Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1875 — Imitation Cashmere Manufactures. [ARTICLE]

Imitation Cashmere Manufactures.

It is an acknowledged fact to the present day that notwithstanding the wellnigh perfection of skill and mechanism now applied to the production of every class and variety of textile fabrics, no art has yet proved equal to that by which the shawls of Cashmere are made to possess such singular purity, beauty and value. The French approximate nearest, perhaps, of any people in insuring these qualities to the imitation products which they call by the same name, the Cashmere -wool being imported direct from Thibet, and wrought into shawls in the factories of Paris, Lyons, Nismes, etc. The Paris shawls are of the kind known as French Cashmere, in which, by the aid of the draw-loom and of the Jacquard, a surface is given which, so far as appearance goes, is precisely similar to that of the Oriental article; both the warp and the weft are the yarn of pure Cashmere down, the figures and colors of the Eastern shawl are faithfully copied, and the deception would be complete did not the reverse side show the cut ends. But, as already remarked, the genuine Oriental shawl is yet without a rival in its absolute beauty and perfection, and no attempts are made or needed in the way of improvements. The wool, the choicest raised in Thibet and Tartary, is first bleached to rid it of a grayish hue which naturally belongs to it, then spun into yarn and dyed of various colors. The manufacture of a remarkably fine and elaborate shawl will sometimes occupy a shop for a whole year, two or three, perhaps four, persons being constantly engaged on it. In some of the richest specimens scarcely a quarter of an inch is completed by three persons in one day. Sometimes, in order to hasten the process, a shawl is made in separate pieces at different looms, and the pieces are afterward sewed together, this latter being done with such dexterity that it is not immediately detected. The shawls are exquisitely soft and warm, surpassing in these respects every other clothing material.— St. Louie Republican.