OVER VIEW OF HISTORIC TEXTILES

Presentation by:8.Himanshu Maurya

16.Samra Sabahat

HISTORY OF TEXTILES

Pre-Historic development

• Weaving began at about 100,00 – 500,00 years ago.• Sewing needles date back to 40,000 years, with earliest examples from Solutrean culture.

Bone needles found at Roc de Sars, Solutrean Culture 19,000 years

•Earliest dyed fabrics, found in a cave in Republic of Georgia date back to 36,000 years ago.

•Venus figurines dating back to 25,000 years ago were depicted with clothing.

ANCIENT TEXTILE CLOTHING

• Felt was the first actual textile as opposed to skins.• Early woven clothing was often made on full loom widths draped, tied or pinned in place.

Ancient Near East

• Flax cultivation is evidenced from 8,000 B.C.• Sheep cultivation for wool started around at 3,000 B.C. in Turkey• Turkey is also known for the oldest cloth known a piece of clinen from around 7000 B.C.• At Anatolia, the neolithic excavation site many burial clothes were found.

ANCIENT INDIA• Indus Valley Civilization used cotton for clothing since 5th million B.C. – 4th million B.C.

• Colombian Encyclopedia says:* “Cotton has been spun, woven and dyed since pre-historic times.”* “Cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skills, and their use spread to

Mediterranean countries.”* “In 1st century Arab traders brought fine muslin and calico to Italy and Spain.”* “The Moors introduced the cultivation of cotton in Spain in 9th century.”* “Little cotton cloth was exported to England before the 15th century.”

• World famous fine Indian Mulin dates back toaround to 16 century.

A woman in fine Bengali muslin; Dhaka, 18th-century

ANCIENT EGYPT

• Production of linen cloth in Egypt dates back to 55,00 B.C.• Cultivation of Flax is dated back to 6000 B.C.• Bast fibers like rush, reed, palm and papyrus were used alone or with linen to make ropes or other textiles.• Yarn spinning techniques include hand to hand spinning or rolling on thigh.• A horizontal ground loom was used, later a vertical two beam loom was used probably introduced from Asia.

• Linen bandages were used in mummification.• Art depicts Egyptian men wearing linen kilts and women

wearing various forms of shirt and jackets of often sheer pleated fabric.

Queen Nefertari in a sheer pleated garment

ANCIENT CHINA

• Earliest production of silk in China was found in Yangshoo culture between 5000-3000 B.C.• Primitive looms are also seen from sites of Hemudu culture in Yuyao, around 40000 B.C.• Silk fragments were recovered from the royal tombs from Shang dynasty.• Clothing for the elite was made from silk with vivid primary colors.

Ladies making silk, early 12th century painting by Emperor Huizong of Song

MEDIEVAL TEXTILE

• The Byzantines made and exported very rich patterned, woven and embroidered for the upper class and resist died and printed for the lower classes.

• European dresses changed gradually from 400-1100 A.D. depending upon whether people identified themselves with the traditional roman population or the new invading/migrating ones like the anglo-saxons.

• The Elite imported silk from Byzantine and China and fine Muslin from India.

• Lower classes wore homespun wool often undyed with colorful woven or embroidered borders.

HIGH MIDDLE AGES

• 13th century saw great progress in dyeing and working of wool, an important fabric for outer wear.

•Linen was increasingly used for inner clothing.

• Cotton imported from Egypt was used for padding and quilting.

• Fashionable Italian silks of this period featured repeating patterns of roundels and animals.

Bold floral patterned silk, 15th century

RENNAISANCE AND EARLY MODERN AGES

• Wool remained the most important fabric followed by linen and hemp.

• Wool fabrics were available in wide range of qualities from undyed to fine brodcloth which was the backbone of British economy.

• Silk weaving was well established around the Mediterranean by the beginning of 15th

century.

• Stately floral designs from China have reached silk weavers in Florence, Venice and Seville through Istanbul.

ISLAMIC TEXTILE HISTORY

• Textiles are one of the diverse arts that flourished in the early Islamic period, and played a significant role in the society.

• Textiles were used as clothing, household furnishings and portable architecture(tents).

