Description:
An enlargement of a silk design done on ruled or graph (point) paper to aid in the setting up of a drawloom for the weaving of a supplementary, weft-patterned silk brocade. During the 18th century, silk designs for dress changed yearly and seasonally. Once a silk-weaver or their firm purchased a design of a woven silk (usually on special commission to weave the design), the design needed to be enlarged so that the loom could be set up to weave it. The enlargement was done on the ruled paper, with each square or tizane representing an intersection of a warp and weft thread. The paper was engraved with the graph lines by Joseph Veret and his wife of Lyon, a major center for silk weaving for France and Europe. This process to set up the loom ot weave a brocaded silk could be lengthy, taking weeks or months. The Germain Brothers who made the design were a Lyonnais firm working during the third and fourth quarters of the 18th century.

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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2021.13

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