A Proposed Design for the Royal Pavilion at Brighton

The Western taste for Asian or Asian-related furniture and decorative objects was by no means limited to those in Chinese or Japanese styles. Portuguese and, later, British and French traders brought Indian luxury goods and curiosities to the salons of Europe. Sumptuous Indian textiles were much in demand and, in the decades after 1800, European ladies coveted shawls of cashmere, made in Kashmir, an area along the India/Pakistan border. Indian elements were also adopted into Western architecture and interior design. Examples range from certain British country houses of the 1780s to the turreted and domed Royal Pavilion at Brighton, England, whose exterior was remodeled in "Hindoo" style between 1815 and 1822, to exotic movie palaces of the 1920s.