Description:
6.5 yards of a drawloom-woven silk. The silk is known as a tissue, or lampas, and is characterized by having two sets of warps; a ground warp and a red binding warp. The red binding warp is woven in a satin weave, and interlaces with a cream-colored weft and green-colored weft. Both of these wefts extend acorss the entire selvage width, and with the binding warp create a dense design. Additional, supplementary (brocading) wefts were added by the drawloom's figure harness to create additional pattern interest. There are five colors used in the brocading wefts, including blue, yellow, green, pink, and gray/silver. These colors are brought into the design only where called for, and do not extend the entire fabric width the way the ground wefts do. The additonal red, green (now faded) and cream colors are part of the ground weave. The design is repeated once across the fabric width, centered, in a pattern known as a single comber repeat. The especially dense edges of the pattern proved beneficial when stitching widths of fabric together, as it obscured the seam. The selvage width is 19" wide. The pattern's vertical repeat is 20" long. the largest motif is abou t13" long by 10 1/2" wide. This kind of lampas, with a satin ground, was known as a persienne. While it was once thought that these patterns resembled lace patterns, it is now believed that these designs were referred to "persiennes," suggesting a vaguely Eastern aesthetic, as seen through the eyes of the West (known as chinoiserie). It is not known if actual Persian fabrics inspired these designs (by their weave or their appearance), or if the name simply referenced a generic Eastern aesthetic at the time.Patterned silks such as this example were some of the costly fabrics availabe for dress and furnishings in the 18th century. It could take many months to design, prepare the loom, and weave them. English and European centers of 18th-century silk weaving included Spitalfields (East London), Lyon (298 miles from Paris), and Amsterdam and Haarlem in Holland. There is evidence that these costly fabrics were imported and worn in New England, but in far fewer numbers. Mary Ballantine of Westfield, Massachusetts, wore a gown made from a similar fabric on her 1769 marriage to John Ashley, now in the collection of the DAR Museum. While some 40 years old in 1769, it suggests the presence of these silks in western Massachusetts as early ast the 1720s.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.172 |
