European resources in Boston

Magazine Antiques, Feb, 1998 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Established in 1971, the Humphries Weaving Company is one of the last commercial silk weavers in England to use hand looms. Its two mills in Essex (one of which dates from 1806) weave special orders placed by customers around the world. These include numerous museums, historic houses, stately homes, and exacting collectors. The company will attend to individual requirements such as design, layout, and color for orders of twenty meters or more. Its archives include some six thousand textiles from the fifteenth through the twentieth century.

John Boyd Textiles, Limited, in the town of Castle Cary, Somerset, is the sole remaining English weaver of horsehair. Cottage weavers were at work in the town by 1800. John Boyd (d. 1890) established a manufactory by 1837, and after 1870 he patented a mechanical picker and loom. The durable and versatile fabric is made by weaving a horsehair weft with a cotton, or more rarely silk, warp. The firm imports horsehair from China, with the width of the fabric limited to the length of a horses tail. In its natural state it is available in black, shades of gray, and white (which is very rare and expensive and is also used for violin bows and judges' wigs). Boyd offers a wide stock of dyed horsehair fabrics, and will dye to a customer's specifications, but a minimum quantity is required for this service. Blacks and grays have a maximum finished fabric width of twenty-six inches, and white has a maximum width of twenty-two inches. The use of woven horsehair for upholstery was taken up by Thomas Chippendale in 1760, when he specified horsehair covers for the seats of his own library, salon, and dining room chairs. In 1789 George Hepplewhite recommended it as the best upholstery fabric for mahogany chairs. Today, Boyd weaves horsehair in many colorways and patterns, but in the same designs in use over the last century. A recent development at Boyd is an embroidery service for horsehair fabrics, which makes a variety of classical and contemporary designs available. These can also be custom designed, and for this service there is no minimum quantity required.

Borderline of London prints cotton and wool paisley designs that replicate Norwich and Paisley shawls made between 1840 and 1860. In 1990, when the firm was founded, it made only borders or bordered textiles, but it now has a line of patterned fabrics, also drown from period examples. Among these are tapestry-like linens, toiles, checks, and stripes. Borderline imports Chitas de Alcobaca, Portuguese prints that were very popular in the nineteenth century.

G. J. Turner and Company, manufacturers of hand-made trimmings, was established in 1899. The firm will not only reproduce period trimmings, but will also work from paintings and other documents. Its stock trimmings, available in cotton, wool, linen, and silk, can be dyed to the customer's specifications. Turner's trimmings range from simple tabby braid to the more specialized gimp-headed tassel fringe. The company also deans and restores trimmings.

The Low Countries have a long tradition of coveting walls with painted and gilded leather panels. Not only are these beautiful, but they are also extremely durable and survive in some quantity in the grander city and country houses of this region. In the late 1980s two Belgian craftsmen founded Lutson Goudleder to recreate gilded and embossed leathers using patterns from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. The firm now operates in France. After the leather has been treated, the patterns are embossed, and each panel is then hand painted. Among the most interesting stock patterns are Marot, designed by Daniel Marot (1661-1752) between 1710 and 1740; Abundance (see No. 3), dating between 1750 and 1800, which is known to have hung in Peter Paul Rubens's house in Antwerp; and Palmette, created about 1700 for the walls of the conference room of the Paris-Bas in Mechelen, Belgium, where it survives today. Lutson's leathern can be used not only as wall coverings but also to upholster seating furniture and to decorate books, boxes, and other objects. The firm will also undertake special commissions.

For information about all of these firms, their products, and the locations of Classic Revivals representatives in the United States telephone 617-574-9030 or fax 617-574-9027.