SPITALFIELDS WEAVING INDUSTRY

Vernon, Palmer, Vauteir, M. Sabilier, Carr, Gulin, and Anna MariaGarthwaite.

Although these designs may not all have been woven, they affordclear evidence of the type of design that was prevalent during themost prosperous period of the Spitalfields production.

Plate 79, dated 1728, is from an early design in this patternbook, and is identical with others signed “ before I came to London.”This, and the insistence of the lace effects similar to the Lyonsfabrics, shows it to be the work of a Frenchman.

On plate 80 are some interesting examples of the middleperiod of the Spitalfields industry. No. 1 is a representative exampleby Palmer and Vauteir (1749) of a striped pattern ; similar to manyproduced at this time.

Late designs (1752) by Sabilier, No. 3 on the same plate andNo. 1 on plate 82, show the later development of Spitalfields pattern-ing; the damask design by Vauteir (plate 81, 1) is similar.

The pattern by Palmer and Vauteir (plate 82, 2) and the anomy-mous design shown on plate 81,2, show graceful floral treatment ofa more naturalistic type.

Judging from the available materials associated with theSpitalfields weaving industry, we must conclude that the designerand weaver, like their contemporary craftsmen in Lyons, relied moreon numerous or fancy weaves and textures, than upon anydistinctive beauty or nobility of design, hence the primary differencebetween the Eastern and early European patterned fabrics, and thelater ones of Lyons and Spitalfields.

In Eastern and early European patterning insistence is laidupon the beauty of detail, harmony of line and mass, and theperfect distribution and significance of the ornament; while in thelater European fabrics, such essentials were considered to be ofsecondary importance, stress being laid primarily on the number ofweavings or textures to interpret the realistic rendering of floralforms.

Plate 83 shows a late 18th-century English silk brocade, whichmay have formed part of the Prince’s furnishings at Carlton House.

A sidelight is thrown on the desire of society ladies for noveltyin dress fabrics during the reign of George III., by Horace Walpole,who relates that two great ladies prevailed on William Kent, thearchitect and painter, to design their birthday gowns. “ The one hedressed in a petticoat decorated with the five orders of Architecture,the other like a bronze, in a copper-coloured satin with ornamentsof gold.”

These patterns were probably embroidered and not woven.

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