On the demise of the
Spitalfields weavers 'Spitalfields Brocades' (Studio: International art vol.1,1893, online here) Liberty wrote:
“To those in sympathy with the recent patriotic movement
inaugurated on behalf of the English Silk Brocade Industry of Spitalfields, it
may be interesting to briefly recall a few incidents in regard to the
introduction, gradual development, and subsequent decline of this beautiful art
industry….Even so far back as the beginning of the sixteenth century, the craft
or mystery of silk-weaving was recognised as one of the most flourishing
industries of France. But it was at a
somewhat later period that it was carried from France over to England, where it
did not assume any considerable importance until about the middle of the
sixteenth century.
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| Illustration from 'Spitalfields Brocades', Liberty, Lasenby, Studio: International Art, Volume 1, 1893 |
In 1585 numbers of
skilled Flemish weavers, driven over by the devastating War of Independence,
sought and obtained refuge in Great Britain from the terrors of Spanish
domination , and localised their cult, notably in and around the county of
Norfolk, and particularly the process known as “flowered and striped”
silk-weaving. Almost exactly one century
later, the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes compelled thousands of the
Huguenots of France to flee their native soil, and again a very large number of
skilled Protestant workmen sought protection in England. Many among the Huguenot refugees were
silk-weavers, and settled in Spitalfields.
And although both the Flemish and Huguenot weavers formed independent
coteries in other districts, yet Spitalfields from the first became, and to-day
remains, the centre of hand-loom work in English-made silks.
…in the year 1825 the number of hand-looms in use in the
district was estimated at 24,000, the number of persons employed 60,000, the
amount of silk used one-and-a-half million pounds, and the average annual value
of the work produced some £2,000,000 sterling.
In the year 1860, however, the English silk weaving trade
suddenly lost the fostering care and fiscal protection which for two preceding
centuries it had enjoyed. The “Cobden
Treaty” ruined an erstwhile thriving industry by brusquely casting aside
protective tariff rates without note of warning, and this inviting competition
with metericiously cheaper Continental goods.
In but a few short years the number of looms in Spitalfields was reduced
to some 1,200, and the operative weavers to about 4,000.
Had the competing Continental goods been frankly offered as
of inferior quality as well as lower in price, or had time been allowed for
acquiring certain occult chemical mysteries and simulations to apply in our own
method of manufacture, the products of the Spitalfields looms could, doubtless,
have held their ground. But owing to a
pernicious and misleading practice, followed by the Continental manufacturers,
of artificially weighting silk yarns during the process of scouring and dyeing,
the competing silken fabrics were not for a while recognised as intrinsically
inferior. The British silk-weavers
suffered-
( 1) By
the flooding of the English market with inferior, though albeit lower-priced
goods, and
2)
By a subsequent fateful re-action, a stern and just Nemesis, in the form of a
withdrawal of public favour and demand for every kind of silken fabric.
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| Illustration from 'Spitalfields Brocades', Liberty, Lasenby, Studio: International Art, Volume 1, 1893 |
…All silken fabrics, British and foreign alike, were avoided
by reason of the discovery of the bad wearing quality of the artificially
weighted foreign substitutes, which were too frequently represented and sold as
Spitalfields silks..attributed the
thirty long years of general avoidance by an ill-used public of silk materials
applied to dress and upholstery purposes.
Undoubtedly the present tendencies are toward revival. At the moment there is a coy and timorous
advance in the direction of an acknowledgement of the intrinsic and
comparatively unassailable excellencies of Spitalfields brocades. These happy auguries are due to:
(1) The disinterest and patriotic interest awakened in royal
and distinguished English gentlewomen, again exemplified since these lines were
penned on the occasion of the recent visit to Spitalfields of H.R.H. the
Duchess of Teck and Princess Victoria Mary;
2) The
formation of a society devoting its efforts to secure a permanent revival of
the British silk industries, known as the Silk Association of Great Britain and
Ireland; and
( 3) The
energy and intelligence of some few leading producers and distributors, who
have realised that success largely depends on increased care in the selection
and application of designs and colourings, and on a sustained and jealous
regard for the technical excellence of the output of the looms.
…The revivifying influences are already so beneficial that
connoisseurs and experts at recent Public and Trade Exhibitions of British-made
Silks hesitated to believe that a combination of such artistic and perfect work
could be produced by nineteenth-century Englishmen, and not until after a visit to Spitalfields, an inspection of the
looms, and of the sumptuous and dainty fabrics slowly growing under the deft
hands of the weavers, was conviction brought home.
….An patriotic and discriminating few already insist on the advantage of
English-made silks; it rests with the English designers, manufacturers, and
distributors to convince the many they can secure equal intrinsic value and
better design and colour in silks of English manufacture. Then will the sumptuous and dainty creations
of the Spitalfields looms once more become a permanent and important source of
national benefit and legitimate pride.”
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| Illustration from 'Spitalfields Brocades', Liberty, Lasenby, Studio: International Art, Volume 1, 1893 |
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