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British Exports To The U.S.A., 1776-1914: Organisation And Strategy (3) Cottons And Printed Textiues, Stanley Chapman

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

One of the most familiar concepts to historians interested in Anglo-American topics is that of the Atlantic Economy. Political independence did not bring economic independence to the newly-found United States, and until after the middle of the nineteenth century trans-Atlantic trade continued much as it was in the colonial period, based on the exchange of primary produce for manufactured goods. Basic statistics confirm that Britain and the United States were each the major trading partner of the other in the first half of the nineteenth century. In this period, between a third and a half of all U.S. imports were …

The Role Of The Middleman In The Trade Of Real Madras Handkerchief (Madras Plaids), Sandra Lee Evenson

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Kalahari people live and work in the Niger delta of southern Nigeria. There are some twenty-two Kalahari island settlements dispersed among the Santa Barbera, Santa Bartholomew, Sombreiro, and New Calabar Rivers (Jones: 1963, Daly: 1983) with Buguma, Abonnema, and Bakana their most recognized commercial and cultural centers; though, many Kalahari are employed in the more homogeneous city of Port Harcourt. (Daly: 1983)

Their location on the Niger delta favoured an economy based on fishing and trade. Originally, the Kalahari traded up-river for vegetables and grain in exchange for salt and fish. They also traded across the delta, most notably …

Local Textile Trading Systems In Indonesia: An Example From Flores Island, Roy W. Hamilton

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Several of the papers presented at this symposium deal with the trade of textiles over long distances, from one continent to another. Such trade systems undeniably had tremendous impact on the societies involved, but in many parts of the world individuals and communities are bound together in much smaller circles of trade that are equally formative. In this paper I will discuss a tiny network of textile trade that involves the carrying of cloth to neighboring villages over mountain paths and along surf-swept beaches. Trading systems on this scale are as much the rule as the exception and our understanding …

The British Linen Trade With The United States In The Eighteenth And Nineteenth Centuries, N.B. Harte

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In the eighteenth century, a great deal of linen was produced in the American colonies. Virtually every farming family spun and wove linen cloth for its own consumption. The production of linen was the most widespread industrial activity in America during the colonial period. Yet at the same time, large amounts of linen were imported from across the Atlantic into the American colonies. Linen was the most important commodity entering into the American trade. This apparently paradoxical situation reflects the importance in pre-industrial society of the production and consumption of the extensive range of types of fabrics grouped together as …

Textiles And Trade In Tokugawa Japan, William B. Hauser

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Any discussion of the textile trade in Tokugawa Japan (1600-1867) requires that the socio-economic and political context first be outlined. Japan was a state divided into many separated political jurisdictions, with around one-quarter of the country controlled directly by the Tokugawa Shogunate and the other three-quarters under the local control of around 265 local barons or daimyo. While each of these local power-holders was subordinated to the shogun and required to spend half his time in attendance on the shogun at the Tokugawa capital of Edo (modern Tokyo), within his own domain he was an autonomous ruler. Each daimyo owed …

Transatlantic Trade In Woollen Cloth 1850-1914: The Role Of Shoddy, David T. Jenkins

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

THE WORSTED CLOTH TRADE

The factors affecting European trade and competition in worsted cloth in foreign markets, notably the United States, in the second half of the nineteenth century are well recorded. From the 1840s the two main worsted cloth producing countries of Europe, Britain and France, pursued quite different strategies in production and trade. Developments in dyeing technology from the late 1830s allowed substantial improvements in the production of mixed worsted cloth; cloth of cotton warp and worsted weft. The British industry rapidly converted its production to the cheaper mixed worsteds for a much wider market to the extent …

Revolving Bananas: The Influences Of Indian Trade Textiles On Javanese Batik Design, Robyn Maxwell

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The influence of the Indian double ikat silk patola on Southeast Asian textile structure and design has long been acknowledged, however, the impact of Indian painted and printed mordant-dyed cotton textiles, traded into the region over centuries, has been largely undocumented. Recent finds now indicate the great variety of cotton textile types imported into Indonesia.

This talk explored the role of these Indian cotton trade textiles in the development of Javanese batik, and the effect of the change of medium on design transformations. Designs from a range of batik-producing regions were examined, including the well known pisang balik (inverted banana) …

The Manufacture And Trade Of Luxury Textiles In The Age Of Mercantilism, Elisabeth Mikosch

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

When Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister for finance and economic affairs, said: "Fashion is to France what gold mines are to the Spaniards," (quoted by Minchinton 1977,112) he recognized how significant the manufactory of fashionable luxury textiles was for the economy of France. During the seventeenth and eighteenth century many absolutist rulers of Europe who pursued mercantilist policies fostered the production and trade of expensive textiles.

