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 STUDIES IN IMPERIALISM

Silk and

Silk and empire

General editor: John M. MacKenzie

Silk and empire

empire
‘Silk and empire contains information of central importance to a fuller
understanding of a diverse range of topics, from Arts and Crafts
movement generally and William Morris in particular, to the creation and
impact of the Great and International Exhibitions from 1851 onwards, as
well as the origins and functions of significant collections of Indian skills
now held in the UK. All with an interest in these topics – and in the
history of British textile consumption, design and education – will want
to read this book.’
Mary Schoeser, Crafts
‘Silk and empire is a major study that assists in a better understanding of
East-West silk trade production.’
Janis Jefferies, Times Higher Education

In this book, Brenda M. King challenges the notion that

BRENDA M. KING
Britain always exploited its empire. Creativity, innovation and
entrepreneurship were all part of the Anglo-Indian silk trade and
were nurtured in the second half of the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries through mutually beneficial collaboration.

KING
The trade operated within and without the empire, according
to its own dictates and prospered in the face of increasing
competition from China and Japan. King presents a new picture
of the story of silk, where the strong links between Indian
designs, the English silk industry and prominent members of the
Arts and Crafts Movement led to the production of beautiful and
luxurious textiles.
Lavishly illustrated, this book will be of relevance to those
interested in the relationship between the British Empire and
the Indian subcontinent, as well as historians of textiles and
fashion and those working in museum studies and the history of
collecting.

Brenda King is a Lecturer in Design History and Museum and Heritage

Studies, an Independent Researcher and an exhibition Curator

Cover illustration: Sir Thomas Wardle in Kashmir, l903

www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

king006 cover.indd 1 19/6/09 15:31:46

 general editor John M. MacKenzie

When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded more than twenty-five years ago,
emphasis was laid upon the conviction that ‘imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had
as significant an effect on the dominant as on the subordinate societies’. With more than
seventy books published, this remains the prime concern of the series. Cross-disciplinary
work has indeed appeared covering the full spectrum of cultural phenomena, as well as
examining aspects of gender and sex, frontiers and law, science and the environment,
language and literature, migration and patriotic societies, and much else. Moreover,
the series has always wished to present comparative work on European and American
imperialism, and particularly welcomes the submission of books in these areas. The
fascination with imperialism, in all its aspects, shows no sign of abating, and this series
will continue to lead the way in encouraging the widest possible range of studies in the
field. ‘Studies in Imperialism’ is fully organic in its development, always seeking to be
at the cutting edge, responding to the latest interests of scholars and the needs of this
ever-expanding area of scholarship.

