Grievances of the Local Silk Weavers Led to the Various
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The Stuff That Matters Grievances of the local silk weavers led to the 3 Headdresses Textiles collected by Seth Siegelaub for the various ‘Spitalfields Acts’ between 1773 and The csrot collection has more recently diversi- Centre for Social Research on Old Textiles 1811 that attempted to regulate their wages. fied into headdresses from Africa, Asia and 2 The end of this embargo in 1824 brought on Oceania. From hats for daily wear to headdresses 1 1 March to 6 May 2012 the collapse of the Spitalfields silk industry. for ceremonies, they form a distinct area of the This gallery displays some of the collection’s collection. In both their fabrication and materials 3 eighteenth century French and continental Siegelaub considers them as textiles. Entrance Best known for his role in the emergence of silks, the very fabrics that were forbidden for Conceptual Art in the sixties, Seth Siegelaub has more than sixty years. 4–5 ‘Archaeological’ Textiles been collecting textiles and books about textiles The textile fragments on display include ‘The eighteenth century was the age for the past thirty years. In 1986 he founded fifth-century Coptic, late medieval Asian and Ground floor of silk. It was the fabric and power the Center for Social Research on Old Textiles Islamic textiles and Pre-Columbian Peruvian of class command’. Peter Linebaugh, (csrot), which groups together a library, textiles. They are shown alongside three Marxist historian (2003) a bibliographic project and a textile collection. editions of Polydore Vergil’s De Inventoribus The 200 or so items on display, including The Church was an important commissioner Rerum (published in English as On Discovery), woven and printed textiles, embroideries and of silk vestments, as exemplified by the number which is not only the first book to consider costume as well as barkcloth and headdresses are of ecclesiastical garments in the csrot collec- textiles as a pivotal aspect in the development shown next to excerpts from relevant texts and tion. Some of the cuttings displayed here were of human activity but also the oldest in the R R 5 O A VE W ’ historic books drawn from the csrot Library. extracted by textile dealers from chasubles, csrot Library (1503). N They shed light on their technological, social whole examples of which are also exhibited. and political context and stress how Siegelaub’s 6b La Lingère 4 bibliographic project underpins the collection 2 Silk, gold and silver textiles Taking its name from the eighteenth century of textiles. and other precious fabrics book on display L’art de la lingère by François- In the early eighties Siegelaub began collecting Alexandre-Pierre de Garsault (lingère meaning Entrance European silks and velvets from Italy where the linen cupboard and the laundry maid in On display are examples of Siegelaub’s work as their production flourished during the French), this gallery displays embroidered items First floor an editor, first in the sixties, when he pioneered Renaissance, and France, where they were for domestic use alongside historic pattern the book as the site of art exhibitions, then as refined to a high point in the eighteenth century. books and addresses its original function as publisher and bibliographer of leftist books Spanning a period from the fifteenth to the a dressing room. on communication and culture in the seventies, eighteenth centuries, these fragments, which and finally as the compiler of theBibliographica form a greater part of the collection, reveal 6 Master bedroom 7b Textilia Historiæ in the nineties, the first the most extravagant qualities of woven silk. This bedroom was built for Francis Rybot, general bibliography on the history of textiles, They also indicate the ways silk has the Huguenot silk merchant who owned the 7 which now exists principally online, and can been collected by dealers taking swatches from shop below. Its contents allude to the domestic be accessed on the iPad provided. existing furniture or clothing. and decorative functions of fabrics. So as to introduce the exhibition while Selected excerpts translated in English 6 revealing Siegelaub’s methodology as a textile for the first time are included from the only 7–7b Barkcloth and other natural fabrics collector, a small selection of the notes that he book Siegelaub has reprinted in facsimile form Made from the inner bark of certain kinds of 6b both systematically and conscientiously com- from the csrot Library: Recherches sur le trees, barkcloth has been used for clothing, piled as soon as an item was acquired are shown. commerce, la fabrication et l’usage des étoffes domestic decoration, exchange and in ceremonies. de soie, d’or et d’argent et autres tissus précieux The largest textile in the csrot collection, Second floor 1 Forbidden Fabrics en Occident, principalement en France, pendant a tapa panel from Papua New Guinea serves and the Church le Moyen Âge, one of the very earliest European as a backdrop for other Oceanian objects made R R scholarly works on the history of textiles out of tapa including a mask, sashes and hats. O A VE ‘We are all Adam’s children, but silk W ’ written by Francisque-Michel in the mid- In the adjoining room, numerous Exhibition curated by Sara Martinetti, N makes the difference’. Thomas Fuller, nineteenth century. A sourcebook, it contains examples of small African barkcloth panels cover Alice Motard and Alex Sainsbury, churchman and historian (1608–1661) thousands of detailed excerpts and references an entire section of the wall, demonstrating the and designed by 6a architects. In 1754, two shops selling woven silk were to the different types of luxury textiles difference in their production and consumption. Graphic design by John Morgan studio. established by Huguenot mercers in what is and clothing used by the ruling classes. now the front part of Raven Row. Shortly after, Special thanks to Emmy de Groot for her the import of foreign woven silks was restricted cataloguing and conservation work and and subsequently banned, which allowed to Seth Siegelaub for working so tirelessly a domestic industry to flourish in Spitalfields. towards the realisation of this exhibition. R R A O VE W ’ N.