Art and Design Commons^™

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 …

The Evolution And Changes Of Moche Textile Style: What Does Style Tell Us About Northern Textile Production?, María Jesús Jiménez Díaz

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 …

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 …

Knitted Silk And Silver: Those Mysterious Jackets, Deborah Pulliam

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This is a preliminary consideration of the late sixteenth/early seventeenth century gilt and silk knitted jackets, based on close examination of seventeen examples held in various collections in North America and Europe. Little is known about them, so that mostly speculation has been published as fact. They have been identified as jackets for men, created on knitting frames and on knitting machines, and in the past, were almost always identified as of Italian origin or manufacture.

My argument, having closely examined seventeen, is that

• they were in fact handknitted: the technology simply did not exist in the early seventeenth …

Hausa Hand-Embroidery And Local Development In Northern Nigeria, Elisha P. Renne

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Introduction

The Hausa people of Northern Nigeria have long been known for their production of voluminous robes known as babban riga (Heathcote 1972; Kriger 1988; Lamb and Holmes 1980; Perani and Wolff 1999; Picton and Mack 1979), which are handembroidered in a range of embroidery stitches, materials (mainly cotton and silk), styles, and designs (e.g., fig.1). Until recently, the embroidery of these robes was primarily done by men (Heathcote 1972, 1979). However, women have taken up this work (fig. 2) in the past twenty years, as men have turned to machine embroidery and other occupations, though women generally sell their …

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 …

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 …

The Impact Of Silk On Ottonian And Salian Manuscripts, Stephen Wagner

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In keeping with the theme of the symposium’s title, “Silk Roads, Other Roads,” the medieval roads that this essay will travel converge in a number of ways. Most importantly, two distinctive art forms came together for a brief period in Germany during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the period of Ottonian and Salian rule. The two products, silk and illuminated manuscripts shared important qualities. Not only were they among the most luxurious objects of the middle ages, but they also assisted bishops and rulers advance their political programs. This phenomenon developed as a result of increased interaction with a major …

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 …

Silk Bedcoverings In The Early Chesapeake Region: Interpreting Documentary Evidence, Gloria Seaman Allen

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Eighteenth-century legal documents from the Chesapeake region occasionally refer to silk bed coverings—blankets, rugs, quilts, and counterpanes—yet very few of these bed coverings have survived in museum and private collections. It is important, therefore, to closely analyze documentary evidence, particularly probate inventories, for clues as to the appearance, construction, commonality, and possible origin of these objects that were used in Chesapeake homes and were readily identifiable by men charged with assigning values to the chattels of a decedent.

Probate inventories, taken shortly after death as part of the process of settling an estate, are rich and tantalizing documents that provide …

Ribbons Around The Silk Road—Before Silk (Toward A Pre-History Of Band Weaving), E.J.W. Barber

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

The salty sands of the Tarim Basin, along the route of the later "Silk Road", have produced masses of textiles, splendidly preserved with all their colors, from 2000 BC down to the recent past. In 1995 Irene Good and I had the privilege of being invited to study some of the earliest textiles from this region—those preceding the Chinese entry into the area about 110 BC. I was particularly struck by the prevalence of textile bands, the subject I now wish to explore.

The earliest textiles there come from around Loulan, the dry. salty, and desolate northeast corner of the …

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 …

Hither Come The Merchants: Textile Trade At The 19th Century Courts Of Lan Na (North Thailand), Chiang Tung (Eastern Shan States), Lan Xang (Western Laos) And Sipsong Pan Na (Xinshuang Banna, South-West China)., Susan Conway

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

"Hither come the merchants' is the beginning of a quote from the 16^th century British explorer Ralph Fitch who listed goods from China traded in Chiang Mai, Lan Na. It is not clear whether he actually travelled to the ancient city, or collected his information from another source. It was not until the 19^th century that Europeans and Americans became familiar with the inland states of Southeast Asia. What they found was a unique culture that had developed from the 12th century. In the 1890s the inland states came under the control of Siam, China, Britain or France. …