Silk and empire

 AVA I L A B L E I N T H E S E R I E S

CULTURAL IDENTITIES AND THE AESTHETICS OF BRITISHNESS ed. Dana Arnold

BRITAIN IN CHINA Community, culture and colonialism, 1900–1949 Robert Bickers
RACE AND EMPIRE Eugenics in colonial Kenya Chloe Campbell
BORDERS AND CONFLICT IN SOUTH ASIA The Radcliffe boundary commission and the
partition of Punjab Lucy P. Chester
FROM JACK TAR TO UNION JACK Representing naval manhood in the British Empire,
1870–1918 Mary A. Conley
RETHINKING SETTLER COLONIALISM History and memory in Australia, Canada, Aotearoa
New Zealand and South Africa ed. Annie E. Coombes
IMPERIAL CITIES Landscape, display and identity eds Felix Driver and David Gilbert
IMPERIAL CITIZENSHIP Empire and the question of belonging Daniel Gorman
THE EMPIRE IN ONE CITY? Liverpool's inconvenient imperial past eds Sheryllynne Haggerty,
Anthony Webster and Nicholas J. White
SCOTLAND, THE CARIBBEAN AND THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1750–1820 Douglas J. Hamilton
FLAGSHIPS OF IMPERIALISM The P&O company and the politics of empire from its origins
to 1867 Freda Harcourt
MISSIONARIES AND THEIR MEDICINES A Christian modernity for tribal Indi
David Hardiman
EMIGRANT HOMECOMINGS The return movement of emigrants, 1600–2000 Marjory Harper
ENGENDERING WHITENESS White women and colonialism in Barbados and North Carolina,
1625–1865 Cecily Jones
REPORTING THE RAJ The British press and India, c. 1880–1922 Chandrika Kaul
SILK AND EMPIRE Brenda M. King
COLONIAL CONNECTIONS, 1815-45 Patronage, the information revolution and colonial
government Zoë Laidlaw
PROPAGANDA AND EMPIRE The manipulation of British public opinion, 1880–1960
John M. MacKenzie
THE SCOTS IN SOUTH AFRICA Ethnicity, identity, gender and race, 1772–1914
John M. MacKenzie with Nigel R. Dalziel
THE OTHER EMPIRE Metropolis, India and progress in the colonial imagination John Marriott
REPRESENTING AFRICA Landscape, exploration and empire in southern Africa,
1780–1870 John McAleer
IRELAND, INDIA AND EMPIRE Indo-Irish radical connections, 1916–64 Kate O’Malley
SEX, POLITICS AND EMPIRE A postcolonial geography Richard Phillips
AIR EMPIRE British imperial civil aviation, 1919-1939 Gordon Pirie
IMPERIAL PERSUADERS Images of Africa and Asia in British advertising Anandi Ramamurthy
GENDER, CRIME AND EMPIRE Kirsty Reid
CHOCOLATE, WOMEN AND EMPIRE A social and cultural history Emma Robertson
THE HAREM, SLAVERY AND BRITISH IMPERIAL CULTURE Anglo-Muslim relations,
1870-1900 Diane Robinson-Dunn
WEST INDIAN INTELLECTUALS IN BRITAIN ed. Bill Schwarz
MIGRANT RACES Empire, identity and K. S. Ranjitsinhji Satadru Sen
AT THE END OF THE LINE Colonial policing and the imperial endgame
1945–80 Georgina Sinclair
THE VICTORIAN SOLDIER IN AFRICA Edward M. Spiers
MARTIAL RACES AND MASCULINITY IN THE BRITISH ARMY, 1857–1914 Heather Streets
THE FRENCH EMPIRE BETWEEN THE WARS Imperialism, politics and society Martin Thomas
ORDERING AFRICA eds Helen Tilley with Robert J. Gordon
'THE BETTER CLASS' OF INDIANS Social rank, imperial identity, and South Asians in Britain
1858–1914 A. Martin Wainwright
BRITISH CULTURE AND THE END OF EMPIRE ed. Stuart Ward
 Silk and empire
Brenda M. King

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

Manchester and New York

distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan

Copyright © Brenda M. King 2005
The right of Brenda M. King to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Published by Manchester University Press

Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK
and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
Distributed in the United States exclusively by
Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10010, USA
Distributed in Canada exclusively by
UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall,
Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data is available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available

ISBN 978 0 7190 6701 3 paperback

First published in hardback 2005

First reprinted in paperback 2009

The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or
third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on
such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For my family
 CONTENTS

List of figures—page viii

List of plates—ix
General editor’s introduction—x
Glossary of textile terms—xii
Glossary of Indian textile terms—xvi
Preface and acknowledgements—xix

Introduction page 1

Part I The Anglo-Indian silk trade

1 The state of silk manufacturing in England
from 1830 to 1930 13
2 Design issues in the English silk industry 19
3 Perspectives on Indian silk 55
4 Indian sericulture: an industry in decline 66

