HISTORIC TEXTILE FABRICS

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INTRODUCTION

NCIENT and Medieval history are intermingled withmany arts, of which few are so indissolubly associated withthe industrial, civic, and religious life of the people, as thatof weaving.

This is doubtless due to the wide distribution of suitablematerials and the universal need and desire for useful or sumptuousclothing, hence, contemporaneously with the production of plainlinen and cotton cloths, were produced the delicate “ woven air ” ofMosul, the splendid woollen patterned shawls of Cashmere, the richsilken brocades and velvets of Florence, and the costly cloths ofgold of Bagdad.

Many interesting and instructive descriptions are given by theAncient and Medieval writers of the beauty, sumptuousness, and thesignificance of contemporaneous patterned fabrics—Homer, Ovid,Euripides, and Virgil describe the earlier, and Chaucer the medievalexamples.

That these descriptions were something more than mere wordpainting is proved by the remains of such figured fabrics as are nowtreasured in our National Museums.

The written records of the craft of weaving are also largelyassociated with certain centres, cities, or communities, each havingsome distinctive mode of production, use of materials, or type ofpattern, which must have added considerably to the importance ofthe community and its commercial prosperity.

The ornamentation of woven fabrics is so universal and so variedin methods of production, that some restriction is necessary in orderto cover within the pages of a small manual any adequate descriptionof the development of pattern; it is therefore thought desirable toexclude Carpets, Embroideries, and Tapestries (with the exception

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