Textile Fabrics

Transcriber’s Note:
The Table of Contents was added by the Transcriber.
SOUTH KENSINGTON MUSEUM ART HANDBOOKS. Edited by WILLIAM MASKELL. NO. 1.—TEXTILE FABRICS.
These Handbooks are reprints of the prefaces or introductions to the large catalogues of the chief divisions of works of art in the Museum at South Kensington; arranged and so far abridged as to bring each into a portable shape. The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education having determined on the publication of them, the editor trusts that they will meet the purpose intended; namely, to be useful, not alone for the collections at South Kensington but for other collections, by enabling the public at a trifling cost to understand something of the history and character of the subjects treated of.
The authorities referred to by the authors will be found named in the large catalogues; where are also given detailed descriptions of the very numerous examples in the South Kensington Museum.
BY THE VERY REV. DANIEL ROCK, D.D.
WITH NUMEROUS WOODCUTS.
Published for the Committee of Council on Education BY CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1876.
PRINTED BY TAYLOR AND CO., LITTLE QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS.
Under its widest acceptation the word “textile” means every kind of stuff, no matter its material, wrought in the loom. Whether, therefore, the threads are spun from the produce of the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom; whether of sheep’s wool, goats’ hair, camels’ wool, or camels’ hair; whether of flax, hemp, mallow, or the filaments drawn out of the leaves of plants of the lily and asphodel tribes of flowers, or the fibrous coating about pods, or cotton; whether of gold, silver, or of any other metal; the webs from all such materials are textiles. Unlike these are other appliances for garment-making in many countries; and of such materials not the least curious, if not odd to our ideas, is paper, which is so much employed for the purpose by the Japanese. A careful reference to a map of the world will show us the materials which from the earliest ages the inhabitants of the world had at hand, in every clime, for making articles of dress.