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Entrepreneurship And Control In Eighteenth Century Silk Manufacture: The Case Of Philippe Lasalle, Lyonnais Silk Designer Extraordinaire, Lesley Ellis Miller

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

As early as 1787, the abbé Bertolon lauded the achievements of the Lyonnais designer and manufacturer Philippe de Lasalle (1723-1804). In the course of this now oft-cited eulogy, Bertolon called Lasalle variously designer, manufacturer, and businessman, three terms that Lasalle himself was happy to adopt from the late 1740s onwards. In the 1770s, Lasalle added to these social descriptors, those of inventor and Chevalier de l’Ordre de Saint Michel, having been rewarded for his improvements to the drawloom, one of a long list of services and inventions for which he sought State subsidies from the late 1750s. While Lasalle’s prominence …

A Tradition Of Weft-Oriented Silk Weaving In Japan: Samit And “Post-Samit” From Japanese Temple And Shrine Collections In American Museums, Yuko Fukatsu

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the twentieth century, American museums acquired rare ancient and medieval textiles derived from Japanese temple collections. Among them, several types of weft-oriented polychrome silks from the eighth to fourteenth centuries can be identified.

Polychrome silks brought to Japan through the Silk Road had been treasured among the Japanese aristocracy, and mainly preserved in Hōryuji temple, and the Shōsoin of Tōdaiji temple. They contained a specific group of early weft-oriented silk textiles called ‘samit,’ a type of weft-compound weave that was dominant in China as well as in the Byzantine world. The weaving technique was introduced to Japan from China …

The Silk Road Textiles At Birka: An Examination Of The Tabletwoven Bands, Cathy Ostrom Peters

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

On the Swedish Island of Björkö, that today lies in Lake Mälaren, is the Viking Age (eighth-tenth century) town of Birka. Between 1871 and 1895 Hjalmar Stolpe excavated approximately 1100 graves in the vast grave-fields lying outside the walls of this town. Stolpe's excavations provided not only one of the richest quarries for the archaeological interpretation of the Viking Age but revealed the diversity of the approximately 600-900 inhabitants who lived in this international trading town. Among these approximately 1100 graves, were a group of male graves that contained a various array of splendid silk textiles, embroideries and trimmings in …

Contemporary Embroideries Of Rabaris Of Kutch: Economic And Cultural Viability, Judy Frater

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Monghiben Rabari is attending an exhibition and sale in Mumbai. Her traditional embroidery has taken her from Vandh, her village of mud huts and camels on the seacoast of Kutch to India’s most cosmopolitan urban metropolis. She is thrilled by the glittering bustle, and by the customers’ enthusiastic response. She deals directly with them, as a professional artisan. And not only do the customers buy; one woman is so impressed that she wants to learn embroidery. She engages Monghi as a teacher during the afternoon lulls of the exhibition.

Surely, we have succeeded in the transition from tradition to profession. …

The Hand Of The Maker: The Importance Of Understanding Textiles From The “Inside Out”, Beverly Gordon

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This is a position paper of sorts, arguing that the experience of making a textile is an important component of understanding it, and we should be encouraging textile researchers to include hands-on experiments as part of their investigation. Some TSA members will take this idea for granted because they have first-hand experience with textile making, and may find it overly obvious. The point is hardly new, and archeologist Elizabeth Barber made a strong case for the value of textile “reconstruction” in her 1994 book, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years. Nevertheless, this is not a universally shared assumption, and …

American Silk From A Marketing Magician: H.R. Mallinson & Co., Madelyn Shaw

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Hiram Royal Mallinson, an ambitious and talented son of mid-nineteenth-century immigrants from Poland, entered the silk trade in 1893 as a salesman for the company of Pelgram & Meyer in Paterson, New Jersey. Just two years later Mallinson joined a new firm, Newwitter & Migel, headquartered in New York City, as head of sales. In 1900, Migel and Mallinson bought out Newwitter and renamed the firm M.C. Migel & Co.

