History of Paisley

I found this and thought it might interest someone out there other than me.
It was posted on a flickr discussion group.

>That's true. They were stamped with the side of the fist. When you look at the side of your fist you automatically see that it's a paisley. Many of the Maharajas could not sign an official document because of the literacy rate at the time so instead this hand print method was used and it was very hard for anyone to forge it because every paisley signature was different and unique. Later on artisans in India picked up on these interesting and captivating designs and began to fill them in with designs through a method of block printing which inturn found it's way later into weaving which you commonly see in Pashminas today. When the British invaded India and ruled India for centuries they were also fascinated by the design and exported them back to Britain. The designs where copied and used in other types of western clothing eventually. Most of the paisley production was produced in the town of Paisley and exported to other parts of the world by means of the British. One way was to America where these designs started surfacing in cowboy and other western garment's motifs and lady's dresses, wall paper, furniture and so on. You are right, at the time the people of India never called them Paisley they called them mangoes as their resemblance of the fruit but if you ask modern day Indians few of them know that anymore and they call them paisley The term coined by the British as the British had such a powerful stranglehold on the sub continent for centuries until India finally won it's independence from them in the last century.
Here is the link where I found the comment. You might want to check out the paisley.