Indian Phulkari, circa 1st half 20th century
(India/Pakistan, Punjab Region)
Indian Vintage Silk Embroidery,
Silk on cotton, 50 x 94 inches
(127 x 239 cm)

Lot essay: Phulkari textiles, particularly finely detailed ones such as this example, have been prized and collected for decades. The Philadelphia Museum of Art recently had an exhibition (and publication) of Phulkari textiles from the Bonovitz collection (March 12 to July 9 2017).
From the late 19th century interest in Phulkari tradition has led to publications in English examining the textiles, including an 1883 article by Flora Steel in the Journal of Indian Art. Building on Rampa Pal’s 1950s study The Phulkari: A Lost Craft and reinvigorating collectors in the 1980s were books published in India that presented Phulkari textiles as a folk art.

Additional reading of recent scholarship: "Women's Work: Phulkari, Flora Annie Steel, and Collecting Textiles in British India” in Melia Belli Bose's edited volume Women, Gender, and Art in Early Modern Asia (Ashgate, 2016).

Provenance: Astrid & Dr. Halvor Jaeger collection (Famed chess set and art collectors)

Works from the Jaeger art collection have been exhibited at many museums and art spaces, including the American Museum of Natural History in New York, Baltimore Museum of Art, Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam, Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, Ontario College of Art and Design, UCLA's Fowler in Los Angeles, University of Cologne galleries, and the Museum Funf Kontinente in Munich.