Migel and Mallinson consciously targeted the novelty market and the high-end or “class” customer generally conceded to European concerns at the time. The company was regarded as progressive, its output …

Why Embroidery? An Answer From The Ancient Andes, Anne Paul

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In her meticulous classification of fabric structures, Irene Emery wrote that needlework "is basically one of the simplest crafts, a homely activity that can be practiced by almost anyone on almost any material. But, with fine and carefully chosen materials plus a high degree of skill and imagination in handling them, needlework can be raised almost to the rank of a fine art" (1966:246). I suspect that Emery would not object to my deletion of the word "almost" when discussing the examples of fine art embroidered by certain pre-Conquest Andeans.

Within the ancient Andean world, needlework is not exclusively identified …

A Simple Ikat Sash From Southern Okinawa: Symbol Of Island Identity, Amanda Mayer Stinchecum

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

INTRODUCTION

When I began this project in 1999, I set out to explore a large theme: the relation between ikat textiles and ritual in Yaeyama, the southernmost island-group of Okinawa prefecture. I hoped to trace direct links to Southeast Asia, imagined by many Japanese and Okinawan scholars as the source of Ryukyuan ikat. I set out to pursue the histories of two ikat textiles—a sash and a headscarf--used on Taketomi, linked, in legend, to ceremonial or ritual contexts, and intended to include ikat garments worn by women on ceremonial occasions. As my study unfolded, the persistence of the legend associated …

On Women’S Work In Silk Reeling: Gender, Labor, And Technology In The Historical Silk Industries Of Connecticut And South China, Janice E. Stockard

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Introduction.

This paper is part of a larger project that focuses on the historical sericultural industry of Connecticut, based in the town of Mansfield during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In this paper, I focus on one specific role in the production of raw silk: silk reeling. In the heyday of its sericultural industry, Mansfield was situated in Windham County, Connecticut. The particular perspective that I bring to this study of silk reeling is one shaped by my experience as an anthropologist who has conducted research on another sericultural area: Shunde County near Guangzhou (Canton) in South China. In …

From Court To Convent: A Silk Embroidered Sampler From Colonial Mexico, Bobbie Sumberg

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Silk appears frequently in many Mexican textiles and garments such as rebozos, skirts, and huipils or blouses. In this paper I discuss a different tradition, that of sampler embroidery in the urban style.

Yrene Escandon was reported to be a lady in waiting for Empress Carlotta, who reigned in Mexico with her husband Emperor Maximilien from 1863-1867. During this time and before entering a convent after her service she and some friends embroidered a sampler replete with floral, religious, animal, and bird motifs. Using this remarkable piece in the collection of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe …

Historical Buddhist Kesa Robes As Inspiration For Contemporary Fiber Art, Betsy Sterling Benjamin

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Japanese kesa or kasaya in Sanskrit, originated in India in 4th century BC as a robe for the devotees of Buddha Sakyamuni. Created in the brick-like pattern of the Asian rice-field, the original kasaya were constructed of discarded fabric that was cleansed, (redyed and stitched together with prayers as a devotional act. When Buddhism came to ( Japan in the 6th century AD the kesa followed, a treasured manifestation of the Buddhist dharma. One of the earliest extant Japanese kesa, composed of seven layers of silk, in nine vibrant colors, bound together with tiny stitches belonged to Emperor …

Introduction To Chachapoyas Textile Catalogue., Lena Bjerregaard

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This work contains the thorough analysis of forty-one of the best-preserved textiles from the mummy find at Laguna de los Condores (1997). The textiles are now all in the Leymebamba Museum, either in storage or on exhibition. The textiles were partly found loose in the chullpas, partly as part of a mummy - either as inner or outer wrapping or for instance tucked under the chin of the deceased to keep the head in place.

