Textile Treasures
A most generous reader, Ranger Elaine, has sent me some wonderful treasures from her collection.
The star of the show is this tiny silk-covered accordion book with quilt scraps in it. Elaine thinks it came from Rhinecliff, New York. In 1985, a museum appraiser dated it to 1875 – 1900.
Cover of the book of quilt scraps. It measures 3 1/2 x 5 inches (9.5 x 12.5 cm).
Usually I am looking at quilt fabrics to see if I can figure out their date — this time, I got to work in reverse. Knowing the dates of the fabrics, I looked at my resource books to see what they could tell me about fabrics of that era. I started with Barbara Brackman’s Clues in the Calico.
Pages 4 and 5. The samples are about 3 inches (7.5 cm) square.
Detail of page 5
“Many dyes require a mordanting agent, a substance that fixes the dye into the cloth. For centuries calico printers have taken advantage of this fact to product different shades in a fabric that passes through the dye bath only once. Madder… is an excellent example of a dye that can be mordant printed. The rollers, rather than printing the coloring agent, print figures of mordant. A second mordant is applied with a second roller, a third and a fourth, and when the single coloring agent is applied four colors appear on the fabric. A typical madder-style print color scheme includes red-orange, chocolate brown, black and lavender, all printed with different mordants.” (Clues in the Calico, p. 80)
No lavender in the sample above, but otherwise it seems to fit that description.
I absolutely love that print! I can see it much enlarged as a quilt.
I also looked for information in Dating Fabrics: A Color Guide 1800 – 1960 by Eileen Jahnke Trestain.
Detail of page 4
“Double (cinnamon) pinks were popular in this period and were often used in brown and pink quilts. These were bright reddish pink with a fine picotage (dot) or with fine lines to produce a light pink ground. They were then printed with a more concentrated area of the same dark pink… Double-pink prints were made unchanged until the 1920s and are presently making a comeback in reproduction fabrics.” (Dating Fabrics, p. 69)
Pages 6 and 7.
Detail of page 6
Detail of page 7
Detail of page 10
Detail of page 13. Some of the threads in the woven stripe have worn away, probably due to a harsh mordant or dye.
The Grand Finale on pages 14 and 15
Detail of the striped fabrics
It is such a thrill to see these antique scraps close up. I love looking at the individual threads and seeing how they were spun, looking at the weave structures, and studying the print designs for shapes, details, and colorways.
Another treasure in the care package was a book, Studies in Textile History, published in 1977 by the Royal Ontario Museum. It has 25 articles including topics such as “Icelandic Mediaeval Embroidery Terms and Techniques,” “Lace and Lace-patterned Silks,” and “Some Etruscan Textile Remains.”
Studies in Textile History
I feel so happy to have so many new topics to explore!
Thank you, Elaine, for allowing me to share these treasures!
Fascinating, thanks again for an interesting post.
Interesting! I’m definitely interested in Etruscan textile remains.
Since that book is already 40 years old, I am thinking of summarizing a little of what they said, and then updating it if I can find anything more, so I will let you know about those Etruscan textiles!
All those stitches, made so long ago. What a treasure!
It is so wonderful to see them. I wonder if the quilter was the one who saved the scraps or if it was someone later. I love the way she saved every little scrap!
Holy cow–this is an amazing treasure! And how I wish I had your knowledge and insight to textiles!
I think my knowledge and insight mostly consists of knowing which of my 100+ reference books to look into for information. 🙂 But thank you.
And yes, this is such a lovely treasure. I keep patting it, gently, on the cover only. I want to preserve the fabric samples.
Wow what a find..beautiful old textiles. You have an amazing gift, being able to identify the fabrics..makes you wonder if any of our current fabric swatches will survive.
To finish my statement…I wonder if any of our current textiles/fabrics will stand the test of time like the old textiles have.
Lovely post – I’ve been saving it up to read when I had time to enjoy it properly – and I’m indulging in a sort of virtual “patting” just as you say you gently pat the cover. I was so interested to read about the use of mordants to make patterns – of course! How clever, and how simple. And I do love the fabrics, colours and patterns – all ones that I would happily see reproduced for us to sew with nowadays. And then you think of the people who designed these patterns, who printed the fabrics, who worked the materials, who lived with them. so many layers, so much interest there.
That is so true – there is so much detail in just a square inch of any of these fabrics, and yet I know I have never looked closely enough to really appreciate the thought and design work that went into them. I have read about weavers and mill owners, but I have never looked to see if I can find information about individual designers and printers of the 1800s. Another topic to research! 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever heard mention of fabric designers in those times – guess they were considered the small unimportant people – do wish you luck with this research.
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