Textile Fabrics

Hitherto no attempt has been made to distribute olden silken textiles into various schools; but the numerous specimens in the admirable collection at South Kensington enable us...

The value of such a collection of textile fabrics as that at South Kensington can scarcely be overrated. Without such aid it is not possible for the painter or the historian to...

There are some very ancient names, distinguishing different textiles, which require notice: such as “chrysoclavus,” “stauraccin,” “polystaurium,” “gammadion” or “gammadiæ,” “de...

Of the several raw materials which from the earliest periods have been employed in weaving, though not in such frequency as silk, one is gold: which, when judiciously brought in...

In earlier times, as at present, silks had various names, distinguishing either their kind of texture, their colour, the design woven on them, the country from which they were b...

We must now speak of embroidery. The art of working with the needle flowers, fruits, human and animal forms, or any fanciful design, upon webs woven of silk, linen, cotton, wool...

The countries whence silks came to England are numerous; we find early notices of Antioch, Tarsus, Alexandria, Damascus, Byzantium, Cyprus, Trip or Tripoli, and Bagdad, and late...

Tapestry is neither real weaving nor true embroidery, but in a manner unites in its working those two processes into one. Though wrought in a loom and upon a warp stretched out...

For many reasons the history of silk is not only curious but highly interesting. In the earliest ages even its existence was unknown, and when discovered the knowledge of it sto...

Under its widest acceptation the word “textile” means every kind of stuff, no matter its material, wrought in the loom. Whether, therefore, the threads are spun from the produce...

When anything--flower, fruit, or figure--is wrought by itself upon a separate piece of silk or canvas and afterwards sewed on to the vestment for church use, or article for dome...