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(TARTAN SILK SAMPLES)
Lista True Tartans - All British.
Publisher: [Bradford: Lister and co. Ltd., n.d. c.1920]
Stock code: 65405
Price: £450 Currency Conversion
Wonderful sample books for "true" tartans, that is fabrics woven with accurate thread counts to match the approved sett or pattern for recognized clan tartans. A total of 146 identified tartans are represented by fabric swatches, rectangular in one volume, triangular in the other, both of around six inches in length so we presume that the full sett is shown in the examples. Lister's Manningham Mills, based in a superb high Victorian Italianate building with campanile-chimney, was the largest silk factory in the world, at its height employing 11,000. They were suppliers of highest quality fabrics, for example providing 1,000 years of velvet for George V's coronation. With the rise of foreign competition, and the prevalence of artificial fibres the business collapsed in the 1990s, the Grade II* listed building has been renovated and converted into apartments.
2 volumes, folio (375 × 225 mm). Original green cloth, titled as above in gilt. One containing 15 leaves with 4 mounted silk samples to each, the other with 20 similar leaves, the leaves linen-hinged in concertina-fold, both volumes with one additional swatch on the contents listing which is mounted inside the upper board. A little rubbed, some wear at the corners, one volume lacks its retaining band, the other has been knotted by way of repair, contents with some finger-soiling, but overall very good.