A Study Of Fashionable Silk Veiling, Maline, And Tulle From 1904, Joanne Dolan

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

A group of silk net, veiling, tulle, and maline, all sheer draping fabrics produced in unique patterns and colors is the subject of this paper. They form part of a larger collection of materials in a variety of fabrications consisting of raffia, feathers, paper, horsehair, sequins, and chenille. The amassed group is contained in a sample book dated Printemps 1904, and suggests that it may have served as a millinery swatch service book. I intend to focus only on the silk draping materials and examine their fabrication, design, and use in millinery during the first decade of the twentieth …

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 …

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 …

"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 …

Traces Of War: The Revival Of Silk Weaving In Cambodia, Morimoto Kikuo

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This report is the outcome of the research commissioned by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In this research, I visited more than 36 villages in 8 provinces between January and March 1995. Because of the civil war disturbance beginning in 1970, few information relevant to textiles remained in Cambodia. Even maps, which are indispensable for a field survey, were not available at first. My research, therefore, began with asking shopkeepers at the markets in Phnom Penh, "Where did this fabric comes from?" Then, I arrived at remote villages, where I heard weaving activities still continues. When I …

Jeweled Islamic Textiles - Imperial Symbols, Louise W. Mackie

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Soon after Islam was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in Arabia in the early 7th century, his followers began spreading the faith. Within one century, Islam had been carried across North Africa to Spain and across the Middle East to Central Asia. Great centers of civilization developed in the political capitals, such as Damascus, Baghdad and Cairo, and later in Istanbul and Isfahan, accompanied by elaborate court ceremonies to promulgate their wealth and power. Imperial ceremonials were equivalent to theatrical settings, usually based on strict hierarchies and rigid protocol, in which luxurious textiles were vital symbols.

Four overt textile symbols …

From The Village House To The Urban Markets: The Evolution Of Silk Production In Laos, Linda S. Mclntosh

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

This paper examines the development of silk textile production in Laos (Lao People's Democratic Republic). Silk textiles have important socio-cultural roles in Lao society, as markers of identity and wealth in contemporary Lao society as they had in the past. The various Tai ethnic groups, including the Lao, who have been the political majority of Laos since the 14th century CE, are the producers of silk textiles in Laos. Women are historically the producers of textiles for domestic consumption and exchange at the village level and beyond. Silk textiles signify special occasions such as weddings, religious events, and funerals and …

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 …

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 Bjorko, that today lies in Lake Malaren, 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 …

Managing Mapula: Defining Markets For An Embroidery Project In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Brenda Schmahmann

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

My aim in this paper is to explore the kinds of strategies used to market a contemporary needlework project in South Africa - one entitled "Mapula" (which means "mother of rain"). Members of Mapula embroider cushion covers and, more occasionally, tablemats. But the art form that has been especially successful and provided members of the project with the widest scope for innovation is embroidered cloths - works that were first made in 1996.

The Formation of Mapula

While currently operating in a post-apartheid South Africa, Mapula was in fact formed in 1991, three years prior to the first democratic …

Threads Of Resistance: Unraveling The Meanings Of!9ih 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 …

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 …

The Impact Of Silk On Ottonian And Salian Manuscripts, Stephen Wagner

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

In keeping with the theme of the symposium's title, "Silk Roads, Other Roads," the medieval roads that this essay will travel converge in a number of ways. Most importantly, two distinctive art forms came together for a brief period in Germany during the tenth and eleventh centuries, the period of Ottonian and Salian rule. The two products, silk and illuminated manuscripts shared important qualities. Not only were they among the most luxurious objects of the middle ages, but they also assisted bishops and rulers advance their political programs. This phenomenon developed as a result of increased interaction with a major …

Contributors

Textile Society of America Symposium Proceedings

Contributing Authors

A-W

Nettie Adams

Monisha Ahmed

Gloria Seaman Allen

Jeni Allenby

Elizabeth Wayland Barber

...

Bobbie Sumberg

Rebecca Trussell

Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada

Stephen Wagner