Loom width of green silk, hand painted with flowers. Silks decorated by painting were imported to England as both dress and furnishing fabrics. The rhythms imposed on trade with East Asia by the winds and seas prevented these painted textiles from taking a place at the cutting edge of European fashion. The length of voyages meant that decoration could not be altered quickly enough to keep up with the dictates of the most advanced western styles. They were rather perennial favourites throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries, valued for their prettiness, exoticism and relative cheapness.