Part II Thomas Wardle

5 Background influences 85
6 Exhibiting India 106
7 The Arts and Crafts Movement and Indian silk 144
8 Legacies 159

Bibliography—173
Index—193

[ vii ]
 L IS T OF F IGURES

1 Portrait of Sir Thomas Wardle, 1904 page 3

2 Tie-dyeing in Langley, Macclesfield, 1948 (Macclesfield Silk
Museums) 49
3 James Warmsley, block print designer, working on an
Indian-inspired pattern, 1920s (Macclesfield Silk Museums) 51
4 Thomas Wardle on an elephant with Mrs Colvin, at the
Residency, Jammu, Kashmir, 1903 77
5 Silk filatures in operation in Srinagar, Kashmir, 1903 79
6 Sir Thomas Wardle on horseback, with Indian bearers,
Kashmir, 1903 80
7 Hand dyeing silk yarn in Leek, Staffordshire, c.1920s
(Leek Historical Trust) 88
8 The Indian Court, International Exposition, Paris, 1878
(by permission of the British Library, ref. T10353) 112
9 The Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London 1886, stone archway
and corner of courtyard with Indian shops 125
10 The Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London 1886, Durbar Hall 125
11 The Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London 1886, interior scene 128
12 The Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London 1886, Hyderabad
screen 130
13 The Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London 1886, Jeypore
gateway 133
14 Bird’s-eye view of the Royal Jubilee Exhibition buildings,
Manchester, 1887 133
15 Opening ceremony, the Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester,
1887 134
16 Interior, Royal Jubilee Exhibition, Manchester, 1887 135
17 Royal Doulton’s Indian Pavilion, Royal Jubilee Exhibition,
Manchester, 1887 140

[ viii ]
 L IS T OF P L A TES

1 Macclesfield School of Art, student’s design on paper for woven silk,

1910 (Macclesfield Silk Museums)
2 Macclesfield School of Art, student’s design woven in silk, 1920s
(Macclesfield Silk Museums)
3 Brocaded tasar silk samples, woven in Macclesfield, 1885 (Macclesfield
Silk Museums)
4 Silk printed in Macclesfield with ‘Indian’ designs, 1930s–1940s
(Macclesfield Silk Museums)
5 Silk printed in Macclesfield with ‘Indian tie-dye’ and ‘Kashmir’
inspired designs, 1930s–1940s (Macclesfield Silk Museums)
6 A patolu sari, India, 1885 (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester)
7 Kinkab, detail, red silk and gold thread, India, 1885 (Whitworth Art
Gallery, Manchester)
8 Embroidered shawl, Kutch, India, 1885 (Whitworth Art Gallery,
Manchester)
9 Detail of embroidered shawl, Kutch, India, 1885 (Whitworth Art
Gallery, Manchester)
10 Macclesfield School of Art, student’s design woven in silk, 1920s
(Macclesfield Silk Museums)
11 William Morris designs printed by Thomas Wardle onto Indian silk
cloth, c.1878 (Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester)
12 Leek embroidery on silk brocade (detail), c.1880
13 Leek embroidery, ‘Indian Poppy’ on Indian tasar silk (detail), c.1880.
Private collection
14 Leek embroidery (detail) on Indian tasar silk, border inspired by Indian
designs, c.1880

The plates can be found between pp. 12 and 13

[ ix ]
 G E N E R AL E DIT OR ’S IN TRO D U CTIO N

Among the exhibits at the Great Exhibition of 1851 was a piece of silk from
Messrs Redmayne and Son of London showing a ‘graceful running pattern’ of
the rose, the shamrock and the thistle.* Here in a luxurious fabric, the visi-
tors to the Crystal Palace could behold a symbol of the apparently successful
British Union which had come to dominate a global empire, not least in
India. The bourgeois among those visitors may well have noted it as some-
thing they would like to possess, for one of the characteristics of the expand-
ing nineteenth-century bourgeoisie in Britain, as elsewhere in Europe, was a
desire to acquire those luxury items that had previously been restricted to the
rich upper-class elite of past ages. Silk was indeed just such a product and
it came to symbolise wealth and taste. It embraced the intriguing natural
aspects of sericulture, transformed through refined techniques and the artist’s
hand into a fabric which combined technical facility with aesthetic worth.
As Brenda King points out, historians, both of empire and of design, have
paid comparatively little attention to silk. Economic historians have been
much more interested in volume products, like cotton or jute, while consum-
ables or medicines, like tea, coffee, sugar or quinine, have always featured more
prominently among the ‘fruits of empire’. Yet silk stuffs seemed to symbolise
everything that Europeans imagined about the Orient: richness, craftsmanship,
refined taste, and exceptional beauty of design. In the nineteenth century,
a more complex relationship emerged than a mere effort to relocate silk pro-
duction in Europe. That was certainly part of it, and the damp North-West
of England seemed an ideal place (for many years my office at Lancaster Uni-
versity virtually looked out on a former silk factory in the village of Ellel).
But the connections were also a matter of exchange and learning, in respect
of techniques, patterns, designs, and creative values.
In all of these, the exhibition, the museum, the college of design, the craft
workshop, the larger-scale factory, and the shop displaying wares founded
on eastern trades, each of them such striking characteristics of nineteenth-
century Britain, were key. And among individuals enthralled by silk, Sir
Thomas Wardle, a classic entrepreneur of the North-West of England, was a
central figure. He visited India in order to observe and learn. He brought
together all the interests and institutions through which silks could be
created and appreciated. He had connections with so many of the significant
designers of the nineteenth century, not least William Morris of the Arts and
Crafts movement. And his combination of aesthetic appreciation with hard-
headed business acumen ensured a premier position for his products.
Brenda King’s book is the first sustained study of these developments. The
fascination with silks which she recounts is now best understood through the
remarkable collections in museums in Manchester, London and elsewhere.
She brings a considerable knowledge and a wealth of detailed understanding

