Madras in Focus: The Philips Swatch Book
This sample book contains 98 swatches of cloth mounted on card and annotated with names and codes. The book is signed twice with the same signature, 'John Philips'. It is believed to date to the 1790s.
Although many of the swatches are inscribed with South Indian checked cotton textile names, including 'Romal', 'Lungee', and 'Pulicat', all the fabrics in the book were made by the Philips family of textile manufacturers in Manchester, England. Part of the Philips family’s fortune was built on the manufacturing of imitation Indian textiles using cotton grown by enslaved people in the Americas and sold off the West Coast of Africa in exchange for more enslaved people. The Philips family used their wealth to wield power and influence at home, and in the process helped shape Manchester and the wider British Empire.