A hand-carved printer’s tool from nineteenth-century India.
For sale, a textile printing block or bunta made for stamping decorative designs onto cloth. Carved from dense Indian rosewood, shisham. Presumed nineteenth century and consistent in construction and wear with printing blocks made and used in Benares (Varanasi) in Uttar Pradesh.
- Dimensions: 5.5 × 3.25 × 1.25 inches
- Weight: 10 oz.
- No provenance documentation available
Repeated exposure to printing dye and mustard oil (as a conditioner) has stained and darkened the wood. The carved printing face bears a pattern of crosses and circles arranged in a zigzag fashion, suggesting that this was a rekh block used to print the outline of the overall design.
The word bunta derives from Hindi buta or buti, terms referring to leaves, sprigs, buds, and the floral or vegetal motifs characteristic of Indian textile pattern. The modern French word for paisley, boteh, is a borrowing from the same source.
One might ask, why is this being sold at a bookshop? We acquired this to supplement our inventory pertaining to textile arts, history and manufacturing, one of our areas of special interest.