Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 85, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1919 — SILKS OF GORGEOUS COLOR [ARTICLE]

SILKS OF GORGEOUS COLOR

Hofluenot- Coltectton ExhHHte<Hn New YOHc Dertaredrto «e • Of 'Fretervatlon.'^ —— What is perhaps the most wonderful exhibition of old French silks tn the w <>rld is to be seen in the library of tlie International Buyers’ club at 130 West Forty-second street, New York-, says Scientific American. The collection comprises more than 700 specimens of 511 k manufactured by the descendants of the Huguenots who settled in Spitalfieids and Bethnal Green, London, after the revocation of the edict Of Nantes in IGBS. It has lately come into-possession 1 of the InternatMnal*Buyert’'club kind *Ts said to be die most valuable’ of Its kind In the world. TN# fabrics of the collection'are as durable and th# coloi-s t* hriflWht as if rhey Were ♦urnWTrom' ttfe looms yesterday, Thy dlsintegrfftfen of the silk fabric thatfone sorhetithes sees in Chl-nese-’Tnftndarirf coattu'has not{taken plAce. Indeeed. ’the old French 'silk workers did-not develop their art from the artvtent Chinese, who jealously guarded the secrets of their craft. The silk industry was originated in die western world by two Peteian monks who had resided in China* and Who in about 550 brought to Cohstantinople the eggs of the silk worm in ■ -hollow barnboo tube. From'These contents developed the silk industry of Europe. There is an elusive delicacy about the French silks thlft quite defies description. Many ’Of'- the French patterns are quite up to date and are said to be'in line for any revival of styles. This is particularly true of the tiny patterns in check*; blugJTed? green and bjfown in fields of all of Which are adapted to cravats. The gorgeous colors are shown in the silks of upholsteries* the moat delicate and evanescent in those evidently intended for women’s apparel 'or draperies. Wonderful dyes the French weavers used, vegetable dyes tha't increase in their beauty as the years»go by.- Gold, pure yellow, brilliant gold, 'is shown; white, ivory, fleshj coral/lturqboise, apricot, ocean green, ashes of. rose, chartreuse, honey, -maple,' geranium, scarlet, cardinal, garnet* and a thousand other tints that-Would-b*' hard to match today even when we have 323 shades of navy blue alone. The strength and durability of the silks in this collect Eon/ soure of Which are hundreds Of years old. suggest that with reasonable care -they arff proof against dlSintegratlOb of th# >* ages. There is not crocked,'worn or thin sample among them. The<t>rtlliance of dyes, some 7 of whose formulas are at present lost to Ute-fworld,' is evidence that/tit# world-Tnay never be fotced to be completely* xlependent upon any one nation for its l dyes and thafr the* forgotten lore in the art of dyeing fabrics reveals the varied future that may be revived under the spur of necessity.