Conditions:

All the textiles analyzed were in surprisingly good condition - after about 500 years in the rainforest all "normal" organic material would have …

"Dichotomies In Silk: Shrinking And Stretching", Genevieve Dion

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Shibori processes can be used to generate highly-textured surface designs for the production of pure silk garments that permanently retain their form and elasticity. Fabric is first shaped using a variety of traditional stitch-resist shibori techniques on greige goods (untreated fabric) of Japanese Guntna silk, a special fabric with highly over-spun silk filaments. Next, fabric is scoured, causing it to shrink — an effect of the high-twist yarns. In unprotected areas, the textile is permanently pleated, whereas the remaining stitch-resisted and protected areas of the fabric become permanently textured. Texture can further be enhanced 0through shibori dyeing.

A major consideration …

The Women Of Palmyra—Textile Workshops And The Influence Of The Silk Trade In Roman Syria, Cynthia Finlayson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

By the second century A.D., the oasis empire of Tadmor, Syria (Roman Palmyra) had eclipsed Nabataean Petra to the south in Jordan as the premier trading conduit for the exotic goods of Asia, India, and China as they found their way by caravan and ship to the hungry markets of the West and Rome. Palmyra functioned as the only viable source of water, salt, and pasture for all large trading expeditions as they ventured across the Northern Syrian Desert to the Mediterranean ports of Antioch, Tyre, Sidon, and Aleppo. Sensuous silk was among the most prized of the exotic goods …

A Tradition Of Weft-Oriented Silk Weaving In Japan: Samit And "Post-Samit" From Japanese Temple And Shrine Collections In American Museums, Yuko Fukatsu

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

During the twentieth century, American museums acquired rare ancient and medieval textiles derived from Japanese temple collections. Among them, several types of weft-oriented polychrome silks from the eighth to fourteenth centuries can be identified.

Polychrome silks brought to Japan through the Silk Road had been treasured among the Japanese aristocracy, and mainly preserved in Horyuji temple, and the Shosoin of Todaiji temple. They contained a specific group of early weft-oriented silk textiles called 'samit,' a type of weft-compound weave that was dominant in China as well as in the Byzantine world. The weaving technique was introduced to Japan from China …

"Dichotomies In Silk: Crisp And Soft", Ana Lisa Hedstrom

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Shibori, a compression resist dyeing technique, has increasingly become part of our textile vocabulary and for over 25 years, I have explored these techniques in my own production of fabrics for clothing and interior wall pieces. The opportunity to work with silk greige goods (untreated fabric) and the possibilities with shibori - together, this combination expands the shibori vocabulary with exciting possibilities for the studio artist and designer.

In my application, I use arashi shibori, itajime clamp resist, and nui-shibori stitch resist on the raw yardage. The cloth is simmered in a solution of 10% (of dry weight of …

The Haskell Silk Company: Manufacturers Of Staple Silks Recognized As A "Standard" In The Trade, Jacqueline Field

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Haskell Silk Company founder, James Haskell, was a native of the Cape Anne, area of Massachusetts. In this locale his early career included service in numerous public and business capacities, not least as agent for The Rockport Steam Cotton Company, and as a State Senator. He was a man experienced in politics, finance and textile production. He moved to Maine in 1858 when he acquired the cotton mill at Saccarappa Falls, Westbrook. Under his management the mill, renamed The Westbrook Manufacturing Company, flourished and expanded.

In 1874, his elder son, Frank Haskell, assumed the role of agent. At the same …

The Evolution And Changes Of Moche Textile Style: What Does Style Tell Us About Northern Textile Production?, Maria Jesus Jimenez Diaz

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Although Moche textiles form part of the legacy of one of the best known cultures of pre-Hispanic Peru, today they remain relatively unknown. Moche culture evolved in the northern valleys of the Peruvian coast (Fig. 1) during the first 800 years after Christ (Fig. 2). They were contemporary with other cultures such us Nazca or Lima and their textiles exhibited special features that are reflected in their textile production. Previous studies of Moche textiles have been carried out by authors such as Lila O'Neale (1946, 1947), O'Neale y Kroeber (1930), William Conklin (1978) or Heiko Pruemers (1995). However, in spite …

Review Of Stillman, Arab Dress: A Short History, From The Dawn Of Islam To Modem Times., Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Arab Dress: A Short History, From the Dawn of Islam to Modem Times. By YADIDA KALFON STILLMAN. Edited by NORMAN A. STILLMAN. Themes in Islamic Studies, vol. 2. Leiden: BRILL, 2000. Pp. xxxii + 240, plates, figs.

