Design from an album of designs for printed textiles (1788-1792) by William Kilburn

This design shows what seems like a submarine scene with a cream background which is covered by seaweed-like pants in pink, purple, brown and green, with a yellow-greenish shell at the bottom left and some other shells in brown and blue amid the centre left- and the central concentration.

Purchased from the funds of the Capt. H. B. Murray Bequest

William Kilburn was born in Dublin and was apprenticed to a cotton and linen printer at Lucan. He moved to London and sold designs to calico printers, and drawings and engravings to print shops. The botanist William Curtis employed him to do some of the plates for the Flora Londiniensis. Subsequently Kilburn managed and then purchased a calico-printing factory at Wallington in Surrey. Dismayed at the pirating of his designs, he was involved in a successful petition to parliament in 1787 to protect the copyright of designs. Kilburn's pieces of muslin chintz are said to have sold for as much as a guinea a yard and he presented one of them (a seaweed pattern) to Queen Charlotte. But his exquisitely detailed fabrics had been copied, printed and marketed by rival firms within ten days of their first appearance at Brown, Rogers & Co., the wholesale linen drapers in Cheapside who were the proprietors of most of Kilburn's designs. These imitations were printed in fewer colours on cheaper cloth and, although coarser in appearance, were offered for sale at two-thirds of the price of the original. In spite of his invention of so many original patterns, particularly his delicate seaweed motifs, Kilburn went bankrupt in April 1802.

Ann Christie identified the printed cotton from which an open gown T. 84-1991 in FTF is made as a design by William Kilburn: E.894:49-1978.

See references below. CHRISTIE, Ann, 'A Taste for Seaweed: William Kilburn's Late Eighteenth-Century Designs for Printed Cottons' In Journal of Design History, Vol.24, No.4, pp.299-314.

There is a furnishing fabric by William Kilburn, 1775, Circ.91-1960, and an open gown, dating to about 1790, converted to a round gown, in about 1800-05. The cotton has a block-printed all-over pattern of seaweed and seashells, with some twisted ribbon-like forms, in four shades of purple which is by William Kilburn, T.84-1991 in FTF.

Historical significance: Ann Christie identified the printed cotton from which this gown is made as a design by William Kilburn: E.894:49-1978. See History and refernces section of this record.

Design for a printed cotton by William Kilburn. He was born in Dublin and was apprenticed to a cotton and linen printer at Lucan, near Dublin. He moved to London and sold designs to calico printers, and drawings and engravings to print shops. The botanist William Curtis employed him to do some of the plates for the Flora Londiniensis. Subsequently Kilburn managed and then purchased a calico-printing factory at Wallington in Surrey. Dismayed at the pirating of his designs, he was involved in a successful petition to parliament in 1787 to protect the copyright of designs. Kilburn's pieces of muslin chintz are said to have sold for as much as a guinea a yard and he presented one of them (a seaweed pattern) to Queen Charlotte. But his exquisitely detailed fabrics had been copied, printed and marketed by rival firms within ten days of their first appearance at Brown, Rogers & Co., the wholesale linen drapers in Cheapside who were the proprietors of most of Kilburn's designs. These imitations were printed in fewer colours on cheaper cloth and, although coarser in appearance, were offered for sale at two-thirds of the price of the original.

E.894:49/1-1978