main weaving centre at the end of 18th century
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When you combine human ingenuity with the spirit of human invention, the results can inspire beauty, wonder, and awe-inspiring examples of culture and civilization. One such example of this glorious combination is what we call textiles. Textiles are any natural fiber, such as cotton or hemp, that can be manufactured or woven into fabric, such as yarn, rope, lace, and tapestries.
Textiles have evolved right alongside mankind, from nets fashioned from animal hairs during the Stone Age to spun fabric to make clothing and sails for ships during the Neolithic. To see a brief history of textiles, check out this timeline below:
4th Century BC: Linen/Wool Tapestries - Egypt
2nd Century BC: Dyed Fabric - Roman Empire
600s CE: Tie-Dye Silks - China
1500s CE: Felt Cloths - Mughal Empire
By the 1700s, trade had increased between civilizations, and with that came the exchange of different textiles between cultures. 18th century textiles, distinctive of individual cultures, were signs of wealth. They were transported to faraway areas, bringing aspects of other cultures along with them, notably Chinese, Indian, and Egyptian culture.
Chinese Textiles of the 18th Century
The textile that has long been associated with the Chinese is silk made from the waxy substance excreted from the silkworm. By the 1700s, the Chinese had long moved beyond simply weaving silk into fabric for clothing and had begun to create silk wall hangings that were painted in exquisite designs. As trade with the European world by those years had become commonplace, these painted silk wall hangings were a huge export during the century.
The European textile market was saturated with Chinese painted silk wall hangings. Europeans were so enamored with the textile that they created Chinese themed rooms in their country homes. This fact denotes that the textile was an expensive 18th-century good only afforded to the wealthy.
Chinese Silk Painted Wall Hanging-Qing Dynasty
wallpaper
Indian Textiles of the 18th Century
Indian textiles were renowned the world over long before the 1700s, and they were often considered the more advanced counterpart to textiles produced in Europe. This may have been due to the exclusivity of the herb called chay, which produces a rich and deep red color used to create madder dye. Indians also created a violet-indigo hybrid color that they could obtain from a legume that is also indigenous to the subcontinent.
The Indian textile that flooded Europe during the 18th century was called chintz, which was a woven fabric made from cotton that was used to create everything from window drapes to furniture upholstery. Chintz could be dyed with madder dye to create designs of flowers for curtains and sofas that seemingly glowed red. The floral designs had their roots in the 1500s, when Indian Mughal rulers like Babur would commission artists to paint India's vibrant flowers to adorn his palaces.
Madder Dyed Chintz-18th Century India
chintz
Another form of chintz that was from India and exported to Europe was palampores, which were large bedspreads. The elaborate designs of madder dyed flowers or violet-indigo colored designs were a central feature of English homes during the period. Via the East India Company that controlled trade from the subcontinent in the 1600s, Indian textiles were a major import into England during the 1800s.
Palampore-18th Century India
palampores
Another popular Indian textile during this period was short-length fabrics made from Indian silk, which were used to make everything from clothing to silk napkins. Indian silk was so prevalent on the English market that their sailors and poor laborers wore Indian silk neck scarves called bandannas.