Billowing folds, exquisite pleats, tightly wound turbans, flowing burqas, short square kerchiefs-the dramatic drapery of Islamic fashion fills the quiet spaces of our daily news coverage; yet the garments illustrated and their significance often pass without verbal notice. Little would Yedida Stillman ever have anticipated the widespread presence of the Islamic vestimentary system in Western media a short three years after her death …

Textile And Embroidered Bookbindings Of Medieval England And France, Robin E. Muller

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

I am a textiles artist who has become interested in book arts, as have many others. In looking for historic precedents, I was amazed to learn that there was a history of books bound in fine fabric dating back to medieval Europe. These are rich, elaborately crafted objects that required binders to collaborate with craft persons skilled in needlework. Beautifully woven fabrics were used, some of which were made for clothing. Other fabrics had been made for smaller, more durable objects like books or perhaps hats and handbags. There are records of milliners making some of the bindings. The appearance …

Silk Underwear For Ny Swells In The Age Of Victoria, Diane Maglio

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This appears to be an age of silk. The correspondent of a country paper, writing from New York, says that men are becoming very luxurious, and their… wardrobes and repositories for personal belongings display tastes more costly than those of women…. [as they put on] underwear of the softest, richest knitted silk.

During the last quarter of the 19th century affluent men of leisure and fashion had many hours every day to “loiter at the various clubs and discuss matters of taste.” Those who displayed an exceptional interest in fashion were labeled “swells.” This research was inspired by a fictional …

Threads Of Resistance: Unraveling The Meanings Of 19th Century Tlingit Beaded Regalia, Megan A. Smetzer

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Although not the first to make the connection, Ensign Albert Niblack of the U.S. Navy wrote most succinctly in 1888: “There seems nothing unreasonable in tracing the origin of much of the dance and ceremonial paraphernalia to customs originating in war.” Since that time, numerous scholars have suggested and disputed links between Tlingit carved and painted armor and ceremonial regalia. Beaded regalia, on the other hand has been almost entirely neglected in Northwest Coast ethnographic literature due to notions of authenticity and cultural degeneration. In 1945, anthropologist Erna Gunther for example, explained beaded dance collars as a mere disguise for …

Table Of Contents

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Contents

Preface

Session 1. Archaeology and the Silk Road

Session 2. Textile Artisans, Global Markets, and Sustainable Development in Africa and Asia

Session 3. Silk, the Middle East and Africa

Session 4. Acculturation

Session 5. Silk in Medieval Europe

Session 6. Individual Papers

Session 7. Common Treads: Unwinding the History of Silk Production in Mainland Southeast Asia

Session 8. New Perspectives on the American Silk Industry: Silk Products and Silk Manufacture in America

Session 9. High Roads/Low Roads, North Roads/South Roads: Regional and Cultural ‘Personalities’ in Ventral and Southern Andean Textiles, part 1

Session 10. The American Textile Industry

Session …

Irish Viking Age Silks And Their Place In Hiberno-Norse Society, Elizabeth Wincott Heckett

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The context:

From the beginning of the ninth century AD people from Scandinavia, many from present-day Norway began to settle in Ireland. They founded the modern Irish cities and towns of Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Limerick and Wexford and developed lively and successful trading settlements that flourished until the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169 AD. We know from the literature that the Irish prized and used silk cloth at that time but at present excavations have not disclosed any remains of silk in what can be identified as specifically vernacular contexts. The situation is different for the Viking Age settlements. In particular …

From Benaras To Leh - The Trade And Use Of Silk-Brocade, Monisha Ahmed

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A weaver in Benaras sits at his pit loom meticulously creating a textile piece of Mahakala, the god of protection for Buddhists.