Tremendous resources went into the making of woven silks, lace, tapestries, fine embroideries and table linens. The best designers and craftsmen were employed who used the most valued materials, such as silk, precious metals …

Toba Batak Textile Inventions, Sandra A. Niessen

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

This article focuses on fruits of looms worked by Toba Batak weavers in the Silindung Valley, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Silindung Valley weavings are characteristically bright and fashionable. They are described by the Batak themselves and by visitors from outside as the "least traditional" of Batak woven goods. They are also surging in popularity throughout all of Toba and increasingly making inroads into the market replacing the old-style textiles which are larger, of coarser yarn, and deeper/sober in colour. It is the modern style of Batak textile which today commands the highest prices locally. "Connoisseurs" of Indonesian textiles, however, usually …

Silk In European And American Trade Before 1783: A Commodity Of Commerce Or A Frivolous Luxury?, Natalie Rothstein

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This outline is taken from ray as yet unpublished book on The English Silk Industry 1700-1825, and especially from the chapters on raw silk and the distribution of the woven material. In addition, I have widened the scope for this talk to discuss the subject more generally. In terms of general economic history the quantities of silk produced and sold are minuscule but there are a lot of instructive points to be made which are of general importance - as well as some very pretty objects. The latter are "documents" in the French sense as well as works of art …

The Harket For Domestic And Imported Textiles In Sixteenth Century Istanbul, Yvonne J. Seng

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

When one thinks of Ottoman textile trade, the city of Bursa immediately comes to mind. As the Ottoman capital at the end of the fourteenth century/ it was known for its flourishing silk industry which exported fine brocades and velvets to Europe and the East. As it expanded, it fostered a secondary market in which Persian merchants exchanged a large part of the raw silk they carried to supply local weavers for European woolens as well as the Bursa silk fabrics. By the end of the fifteenth century, its fabrics were being exported to northern Europe: both the Russian …

Speaker Bios- 1990

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

SPEAKERS

A-Z (2 pages)

Rita J. Adrosko is Supervising Curator in the Division of Textiles, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, -D.C.

Patrida. RieffAnawalt is Director of the Center for the Study of Regional Dress at the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, California.

Lisa L. Aronson is Assistant Professor at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.

Suzanne Baizerman teaches in the Department of Design, Housing and Apparel and is Registrar for the department's costume, textile, and decorative arts collection in the Goldstein Gallery at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Elizabeth Barber is …

Textile Design In The Marketplace, John E. Vollmer

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION:
As textile historians we are trained to observe physical evidence — materials, structures, methods of applying surface decoration and patterns. In brief, we deal with design. Despite our design focus, we frequently seek to explain differences within the context- of art historical research. Our conclusions, like those of the art historian, often focus on attribution and connoisseurship, rather than contributing to an understanding of textiles as cultural or economic indicators.

Although the academic study of design dates from the mid-19th century, only in recent years has this study moved from considerations of styling. Within the last three decades the …

David Simpson, Daphne A. Deeds

Sheldon Museum of Art: Catalogs and Publications

Pure abstract art has always been controversial. Since the first abstractions of early modernism, to the emotional paintings of abstract expressionists during the mid century, the concrete abstraction of minimalism of the 1960s and recent symbolic abstraction, any apparent retreat from representation has been met with discourse. This consternation has been shared by both the lay public and the informed viewer, for the problems posed by abstraction refer to essential questions about reality while they appear to avoid the real world. But this apparent contradiction between non representation and content has become more obscure as both artists and viewers become …

Textiles In The Tourist Trade: Woollen Textile Production In Momostenango, Guatemala, Anne M. Lambert

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

Textile production in Guatemala has been the focus of a considerable amount of twentieth century literature in the English language. Guatemalan textiles have been avidly collected by museums, universities and private collectors in North America and Europe. Our belief as researchers and collectors is that we are recording and preserving the valuable textile traditions of the indigenous people of Guatemala.

What we often don't realize is that collectively, over time, we are saying as much about our own perspective as outsiders as we are about the Guatemalan people and their textiles. Our choices of what to document and what …

Textiles In Trade In West Africa, Brigitte Menzel

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Textiles in Africa since some time have become a topic of research, much of which is focused on aspects of art. The at least equally important economic aspects (production, consumption, and trade) are still rather neglected.

When doing field research in West Africa it is impossible to overlook the fact that most of the textiles in use could not have been produced locally. This applies not only to the colorful printed cottons but as well to handmade textiles.

