Introduction

The French brought blue and white resist prints from India in the 17th century. Before that, textile printing had come to Europe via Persia, but was rarely practiced. Carved blocks were impressed smeared with thickened colour onto cloth. One of the early problems was making the prints join up imperceptibly, though this problem was solved when Bell invented the roller-printing machine in 1783. Another improvement was ‘coppering’ or covering the rollers and supplying them with a colour furnishing blanket. This was used in the production of cretonnes. A three-block machine for printing in three colours was introduced by Perrot of Rouen but heavy material was printed by hand. Spray dying was used when indistinct lines were needed and gums were used until the end of the 18th century. A fire in a Dublin starch factory resulted in the discovery of a substitute for gums in the 19th century. There are three methods of printing on textiles. One by block, two by intaglio and three by lithography.

D.P.

ANON (1951) Fifty Masterpieces of Textiles at the V&A Museum. London: HMSO

BCC (1934) Dictionary of Colour Standards (Silks)

BEAUMONT, R. (1890) Colour in Woven Design. London: Whittaker.

KNECHT, E. and FOTHERGILL, JB. Principles and Practice of Textile Printing (2nd ed.)

PATTERSON, D. (1901) Colour-Matching on Textiles. London: Scott, Greenwood.

 

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