Sunday Read: Labels of an Empire by Susan Meller
Long before logos became global and branding was flattened into a single mark, textile merchants relied on imagery that spoke directly to place. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, bolts of cotton leaving Manchester’s warehouses carried vividly printed tickets—small, carefully designed works of art intended to communicate with distant buyers through shared symbols, stories and visual language. Many Selvedge readers may remember encountering these same tickets during London Textile Month, through the MAP Academy talk Ticket Tika Chaap and its accompanying exhibition, which brought renewed attention to this remarkable visual archive.
Labels of Empire by Susan Meller
Susan Meller’s book offers a substantial contribution to the study of textile trademarks and the visual culture surrounding Manchester’s export trade. Drawing on extensive archival material, it brings attention to an area of textile history that has often been overlooked, presenting Indian textile tickets not only as commercial tools but as objects embedded in systems of design, trade and cultural exchange.
Top left: Radha Krishna, c.1900 Label. Top right: Krishna Anoints Radha's Foot, c.1900 Label. Bottom: Krishna selects Radha as his favourite gopi, 1750-1751.
The scope of the project is considerable. Meller has scanned, digitally restored and researched more than 1,200 textile tickets sourced from historic sample books, translating inscriptions and tracing the origins of the imagery used. The book reveals how export merchants working through Manchester commissioned trademarks with a high degree of regional specificity, selecting imagery intended to resonate with particular towns, markets and communities across India.
Ram Assembly. c. 1920. Print, 14 x 10" (unframed), b. A. K. Joshi & Co., Ram Panchayatan (Assembly), Kalbadevi Road Bombay [H]. Ravi Vaibhav F.A.L. Press, Ghatkopar. As was often the case, this print was embellished with spangles, likely by its owner for display in the home.
Rather than functioning as generic labels, these tickets were carefully designed trademarks. Deities, animals, epic narratives and scenes of everyday life appear repeatedly, rendered in styles recognisable to Indian audiences. Production techniques also varied by market: high-gloss finishes and strong colours were favoured for India, while other regions received tickets designed to reflect local artistic conventions. These distinctions point to a sophisticated visual strategy shaped by knowledge of diverse consumer preferences.
Rose Lady, c.1910 Label.
The visual material is the book’s central strength. Meller’s digital restorations capture the complexity of the original printing, which often involved multiple colours, embossing or metallic elements. The tickets are organised thematically, with particular attention given to sequences that illustrate episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Read collectively, they form a pictorial record of Indian society at the turn of the twentieth century, encompassing religious belief, social hierarchy, architecture, transport and labour.
Top left: Lotus Travel, c.1910-22. Top right: Ariel Trade Mark, late 19th century. Bottom left: Eagle Machine, c.1920. Bottom right: Fairies, c.1910.
Each image is accompanied by concise contextual information, including translations and explanations of symbolic content, as well as references to source material where identifiable. This approach situates the tickets within broader visual traditions and highlights the role of artists, printers and merchants in shaping their final form. The book demonstrates that these trademarks emerged from deliberate research and collaboration, rather than incidental design.
Radha Krishna Ticket. c. 1900.
The publication does not aim to provide a comprehensive economic history of the cotton trade, rather it succeeds as a visual and cultural study. As a curated introduction to a much larger archive of textile trademarks, it offers insight into how imagery functioned within global textile markets. Labels of Empire positions these tickets as significant historical artefacts, revealing how design, commerce and cultural knowledge intersected through cloth.
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Further Information:
Labels of Empire by Susan Meller is out now and available here: Labels of Empire
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Find out more about the Indian textile trade in the articles 'COTTON, INDIGO, AND OPIUM', and 'TRADING PLACES', featured in Selvedge Issue 128, Routes.
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London Textile Month 2025: Online Talk: The Art of the Trademark in Indo-British Textile Trade with Shrey Maurya and Rachna Shetty of MAP Academy.
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Image Credits:
Lead: Mother India. c. 1920s-30s. Label, 5¾ x 41", 1. The Ahmedabad Spinning and Weaving Co., Ltd. [H], t. Uncho Maal (High Goods) [H], r. Ranchhodlal Chhotalal & Co. [H], b. Made in India Goods [H], inside: Hind Devi [H]. I
All further images as credited in photo captions.