A lama at the festival (’cham) at Hemis monastery performs the religious dance, the Mahakala image on his apron (pang-kheb) gazing out at the devotees as he pirouettes around the courtyard.

The two descriptions given above demonstrate the beginning and end of the journey of silkbrocades from Benaras to Leh. This paper looks at the historical context of the trade in silkbrocades from Benaras to Leh, and discusses how this trade first started. It …

Wesley Simpson: Designer, Stylist And Entrepreneur, Lynn Felsher

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Over 20 years ago, The Museum at FIT received an anonymous gift of approximately 165 small textile samples and 27 scarves from the company, Wesley Simpson Custom Fabrics, Inc. The textiles dating from the late 1930s through the 1940s were designed for moderately priced women’s apparel. Printed on rayon crepe grounds, they were typical of the period, loose painterly florals, paisleys, conversationals, and small geometric, abstract and stripe patterns on light-colored grounds or discharge printed on dark grounds. The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Brooklyn Museum of Art also have substantial holdings of Wesley Simpson Custom Fabrics, and an …

Silk In Ancient Nubia: One Road, Many Sources, Nettie K. Adams, William S. Webb

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Silk in ancient Africa? Most of us think of ancient Africans as members of a tribe, living by subsistence farming or herding, in villages of grass houses. But Nubia, the ancient Kush, located along the Nile in southern Egypt and the northern part of the Sudan, (Fig.l) was inhabited by an African people who, by 1800 BC, had developed their own high civilization. The Kushites were suppliers of ivory, ebony, gold, ostrich feathers, animal skins, and slaves to ancient Egypt and elsewhere in the Mediterranean world. In exchange they received a wide variety of manufactured goods.

By the fourth century …

From Benaras To Leh - The Trade And Use Of Silk-Brocade, Monisha Ahmed

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

A weaver in Benaras sits at his pit loom meticulously creating a textile piece of Mahakala. the god of protection for Buddhists.

A lama at the festival ('cham) at Hemis monastery performs the religious dance, the Mahakala image on his apron (pang-kheb) gazing out at the devotees as he pirouettes around the courtyard.

The two descriptions given above demonstrate the beginning and end of the journey of silkbrocades from Benaras to Leh. This paper looks at the historical context of the trade in silk-brocades from Benaras to Leh, and discusses how this trade first started. It …

Woven Bands, Medicines And Recipes: Cod. Pal. Germ. 551. The Adventures, Provenance And Contents Of A 15' Century Manuscript Held At The Library Of Heidelberg University In Germany., Ute Bargmann

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Today, we are going to visit Heidelberg, the city where the earliest German University was founded in 1386. On account of its romantic setting, it became one of the internationally popular institutions in the 19th century. Here, we will visit the University Library, where the manuscript we are to discuss today is housed. It is on the shelf in the Department of Manuscripts, bound in a modest working cover of the 19^th century.

History. - We shall embark on a journey of more than 500 years into the past and through some very trying times that helped shape …

Peacock Alley: Highway 41 And The Growth Of The Chenille Bedspread Industry, Ashley Callahan

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the fall of 1935. a newspaper editor traveled from Oklahoma City to Atlanta to attend a baseball game, and along the way encountered a stretch of road near Dalton. Georgia known as Bedspread Boulevard. He recorded his experiences in his daily column: "Twisting through northern Georgia late Saturday afternoon, dodging cotton wagons and trying to get an eyeful of the gorgeous tints that glorified the turning trees in the mountains, I thought I saw a washing strung on a line by the roadside. Soon another flashed past. Then they followed in regular succession. . . . Is it possible …