived in the government museum in Bhuj where I studied it in the early 1980s...