The Visual Language of Textile Tickets in 20th-Century British India: A Collection from B. Taylor and Co.

The Visual Language of Textile Tickets in 20th-Century British India: A Collection from B. Taylor and Co.

Ragini Siruguri

University of Reading, UK (r.siruguri[at]outlook.com)

Abstract: This essay examines the visual language of textile tickets — small, printed labels used on cotton bales and fabric lengths — produced by British printers for export to colonial India between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Emerging amidst expanding colonial trade and advances in printing technology, these ephemera evolved into vivid, ideologically charged artifacts. Focusing on a collection of textile tickets produced by Manchester-based printing firm B. Taylor and Co., this study explores three recurring visual themes: empire, religion, and gender. It argues that these images did more than advertise textiles: they glorified British imperial authority, appropriated Indian religious imagery, and idealized women as passive ornamental objects to enhance appeal in a male-dominated trade. Through visual and contextual analysis, this essay demonstrates that textile tickets — often valued only for aesthetics — also functioned as everyday instruments of colonial control.

Keywords: British Empire; colonial India; design history; iconography; Indo-British cotton trade; textile tickets; visual culture

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Author

Ragini Siruguri is a visual communication designer and researcher based in South India. Her work spans book design, typography, and visual culture, with particular interest in print ephemera and multiscript typography in Indian contexts. She holds an MA by Research in Typography & Graphic Communication from the University of Reading, United Kingdom, supported by the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation. The essay is based on research undertaken during her postgraduate studies under the mentorship of Gerry Leonidas.

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Cite this article:
SSiruguri, R. (2025). The visual language of textile tickets in
20th-century British India: A collection from B. Taylor and Co. Visible Language, 59(3), 379–399. https://www.visible-language.org/journal/issue-59-3-textile-tickets/

First published online May 22, 2025. © 2025 Visible Language — this article is open access, published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license.

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