• The manufacturers were highly sophisticated and profitable industries that built upon byzantine Sasanian traditions. These were often made with costly materials such as silk and gold and silver wrappings.

• ‘Cotton’ and ‘mohair’, and ‘taffeta’ and ‘seersucker’ are derived from Arabic and Persian countries.

• Many of the Islamic textiles were found in Egypt, primarily in graves, where the dark and dry conditions helped to preserve them.

• Tiraz (Persian=embroidery) were long bands with name and title of the ruler and the date inscribed on them. The technique used was tapestry-weaving.

• Other types of Islamic fabrics were also tapestry-woven; for example a fragment in the museum ‘s collection reflects the influence of Sasanian art, these dates back to 8th or 9th

century and were likely produced in Egypt, where tapestry weaving had existed since Pharonic times.

Textile with Qur’anic inscription

Tiraz fragment

PERSIAN SILK TEXTILE HISTORY

• During the 17th century, the Persian aristocracy wore their social status on their sleeves. They liked flaunting their rank through rich textiles.

• Persia’s shimmering woven silk textile, were often inspired by poems and miniature paintings.• The history of brocaded silk weaving dated back to the time before Sassamid dynasty.• The textile industry revived during the Safavid period, brocade artists were asked to migrate to

Isfahan and start working in the royal workshop.• During the period between the 11th and 13th lunar hijira centuries, weaving of brocaded silk

declined; during the Qajar era, brocaded silk and velvet were used in forma dresses, upholstery of furniture and curtains of court.

• The golden period for textiles begins from the Safavid Era.

• The silken Safavid pieces of cloth are of three kinds:-1. simple fine silk,2. brocade or gold silk,3. Silken velvet.

Persian silk brocade – Armlet – Medallion –Floral back ground

TURKISH TEXTILE HISTORY

• Textile-weaving here traditionally focuses on the making of carpets and kilims as well as other hangings and coverings with names like cicim, zili and Sumak.

• The Turkish arts of textile-making flourished particularly in Anatolia where some of the worlds finest textiles were woven in centers such as Konya, Usak and berg during the Seijuk, Feudal, and Ottoman periods.

• Fabric-weaving is another textile art that has been practiced and developed in Turkey for centuries. Fabric also provided medium for art and embroidery, hand painting and block printing.

• During Ottoman times, cities such as Bursa, Bilecik and Uskudar were centers where the world finest silks, velvet, cottons and woolen were woven.

• The Ottoman empire was strategically located on the path of the east-west silk route bridging Asia and europe.

• The Ottoman world is probably the best known for its production of sumptuous textiles that were woven with shimmering silk and metallic threads. Exquisitely decorated satins and velvets cherished by both Ottomans and Europeans who considered them as luxury items.

Turkish carpet with pattern

Chinese textile history• The earliest known silk textiles excavated in China dates

back to circa 3630 BCE.• Trade along the silk road, which began as early as the

Han dynasty and reached its peak n the 5th through 12th

centuries CE, created and environment in which Chinese culture interacted with the tastes of consumers from lands as distant as Iran and Rome.

• There are a number of textiles and brocades that were produced in china. Some of them are as follows,

• Silk-knit goods – brocade, satin, silk fabric etc.• Sichuan Brocade – one on historical silk-knit brocade

produced in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.• Cloud Brocade – one of the traditional silk-knit brocade.• Suzhou Brocade – traditional silk knit brocade in Suzhou,

Jiangsu Province.• Zhang Down – its also called ‘swans down’ and one of

the traditional silk-knit goods.• Tapestry Brocade – silk-knit goods whose patterns are

highlighted by colorful horizontal silk.• Cotton Textiles – the ‘white folded cloth’.

Weaving a Tapestry of Splendors- Bird and Flower Tapestry of the Sung Dynasty

INDIAN TEXTILE INDUSTRY

• India has a diverse and rich textile tradition. The origin of Indian textiles can be traced to the Indus Valley civilization. The people of this civilization used homespun cotton for weaving their garments.

• The first literary information about textiles in India can be found in the rig-veda, which refers to weaving.

• The past traditions of the textile and handlooms can still be seen amongst the motifs, patterns, designs, and the old techniques of weaving, still employed by the weavers.

