V&A Pattern: Indian Florals: (Hardcover with CD)

I've been on and off the fence about buying this, and now my only regret is that I didn't buy it sooner. The prints are a diverse assortment of items, from clothing to household pieces to fabric lengths, and are from the 18th and 19th centuries. So if you're looking exclusively for clothing fabrics, this may not be it. However, the book has several pluses: altho the pictures are only 4"x 5.5", the colors and patterns are well reproduced. There's almost 70 patterns shown, including the cover and endpieces. It's size is also useful. Slip it in a bag, backpack or a large pocket and it goes along to match colors for your latest inspiration (for personal use only!) Finally, the CD is a nifty little bonus with limitations. I could enlarge the jpegs a bit, but too much and the picture becomes blurry. It may be better on your system; it may not. A few of the busier prints lose detail in reprinting, but the simpler ones are so clear that you can see the weave. A previous review pans this because of the copyright restrictions. Yes, use of the images is restricted to personal, non-commercial use. However, there's a website where you are directed to go if you want to seek licensing of the images for any kind of commercial use. It seems wholly reasonable that the V&A would want to protect items in their collections. My next stop, Rosemary Crill's large, lush 'Chintz: Indian Textiles for the West'. Until then, I'll pour over this little treat.

Very pretty patterns and colors. I purchased this for making bookmarks, which I haven't made yet, because I'm still enjoying the unexpected text.

....a larger format would be better.

Thank you for the abundance if color pictures.

great reference

I have visited the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and it overwhelmed me. That museum has the largest holding of items of decorative art in the world. It has about 1.2 million individual pieces. I wandered through in a total daze, just astounded at the beauty. Since I love needlework, I headed for the Textiles Department. I walked into this enormous room and my jaw dropped: there was not another soul in there. So I started looking at the holdings and saw it's set up like a library. All around the room along the walls there are slanted tables with lights. In the middle of the room are huge wooden shelves that are labeled chronologically from 6000 BC to the present. Maybe you want to see a design of William Morris so you head to 1890 and search around. You pull out frames with the pieces secured between 2 thick sheets of plexiglass so you can see the front and back of each item. I raced to 1598 and pulled out the Jane Bostocke sampler, the earliest "stitch-signed" and -dated sampler in England. I sat down to examine it and tears came to my eyes. Walking through the various exhibits, many of which are grouped by either nations/cultures or by type of decoration such as furniture, I came to India. Gorgeous items, especially the amazing textiles. For about 10 bucks you can read what this magnificent museum's expert curators have to say on the subject and then you get to drool over the color photos on the CD. What more could you want?

This book is not fit for the purposes it is being advertised under. Do NOT buy this book unless you just like pretty pictures. Images are not available for commercial use in any form but nobody will tell you up front! Only until you open the CD do you learn that images are for personal use. Only until you read the little bitty print in the back cover do you learn that the publisher/author denies any responsibility for the use or inability to use this resource. So not only am I NOT happy - now I cant seem to get a refund! At very least the publisher should be upfront about "personal use only" on the cover or in the product description instead of misleading the buyer.

not as expected with book smaller than imagined

A delight from first page to last

Just what I wanted

Every book in this collection is simply amazing! I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone interested in textile design. Since this is a Victoria and Albert museum book, the quality of the selected pieces and images are stunning. My only 'complaint' (if any) is the very small format. I wish it were bigger and much thicker! It is worth noting that this is NOT a textbook but rather a picture book/visual reference.

Parfait

Smashing as usual