Furnishing Fabric thumbnail 1
Not on display

Furnishing Fabric

1830-1836 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Object Type
The pattern of this printed cotton has been created with an engraved metal roller, and its additional colours built up using either wooden rollers or a woodblock. Roller-printing on textiles had been introduced in the late 18th century, and at first was used mainly for small-patterned dress fabrics. By the 1830s it had become a highly mechanised process, and had largely replaced block-printing in the production of fashionable furnishings.

Places
Bannister Hall, near Preston, Lancashire, was the leading printworks for woodblock furniture chintzes and set the fashion for other factories. Printing was carried out for London and Manchester merchants, who commissioned designs from skilled artists and sent them to be printed. Between 1825 and 1856 the firm was known as Charles Swainson & Company.

Design & Designing
Many of the engravers of metal rollers were skilled draughtsmen. Joseph Lockett, one of the finest engravers working in the English industry in the first half of the 19th century, was largely responsible for the fashion in the 1830s for 'fancy machine-grounds', seen here, in which the whole background was covered with minute elaborately engraved patterns.

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Cotton, roller-printed, with additional colour added by surface roller or block
Brief description
Panel of floral furnishing fabric, 1830-1836, Lancashire, England, printed by Bannister Hall for Clarkson & Turner
Physical description
Furnishing fabric
Dimensions
  • Height: 66cm
  • Width: 36.2cm
Gallery label
British Galleries: This design was described as 'Worm Ground Needlework Chintz and Stripe' in the Bannister Hall pattern books. The geometrical outlines suggest the counted-thread embroidery on canvas, called Berlin woolwork, popular in the 1830s.(27/03/2003)
Credit line
Given by Edith J. Hipkins
Object history
Printed at Bannister Hall, Lancashire, for Clarkson and Turner
Summary
Object Type
The pattern of this printed cotton has been created with an engraved metal roller, and its additional colours built up using either wooden rollers or a woodblock. Roller-printing on textiles had been introduced in the late 18th century, and at first was used mainly for small-patterned dress fabrics. By the 1830s it had become a highly mechanised process, and had largely replaced block-printing in the production of fashionable furnishings.

Places
Bannister Hall, near Preston, Lancashire, was the leading printworks for woodblock furniture chintzes and set the fashion for other factories. Printing was carried out for London and Manchester merchants, who commissioned designs from skilled artists and sent them to be printed. Between 1825 and 1856 the firm was known as Charles Swainson & Company.

Design & Designing
Many of the engravers of metal rollers were skilled draughtsmen. Joseph Lockett, one of the finest engravers working in the English industry in the first half of the 19th century, was largely responsible for the fashion in the 1830s for 'fancy machine-grounds', seen here, in which the whole background was covered with minute elaborately engraved patterns.
Collection
Accession number
T.52-1911

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Record createdMarch 27, 2003
Record URL
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