• Refining silk for brocade making – raw silk is specially treated for brocades.

Indian brocaded canopy, Krishna playing flute, Surat, 19th century.

•Importance of color – color plays an important part in weaving brocade. Red – color of love, yellow- color of spring, nila(indigo) – color of lord Krishna, .hari-nila – color of water, gewra(saffron)– color of earth.

•Making nakshas (designs) on brocades – making of naksha is forms an important part of brocade weaving.

•Changes in designs through the centuries – designs and motifs have undergone changes gradually and imperceptibly. Popular designs were formal floral motif, in 16th century the old designs were replaced by Persian floral motifs. In 19th century, with the advent of British rule, some brocades started depicting floral wallpaper designs to suit the taste of the British rulers.

Indian cordovan brocaded fabric from Banaras

Italian velvet history• The most fanciful images of the weaver’s art across

the centuries; upon thrones, alters, in royal bed chambers, bourgeois drawing rooms and the ateliers of great couturiers; its velvet which has marked entire eras.

• The earliest traces of velvet were somewhere lost on the legendary Silk road; its now a general belief that this fabric, originally made of silk, arrived in Italy from the far east, transported by Arab merchants, and was then spread through Europe.

• Many historians claim that the earliest velvet were woven in Palermo, in imitation of the velvets in the east.

15th century italian cut velvet

Japanese textile history• Textiles provide an interesting and revealing vantage point to look at any society. Such is the case with

Japanese textiles. Beginning in the early modern era when Japan increased urbanization, textiles became a badge of social status.

• Many observers believe Tsujighana textiles are the zenith of Japanese textile arts. These textiles were produced between the 14th and early 17th century for banners and other items are examples of the height of creativity and beauty.

• Textiles reached a high degree of cultural distinction and artistic appreciation in the Edo and succeeding Meiji periods(1868-1912). During this period, elite classes commissioned complicated and diverse fabrics in rich silk brocades and filmy gauze waves.

Tsujighana tie – dyed textiles

African textile history• The earliest surviving sub-saharan African textiles are

cloth fragments and parchment fragments that dates back to the 9th century BC from sites at Igbo Ukwu of the Igbo people of Nigeria

• Some 12th century cloth fragments date from Tellem caves in Mali.

• Surviving 13th century samples originate from Benin City in Nigeria.

• Some examples of African textiles are: Aso oke fabric – woven by Yoruba people Adire-tie-dye – produced by Yoruba people Kente cloth – woven by Ashanti and Ewe people Barkcloth – produced by the Buganda tribe Mudcloth – produced by the Bambara tribe Kitenge – produced from kenya and other regions of East

Africa Shweshwe – produced in south africa

Mudcloth

Barkcloth

Fibres• Skin and hide – since prehistoric times the skin of small animals and the hides of large ones have provided

a tough but flexible, material for making clothes and a wide range of useful equipments• Wool and hair – the hairy coats of many wild animals provided our ancestors with fibers that could be

manipulated in a number of ways to create textiles. Clothes made of wool were worn in Sumeria at least 4,000 years ago.

• Felt – although the oldest known felt textiles, those discovered at the Scythian burial site of Pazyryk in Siberia, can only be dated to about 5oo BC, it seems likely that felt was the first wool fabric used by mankind.

• Woolen yarn – To convert wool fibers into a form that can be manipulated more easily they must be spun into yarn. First the wool need to be carded or combed to remove impurities, disentangle the fibers and align them in one direction.

• Cotton – cotton is obtained from the hairy fibers surrounding the seed-head of a semi tropical plant of the genus Gossypium. The oldest known cotton yarn was produced in Mohenjo-Daro in Pakistan 3,000 years ago.

• Silk – legend tell how in the 6th century AD two monks smuggled the cocoon of a few silk worms to Byzantium in hollowed-out walking sticks and so brought the knowledge of sericulture, the rearing of silk worms, to the west.

• Linen- bast fibers are obtained from the stalks of certain dicotyledonous plants. A shirt-like garment (c. 2800 BC) from the Egyptian Early Dynasty period is the oldest surviving specimen of linen cloth.