Prestigious Textiles and Craft Work - History of Textile Craftwork

Over the last hundred years or so, prestigious textiles and craft work have become more important in our understanding of the history of society. Over the last two hundred years textiles were considered to be ‘women’s work’ and consequently were undervalued with no art appreciation. They were not recognised as the skilled handiwork of clever and intelligent women but merely as household necessities, tapestry wall hangings, hand-made quilts, rag rugs and embroidered linen with intricate embroidery stitches were accepted as the ’norm’ and not extraordinary by any means. Girls were taught to sew from an early age and samplers of beautiful needlework were expected from any young woman and indeed were the prerequisite for a suitable marriage. Textiles, however have not always been the preserve of women, many men were chief designers, weavers and producers throughout history.

Types of Tapestries

Tapestries are some of the oldest woven textiles and the basic principles of tapestry weaving has remained the same for hundreds of years. Egyptian weavers known as Copts were weaving small lengths of decorative tapestry for clothing as far back as 3000BC and a few remains have been found that date to that period. The survival of these fragments is due mainly to the climatic conditions of Egypt and the fact that their dead were buried fully clothed in dry sandy soils.

The Bayeux Tapestry

The Bayeux tapestry is probably the most famous historical piece, although strictly speaking it is not a tapestry at all, but embroidery. There is no definitive date for its creation and specialists differ in their opinions but it is thought to have been made sometime in the 1070’s. It can be seen in a specialist museum in Bayeux, Normandy, France.

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries tapestry weaving spread all over Europe. Large decorative tapestries were produced in the prosperous textile town of Arras in France and were sold throughout Europe to cover the cold stone walls of castle and manor house. These medieval tapestries were inspired by the illuminated manuscripts of the scribes though unfortunately most did not survive the French revolution as they were burned to recoup the gold from the thread used to embroider them. There was a huge re-emergence of hand worked tapestries in the late nineteenth century during the Arts and craft period when William Morris designed wonderful figurative, organic pieces for both church and home.

Quilts were made the world over, from Japan to England, Australia to Canada, but there was nowhere quite like America where they made quilts with a persistence and passion not seen anywhere else in the world. The making of quilts and holding quilting bees took on huge significance in the lives of the people who sewed them. It was a chance to meet with friends, to swap information and to chat over coffee and cake a great social occasion. Many of the quilts of this period in the nineteenth century were cotton fabric, pretty prints in charming designs and bright colous. In stark contrast to this, were the quilts of the Amish and Mennonite people who used strong plain colors in simple arrangements. The simplicity of the design and the boldness of the hand dyed colors offset with generally darker background made stunning, sophisticated quilts that are still much sought after.

Rag rugs have been made since at least the eighteen hundreds though probably long before then. They are made by the thrifty to use up fabrics that no longer can be worn but are still good in places. The first rag rugs were braided rugs and there are many fine examples still to be seen. The Shaker people used subtle, muted colours that blended well in their round or oval braided rugs. The Amish preferred to make their rugs by knotting them using a latch hook to draw the wool fabric through the base material. There were no printed patterns during this era, so everyone designed their own and what distinguishes the Shakers and Amish from others of the same period is their use of gentle, subdued colour and simplicity of design.

Batik is yet another area of creative textile work and was used in Egypt in the fourth century BC and subsequently in Indonesia, China and Japan in later centuries. Today the finest Javanese batik cloth can be sold for many thousands of dollars. Contemporary batik however, is less formal than the traditional and uses many different techniques of dying, etching and applying wax as well as using contemporary design for its inspiration. Contemporary batik is considered to be a fine art form and pieces are exhibited and sold worldwide for large sums.

There are many prestigious textiles areas that have not been investigated here, the subject matter is too extensive to cover it all at one go, so what is presented here is just a taster.