Handkerchief Varieties

Handkerchief Terminology

The English word ‘handkerchief’ today typically denotes a small, square piece of cloth carried for personal hygiene, e.g. a cloth for wiping for the face, nose, hands, etc. The word developed from a Middle English combination of courve-chef (‘kerchief’, or head-cloth) and ‘hand’, denoting a kerchief carried in the hand. Handkerchiefs used for hygienic purposes were often made small enough to be kept discreetly out of sight, leading to the further designation of ‘pocket handkerchief’ as early as the 1600s.

In contrast, larger handkerchiefs - broadly referred to today simply as ‘kerchiefs’ - served a much wider range of purposes. For centuries, handkerchiefs measuring roughly a yard (91 cm) square were worn by people all over the world as articles of everyday dress. They were tied around the head as ‘head-kerchiefs’; the neck and shoulders as ‘neckerchiefs’; around the torso as sashes and the waist as skirt cloths - making handkerchiefs both a fashionable and utilitarian accessory.

The universality of handkerchiefs across cultures worldwide makes tracing the origins, evolutions and circulations of handkerchief fashions extremely challenging. Archival records document huge circulation of handkerchiefs across overlapping and interlinked global trade networks, and the terminology applied to them shifted depending on the language tracking their movement at any one time. Thus the same handkerchief as woven in South India may be referred to as a kaikkuṭṭai by its weaver, a rumal (or roemal,‘face-wipe’) by its middleman, a halsdoek (neckcloth), neusdoek (nosecloth) or zondoek (suncloth) by its Dutch trader, a mouchoir (nose wipe) by its French merchant, and a tignon (headwrap) by its New Orleanian purchaser.

Madras Handkerchiefs & Related Varieties

Today the term Madras handkerchief is broadly applied to any large cotton handkerchief patterned with multi-coloured checks. However, the genericism of the term is a relatively recent phenomenon. At the time the first Madras handkerchiefs were made, South India was producing dozens of varieties and subvarieties of multi-coloured check cotton handkerchiefs, each with their own trade names. The number of different handkerchief varieties historically produced presents substantial obstacles to researchers of Madras handkerchief production and trade. Among the South Indian handkerchief varieties which the Connecting Threads project has identified as potentially related to the history of the Madras handkerchief are the Masulipatnam; Pulicat; Ventepollam; Tranquebar; Pondicherry; Metchlepatam; Arnee; Santhome; Mylapore; Pombalum; Bandana and Bandana Madras; Red and Blue Romal; Soot and Soot Madras, although there are likely many more.

Naming Conventions

Many of these South Indian handkerchief varieties were named for the specific location they were commissioned from and/or exported through. These include the Madras handkerchief, which is named for the city of Madras (now known as Chennai) in Tamil Nadu, as well as the Masulipatnam, named for the city of Masulipatnam (now Machilipatnam) in Andhra Pradesh, and the Pulicat, named for the town of Pulicat (now Pazhaverkadu), Tamil Nadu. Archival records indicate that while some production of some varieties took place within these cities, South Indian handkerchiefs were also commissioned from clusters, or payakats, of weaving villages outside of the cities themselves.

Connecting Threads research suggests that the term Madras handkerchief originally denoted handkerchiefs made in and around the city of Madras. However, under the rule of the British East India Company and, subsequently, the British Government, the geographic boundaries of the city changed. The greater the metropolitan area of Madras grew, the more neighbouring towns it absorbed, including the historic handkerchief production districts of Santhome and Mylapore. Under the British the city of Madras also became the capital of the Madras Presidency, a colonial administrative region which eventually encompassed most of South India’s major handkerchief production sectors.

Connecting Threads surmises that as the geographic boundaries of Madras expanded, so too did the definition of Madras handkerchiefs. By about the mid-19th century the expansion of Madras as a geographic-indicator, in combination with the popular success of Madras handkerchiefs as compared to other handkerchief varieties, had resulted in Madras becoming the dominant term used to describe checked handkerchiefs of the South Indian style, regardless of whether they were produced in or outside of the city by that name. Likewise, other varieties of checked cotton cloth historically produced across different South Indian textile centres appear to have been subsumed under the geo-indicator of Madras as a result of the same process, resulting in the circulation of nebulous Madras cloth, and simply Madras.