[x]
 G EN ERA L ED I TO R’ S I N TRO D U C T IO N

to the phenomenon of silk as a luxury East–West trade in production, tech-

nique and design. In doing so, she creates a significant revision of the crudely
binary ideas of Edward Said and his followers. Here was a milieu in which
there was a genuine respect for an Eastern product and the craftsmanship
associated with it, while a striking debt was created in terms of techniques
and design values. The additional complexities of the relationship emerge in
the fact that the main threat ultimately came not from the industrial and
imperial power of the West but from the emergence of new techniques, and
also synthetic products, promoted by other Asiatic powers, Japan and China.
Silk thus very well illustrates the multilateral channels through which influ-
ences, ideas, and production of a fabric like silk can flow. Brenda King’s book
reveals much of interest and value to historians of empire, of Orientalism, of
English industry and its rivalries with France, as well as of art and design.

John M. MacKenzie

* Illustrated in The Great Exhibition: A Facsimile of the Illustrated Catalogue of

London’s 1851 Crystal Palace Exposition, New York, Gramercy Books, 1994, p. 202.

[ xi ]
 G L OS S AR Y OF T E XTILE TERMS

Batik An Indonesian word commonly used in Europe and English-speaking

countries to describe resist dyeing where a resist medium (usually molten
wax) is applied to woven cloth by means of special tools, brushes or stamps.
Block-printing Printing dyes, mordants or a resist medium (such as gum)
onto a textile by means of relief-carved wooden block (a different block for
each colour). In India, the blocks are usually 23 or 30 centimetres (9 or 12
inches) square in size.
Brocade Figured textiles with the patterning woven in supplementary, usu-
ally discontinuous, weft threads.
Brocaded A pattern made by wefts which only go to the width of the motif
and are then turned back.
Calico A plain weave, opaque cotton fabric.
Cocoon The hardened pupa case of moths and butterflies, here referring to
that created by silkworms. It consists of hundreds of metres of continuous
filament (silk) which can be reeled from the cocoon after boiling.
Complementary threads/elements Threads usually of contrasting colours
woven into a textile to create a pattern. Unlike supplementary threads, they
are structurally integral parts of the weave, and their removal damages and
weakens the fabric.
Continuous threads Those threads that extend the full length or width of
the textile.
Cords Refers to the threads of the figure harness on the drawloom which
control the pattern in the width of the fabric. The greater the number, the
finer and more elaborate could be the design.
Count, thread The number of warp and weft threads found in a specified
linear measurement, such as a centimetre or inch. A high thread count
usually denotes fine, thin threads (or else medium-sized threads in a very
dense weave). Thus a 200-count cotton has 100 warp and 100 wefts per
inch (39 warp/39 weft per centimetre).
Cutwork Warp or weft floats (at the back of the textile) cut away by hand,
so that the pattern may appear as if woven in discontinuous supplementary-
weft technique (a more time-consuming process).
Damask A weave and, by extension, a fabric which was usually (but not
essentially) self-coloured. The pattern is created by the contrast in the
reflection of light from the warp to the weft – the vertical and horizontal
elements. The meaning is unchanged since the eighteenth century.
Discontinuous weft A weft thread that does not extend the full width of the
textile. Usually of a contrasting colour to the ground threads (if supplemen-
tary) or to surrounding weft threads (if tapestry-woven).
Drawloom Believed to be of Sassanian Persian origin (c. ad 200). The fully
developed drawloom uses a double harness set, one providing the weave,

