Chapter CHINSURA to CHIPE of C by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

from painting, had been examined at the sorting godown, and that it was the general opinion that both the cloth and the paintings were worse than the musters.”—In Wheeler, ii. 407.

c. 1733.—

“No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs, and shade my lifeless face.”

Pope, Moral Essays, i. 248.

“And, when she sees her friend in deep despair,
Observes how much a Chintz exceeds Mohair.…”

Ibid. ii. 170.

1817.—“Blue cloths, and chintzes in particular, have always formed an extensive article of import from Western India.”—Raffles, H. of Java, i. 86; [2nd ed. i. 95, and comp. i. 190].

In the earlier books about India some kind of chintz is often termed pintado (q.v.). See the phraseology in the quotation from Wheeler above.

This export from India to Europe has long ceased. When one of the present writers was Sub-Collector of the Madras District (1866-67), chintzes were still figured by an old man at Sadras, who had been taught by the Dutch, the cambric being furnished to him by a Madras Chetty (q.v.). He is now dead, and the business has ceased; in fact the colours for the process are no longer to be had.¹ The former chintz manufactures of Pulicat are mentioned by Correa, Lendas, ii. 2, p. 567. Havart (1693) mentions the manufacture at Sadras (i. 92), and gives a good description of the process of painting these cloths, which he calls chitsen (iii. 13). There is also a very complete account in the Lettres Édifiantes, xiv. 116 seqq.

In Java and Sumatra chintzes of a very peculiar kind of marbled pattern are still manufactured by women, under the name of batik.

CHIPE, s. In Portuguese use, from Tamil shippi, ‘an oyster.’ The pearl-oysters taken in the pearl-fisheries of Tuticorin and Manar.

[1602.—“And the fishers on that coast gave him as tribute one day’s oysters (hum dia de chipo), that is the result of one day’s pearl fishing.”—Couto, Dec. 7, Bk. VIII. ch. ii.]

1685.—“The chipe, for so they call those oysters which their boats are wont to fish.”—Ribeiro, f. 63.

1710.—“Some of these oysters or chepîs, as the natives call them, produce pearls, but such are rare, the greater part producing only seed pearls (aljofres) [see ALJOFAR].” Sousa, Oriente Conquist. ii. 243.