Cambridge History of Textiles

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to discover in a local library The Cambridge History of Western Textiles. This is a relatively recent book, published a year ago. For various reasons I am becoming more and more interested in the history and development of textiles, and the brief browsing I've been able to do through these two volumes is tantalizing. No book, even with 1400 pages, can cover all aspects of this subject in detail, but it will at least be a starting point for further research. I am very glad to see a collection like this--I've long wished for the textile equivalent of those "History of Art" or "History of Architecture" tomes.

At this point in time it is easy for us to forget what a poweful force textiles were in European history. Right now we take for granted the availability of cloth of all weights and all colors and all fibers. There was a time when competition for certain dyes was fierce; when cotton was a novelty; when in planning an ocean expedition, one had to give thought to commissioning the sails. The yarn for which would have all been spun on a drop spindle. I'm looking forward to learning more about these topics, which right now are blurred into the rest of my vague conception of European history.

I'm especially interested in the state of textiles at the time the New World was being discovered. Three features in particular: lace, knitting, and ornamental borders.

Early colonial portraits in Peru show conquistadors wearing lace cuffs and collars; lace is especially prominent in clerical portraits. Where did this lace come from? Was it ever made in Peru? Did indigenous people ever come in contact with it?

Religious paintings from the same time often show figures in robes with borders. This is not surprising, being the style of the age, but what is interesting is that the painted borders are remarkably similar from painting to painting. There's a type with gold scrollwork leaves, and a type with diamonds. There are intricate twill borders being woven today in the highlands of Peru, and I think they are evidence of european techniques meeting indigenous aesthetic. I'd like to find more information on just what kind of woven trims were in use in the 1500s and 1600s.

And knitting... a structure that seems so obvious today, even has connotations of home crafting... it boggles me that the Peruvians, with all their incredibly intricate textile structures, never discovered knitting themselves. They only began to knit when the Spanish began bringing knitted items. And I wonder who, in that mess of soldiers and priests and adventurers and (ahem) women, was actually knitting? And in what style? And where did they learn it? From the Moors? How did they hold the yarn?

I hope these books will have some answers. Even if not, I'm bound to pick up some interesting ideas on the path from ancient Egyptian linen to Marimekko.