In Asante (Ghana) I found woolen fabrics, which obviously were hand-woven but must have come from somewhere else as sheep and goats …

The Impact Of The Mediterranean Silk Trade On Western Europe Before 1200 A.D., Anna Maria Muthesius

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

Silk, trade and politics were common spokes in an intricate wheel, propelling Mediterranean influence towards the West. At a time when Western Europe lacked the ability to manufacture silk cloth, Eastern silken stuffs were eagerly sought for secular and ecclesiastical purposes. Byzantium in particular, in return for silks, demanded Western military and naval aid, and her silk trade concessions bore the hallmark of powerful political bargaining counters. The survival of more than one thousand silks in church treasuries of Western Europe, provides unspoken insights into the complex impact of Mediterranean silk trade on the West before 1200 A.D. The …

Of Cabbages And Kings, Ellen S. Smart

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper attempts to relate a small number of Mughal furnishing fabrics to their 17th C prices and to the purchasing power of Mughal money. There is no intent to give a comprehensive overview, but rather to see a few 17th C textiles, which today are rare and fabulously expensive, in terms of their original comparative cost. Information about the fabrics comes from the goods themselves and from contemporary Mughal paintings. Although inscriptions on the textiles contain some information about prices, several tables of textiles and prices are found in the Ain-i Akbari, a compendium on the mode of …

Trade In Hispanic Weavings Of Northern New Mexico And The Social Construction Of Tradition!, Suzanne Baizerman

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

No discussion of late 20th century trade in textiles - particularly trade in what has been called "regional" or "ethnic" textiles - would be complete without a discussion of the terms "traditional" and "authentic" for these terms inform even a lay person's evaluation of textiles on the market today.

As textile professionals, we encounter terms like "textile tradition," "traditional textiles" or even "authentic traditional textiles" in our everyday experience: a textile brought back by a collector from travel to a Third World nation or a textile on display in a museum. These textiles are subjected to discussions of their authenticity, …

The American Market For Indian Textiles, 1785-1820: In The Twilight Of Traditional Cloth Manufacture, Susan S. Bean

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

A brisk trade in Indian cloth developed soon after the end of the American War of Independence in 1783 and continued to flourish until Congress enacted a prohibitive tariff in 1816 to protect the nascent U.S. textile manufacturing industry. For the period 1795-1805, U.S. trade with India well exceeded trade with all European nations combined for all commodities (Furber 1938:258). Cloth was the centerpiece of this trade: The piece goods imported in 1804-05, for instance, were about three times the value of all other goods from India, chiefly sugar, indigo, ginger, and a variety of spices and drugs (Bhagat 1970:42). …

Labor Organization And Textile Trade In Northern Thailand In The Nineteenth Century, Katherine A. Bowie

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The Thai peasant economy has frequently been characterized as a "subsistence economy" in which villagers planted their own rice and wove their own clothing. The uncritical use of the phrase "subsistence economy" has contributed to a series of significant misunderstandings about the character of the Thai peasant political economy, including the social process of cloth production.¹

Because most scholars have assumed that obtaining clothing was not a problem for villagers, they have tended to minimize the significance of differences in dress between rich and poor in traditional nineteenth century Thai society. I believe that a better understanding of the …

Preface- 1990, Mattiebelle Gittinger, Rita J. Adrosko

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

"The Textile Society of America provides a forum for the exchange and dissemination of information about the historic, cultural, socio-economic, artistic, and technical aspects of textiles." One of the ways the society addresses this mission is in its biennial symposium and the promise of quick publication of the papers presented

Although the name of the organization may suggest a Western Hemisphere orientation its membership is international and the topics for presentation global in their selection.

The themes selected for the biennial symposium are weighed with a keen eye on their ability to provide a matrix for many disciplines-those of the …

Indian Textiles For The Thai Market: A Royal Prerogative?, John Guy

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The historical trade in Indian textiles to Thailand can be well documented from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Archaeological as well as textual sources allow our understanding of this trade to the region to be pushed back to the late thirteenth century, when Indian textiles had already assumed a high status at the court of Angkor.

In the course of the Ayudhyan period the control of this trade appears to have been secured by the Thai king and nobility. The earliest European accounts of trade with Thailand refer to the central role the king assumed, as both the dispenser …

A Brief History Of The Textile Society Of America Summary Report By The President, Milton Sonday

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

After The Textile Museum decided to discontinue its Irene Emery Roundtables and die Centre International d'Etude des Textiles Anciens finally admitted it was not interested in an American branch, it became clear that an independent American group of textile enthusiasts should be formed to satisfy the many requests for such an organization. There had been an attempt to form a group which was called WHATS, but it never got off the ground. Peggy Gilfoy at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, one of the original organizers, was left guarding its small fund when it folded.

On April 3, 1987 a small …