Bedspread late 17th century British While the Portuguese were undoubtedly the first importers and consumers of the Indian embroideries made for the western European market, at least a few examples of these textiles did appear in England by the late sixteenth century. The 1601 inventory of Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury (1527-1608), included two quilts that were almost certainly products of this trade: a quilt of yellow India stuff embroidered with birds and beasts” and a quilt of India stuff embroidered with beastes."¹ Indian quilts of the type produced for the Portuguese market appeared with increasing frequency in London sales into the 1620s, when their value began to decline, perhaps because of diminishing novelty.²The taste for Indian-style embroidery remained, however, and it is interesting to note that the English maker of this textile used not only the Indian palette of golden yellow on white but also an imported Indian cotton as the foundation. The cover has rare se