South Indian Handkerchief Physical Characteristics

Prior to the dominance of Madras handkerchiefs as a category, the South Indian handkerchief trade encompassed a wide assortment of varieties traded under their own distinctive names. These varieties were distinguished not only by their geographic origin, but also by their physical characteristics, which ranged from the relative fineness of their yarns, to the colour and clarity of their dyes, to their patterns, textures, smells and finishes.

All South Indian checked cotton handkerchiefs qualify as all-cotton, yarn-dyed, loom-patterned textiles, meaning they are woven only from cotton yarn (as opposed to a mix of cotton and linen or cotton and silk) and that the designs are creating by weaving different coloured yarns together (as opposed to being printed on). The fundamental stages of handkerchief production included: spinning the cotton into yarn; bleaching the yarn; dyeing the yarn; sizing (pre-treating the yarn to reduce breakage); weaving; and finishing (post-weaving treatments to improve the look or feel of the fabric). Handkerchiefs were generally woven in plain-weave, also known as tabby. Plain-weave is the simplest weave structure, consisting of an even intersection of one warp to one weft. To create checks in plain weave, the weaver loads different coloured warp (lengthwise) yarns onto the loom in a striped configuration, then weaves different coloured rows of weft (crosswise) yarn across them, so that the coloured stripes of the vertical warps intersect perpendicularly with the coloured rows of horizontal wefts.

The technical processes of weaving South Indian checked cotton handkerchiefs did not differ substantially from the weaving of any other kind of plain-weave, yarn-dyed, loom-patterned checked cotton yardage. Indeed, any kind of checked fabric could be tailored into a handkerchief simply by cutting and hemming a square. What differentiated South Indian checked cotton handkerchiefs from checked yardage generally was their purpose-woven design. Made in lengths of several handkerchiefs at a time, South Indian checked cotton handkerchiefs were woven with border designs that demarcated the area of each handkerchief. The border designs could be obvious, as in the design of this length of two handkerchiefs, or they could be subtle, as in the design of this length, but borders were always present. Merchants purchased handkerchiefs in uncut lengths and separated them by cutting between their adjoining borders.

Variations in Structure

Weavers could create different kinds of handkerchiefs by altering their materials and processes. For example, by altering the thread count (the number threads in a given area of cloth) weavers could alter the quality of the cloth. Finely spun threads could be packed close together to create a cloth with a high thread count. Coarsely spun threads took up more space, resulting in a low thread count cloth. In South India, thread counts were calculated using units called conjons (also known as punjums), meaning groups of 120 warp threads (or ends). According to one 18th century source, the lowest grade of handkerchief made in South India had 23 conjons, equalling 2760 warp threads, whereas the highest grade had 48 conjons, equalling 5760 warp threads.

Different varieties of handkerchief came in different conjon grades. Masulipatnam handkerchiefs are recorded by the same source to have come in grades of 26, 30 and 36 conjons, while Pulicat handkerchiefs came in grades of 23, 26, 28, 30, 32, 36 and 48 conjons. Thus, thread counts were part of what distinguished different handkerchief varieties from each other. Weft threads were not counted in the conjon system. Contemporary accounts also note that the kinds of cotton used, the ply (number of threads spun together to make the yarn) and twist (the direction and tightness of the spun threads) of the yarn, and the number of handkerchiefs woven in a length also differed between handkerchief varieties.

Colours, Smells, Textures

All South Indian handkerchiefs made before the later 1800s were coloured using dyes derived from indigenous South Indian plants. These plants included chay root (Oldenlandia umbellata), sappanwood (Biancaea sappan), turmeric (Curcuma longa) and indigo (Indigofera tinctoria) among others. Sources of the 18th and 19th centuries vary in their descriptions of the exact dyes and dye recipes used by South Indian dyers to create colours on cotton, and there is some evidence to suggest that certain dye substances recorded as being used in the production of handkerchiefs worked more as colour modifiers than as colourants. Some accounts reference the colours of specific handkerchief varieties as leaning towards certain shades, i.e. pinker versus more purple reds, and as being stronger or clearer than others, which may have made it possible for some handkerchief varieties to be distinguished by their colours.

