Culture

The Reel Deal

The 19th-century Midlands saw a boom in the weaving of silk ribbons – at one point some 13,000 hand looms were manned by 30,000 workers. The craft lives on, albeit in a reduced capacity, in the hands of a few British practitioners whose manufacturing expertise is keeping it spinning
Silk ribbon by Papilionaceous

Georgian and Victorian Britain was bedecked with silk ribbons. They were available in a vast array of colours, patterns, widths and thicknesses, and the cheapest sold for pennies. They were used to trim clothes, accessories, uniforms and furnishings, exchanged as love tokens and worn as a sign of mourning, political affiliation and support for charitable causes. Poor mothers who gave up their babies to the London Foundling Hospital, which opened in 1741, were encouraged to leave a token to help identify their child should they one day return to reclaim them. Some 5,000 of these mementos remain in the archive – most are textiles, and nearly one third of them ribbons.

The centre of the silk-ribbon weaving was Coventry where, in the early 19th century, some 13,000 hand looms supported 30,000 workers. They wove with imported fibre – the best came from Italy – after failed attempts in Britain to breed the caterpillars that produced the lustrous strands. Initially produced on hand looms, which could manage only one ribbon-width at a time, innovations resulted in machines on which 28 bands could be woven simultaneously. In the 1820s jacquard looms made the production of more elaborate designs easier, and in 1831 a steam-driven one was introduced, increasing the speed of manufacture.

Image of ribbons diagonally pinned from the Foundling Museum

Black silk ribbon pinned in a diagonal cross as a mother’s souvenir for a child. Courtesy of the Foundling Museum

Silk ribbons by Papilionaceous

Ribbons featuring various novelty designs. Courtesy of Papilionaceous

Despite the ubiquity of silk ribbons, the trade operated mainly as a cottage industry and was resistant to the more efficient factory system. It was protected first by a ban on imports from abroad, and then by high tariffs on bringing them into the country; when these were removed in 1860 the market was flooded with Continental products. British weaving of these luxury trimmings went into irreversible decline, exacerbated in the 20th century by the introduction of cheaper synthetic fibres. Today in Britain there are just four weavers and one apprentice that specialise in the craft. A niche market, the lack of formal training, the limited supply and high cost of equipment and materials – as well as the availability of inexpensive, man-made alternatives – all threaten the survival of the expertise.

One of the remaining weavers is Robert Ely of Papilionaceous, in Dartmouth, Devon. He trained to use a broadloom but turned to silk-band fabrication after becoming intrigued by modern machines designed to produce narrow fabric. Silk offers a finer and more detailed texture than artificial threads, and he sees the production of these narrow strips of cloth ‘as weaving in miniature’. There is, he says, ‘more structure/design in a square inch of what I make now than in a square yard of what I was creating at college’.

Image of ribbons with domestic imagery

Silk braces comprising various household-inspired designs. Courtesy of Papilionaceous

Image of bright yellow and pink ribbons

Says weaver Robert Ely, a four-colour ribbon, when woven on natural white, ‘has a sharp sherbet quality to it that is clean and fresh’. Courtesy of Papilionaceous

Image of dark blue and purple ribbons some with small blue diamond embroidery and others with vivid dark pink roses

A darker four-colour silk ribbon demonstrates the definition of detail that can be achieved. The diamond pattern on the blue fabric highlights its magnificent sheen. Courtesy of Papilionaceous

Historic film and theatre costume makers form a large part of his customer base. They choose his exquisite silk tapes rather than cheaper impostors because the colours are better and the fabric not overly shiny, making them more suited to period productions. Ely, who uses a modern power loom, also makes the materials for men’s braces, where tradition is a key factor, as well as sleeving for home audio cables, the buyers of which are drawn by a combination of prestige and the properties of the natural fibre that help to produce the best sound.

Image may contain Plywood Wood Person Weaving Architecture Building Factory Machine and Spoke

Satins on creel. Courtesy of Whitchurch Silk Mill

Another of the remaining practitioners in fashioning this highly specialised material is employed at Whitchurch Silk Mill, a working museum in Hampshire. Here, in a time-consuming process, silk ribbons are woven on historic machines in sheets of 14 and then cut into individual strips. Prized for the particular rustle produced by their dense weave, they are, like Ely’s, used by costumiers and movie-production companies. In a new departure, the mill is currently working with nearby Jane Austen’s House – a historic site celebrating the writer’s life and works – creating a collection of ribbons inspired by the home, which are to be sold by the metre. Parts of the project will be digitised and shared online, bringing to a wider audience the beauty of these traditional trimmings, now entered on the Red List of Endangered Crafts as ‘critical’.

Visit papilionaceous.com and whitchurchsilkmill.org.uk

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