Several sources reference the smells of South Indian checked handkerchiefs, especially in the context of consumers being able to tell genuine South Indian handkerchiefs apart from European imitations. Some of these smells would have been the result of plant dyes, some of which carry specific odours, but smell was also imbued by the ingredients used in sizing the yarn, which included rice starch and gingelly (Sesamum indicum) and/or illupai (Madhuca longifolia) oil. The use and/or quantity of oil used impacted the finished fabric’s odour: for example, Masulipatnam handkerchief yarns are recorded to have been soaked in illupai oil for eight days, which gave them a distinctive smell.

Rice starch and oil also factored into the finishing treatments of different South Indian checked handkerchief varieties. Certain varieties of handkerchief, especially the Masulipatnam, Ventapolam and Sasserganti, were noted for their glossy sheen and papery texture, which was achieved by a process of beetling (beating the cloth with wooden mallets) or rubbing the cloth with chank shells to flatten its yarns.

Patterns

Pattern is a far less well understood indicator of variety, especially as patterns were not generally differentiated in trade records in meaningful ways. In most cast, trade ledgers record only simple descriptive terms referencing the dominant colour of the pattern (Blue Handkerchiefs), strength of shade (‘half-dye’, ‘full-dye’), dimensions (‘large’), and quality (‘finer sort’, ‘inferior sort’). This is because traders generally used physical samples, illustrations, and order codes corresponding to known pattern types to convey their different pattern needs. Only in rare instances were patterns verbally described in detail. Very few physical samples and no known handkerchief pattern illustrations or pattern code indexes survive, and this lack of documentation combined with the unknown provenance of most surviving South Indian handkerchiefs now make patterns unreliable indicators of origin. However, there is some evidence to suggest that some pattern characteristics were associated with specific varieties of handkerchief; namely Ventapolam handkerchiefs, which were distinguished by their ‘large checks’, and Pulicat handkerchiefs, the checks of which were noted to always be perfectly square, measuring 3.6cm in both height and width. Moreover, instances of traders encouraging creativity on the part of weavers in the creation of new patterns and/or colourways indicate that weavers were not restricted to specific pattern formats, but acted as collaborators in the design process.

Copying and Substitution

While handkerchief varieties were commissioned and consumed based on specific characteristics, records also document deliberate attempts to recreate the traits of one variety in another. The evidence of contemporary sources suggests that the first Madras handkerchiefs were commissioned as deliberate imitations of Pulicat handkerchiefs, which were produced in and around the city of Pulicat, to the north of the city of Madras. Pulicat handkerchiefs were already internationally popular fashion accessories when the first Madras handkerchiefs appeared in trade records, being considered the finest of all South Indian handkerchief varieties. Contemporary accounts document confusion between Madras and Pulicat, with some sources asserting they were distinct products and others that they were interchangeable terms for the same product. Tracking instances of Pulicat and Madras in trade records support the supposition that Madras did originate as a distinct handkerchief variety, and that it eventually took over established Pulicat markets, especially as the relative prominence of the city of Madras as an economic centre eclipsed that of Pulicat, which now exists as a town on the outskirts of the Greater Chennai Metropolitan region.

Madras handkerchiefs were in turn imitated by European textile manufacturers, which capitalised on the international markets established by South Indian checked handkerchief by producing their own industrially woven handkerchiefs. Some of these handkerchiefs, such as the red handkerchiefs of Cholet,France, became popular in their own right as competitor products, while others attempted to confound consumers by imitating Madras handkerchiefs closely enough for their products to be mistaken for genuine South Indian Madras. Following the incursion of these industrial imitations in the 19th century, the term Real Madras, shortened to Reals, began to appear in trade records to distinguish Madras handkerchiefs and Madras cloth made in South India, and especially on handlooms. In the 20th century Bleeding Madras became a popular category of Madras cloth, which was distinguished by its unstable dyes; the dyes bled into each other with washing, creating a blurred effect which was marketed as an indicator of Indian authenticity caused by the use of plant dyes.

Conclusion

The history of Madras handkerchiefs has continued to evolve as industrialisation and changing global fashion markets have shifted patterns of production and trade. While it is no longer produced or traded in the volumes of the previous centuries, it still plays an important role as an article of cultural dress in many regions around the world.