[ xii ]
 G LO SSA RY O F TEX TI LE T E R M S

the other the figured patterning. Drawlooms developed differently in the

Far East, Middle East and Europe, until the early nineteenth century inven-
tion of the Jacquard loom, most drawlooms required ‘drawboys’ who activ-
ated the pattern harness by lifting sets of threads. Today, Indian figured
textiles woven commercially are usually created on Jacquard looms.
Figured fabric A textile in which patterning is woven into the cloth rather
than painted, printed, dyed or embroidered. Figured textiles are popular, but
erroneously, called ‘brocades’. They include those fabrics with continuous
or discontinuous supplementary warp and weft patterning; sammitas and
lampas, velvets, etc. Historically figured fabrics were woven using traditional
drawlooms (naksha, jala); today Jacquard attachments are generally used.
Filament A continuous fibre created by natural (e.g. silk) or man-made pro-
cesses. In silk cocoons, one or two filaments are created by the caterpillar
to form the cocoon; in synthetic fibres the filament is created by being
extruded through a ‘spinneret’.
Gauze In true gauze weaves the warps are crossed and uncrossed between
the wefts at intervals to create a transparent openwork fabric. The name is
also given to plain-woven fabrics where the warps do not cross, but are
often ‘paired’, creating uneven spacing in the weave between the series of
warp threads. (This makes the textile look more transparent than it other-
wise would be).
Jacquard A punch-card pattern-selecting device for handlooms or power-
looms, which was originally invented to replace the drawboy. It was refined
and patented by J.M. Jacquard in 1804. Its speed and ease of use has made
the older drawlooms obsolete throughout most of India.
Lampas A figured textile that has patterning created through at least two
different warps and wefts in the weaving. Warp-faced and weft-faced inte-
grated weave structures form the motifs, typically polychrome, using plain
weaves and satins.
Lustring A lightweight crisp silk popular in the seventeenth and eighteenth
century with a lustre given by preliminary treatment of the warp.
Mordant A colourless chemical (metallic oxide) that is necessary to bind
dye to a cellulose fibre such as cotton or linen. The two most common
mordants in India are (1) aluminium sulphate (alum), which binds, for
instance, alizarin dyes to cotton and produces bright colours; and (2) iron-
based compounds which in alizarin create the darker hues.
Muslin Fine, sheer, often transparent cotton fabric. Usually has high thread
counts, ranging from about 150 to 300.
Organzine Undegummed, twisted silk warp threads used to create organza.
The silk filling yarn (wefts) used with organzine, called tram, is not so
highly twisted.
Plain weave An over-one, under-one weave structure. Also called tabby
weave.
Powerloom A loom powered by steam or electricity, making it much faster
to use than a handloom.
Raw silk Undegummed silk; where the sericin has not been removed from
the filaments.

[ xiii ]
 G LO SSA RY O F TEX TI L E T E R M S

Reel Process by which silk filaments, in groups of six or more, are unwound
from their cocoons and wound onto a circular contraption, which is also
called a reel.
Resist dyeing Any form of dyeing where the dyestuff is prevented from
adhering to selected areas of the thread or woven textile.
Satin A weave, and by extension, a fabric with a smooth surface in which
the warp threads cover the wefts completely.
Selvage The outer edge of a textile parallel to the warp. It is made by the
weft threads wrapping round the outermost warp threads. Often the group
of warps threads at the selvage are more densely set than the rest of the
fabric, making the selvage stronger than the inner cloth.
Shafts ‘Foot-figured’ silks were made without the drawloom mechanism.
The warp was entered on the heddles of a series of wooden battens which
were operated by treadles to give simple geometric designs.
Shuttles The weaver creates the textile by lifting alternate warp threads
and passing the shuttle containing the weft from side to side of the loom.
Tiny shuttles were used for brocading (see above). The designer had to let
the weaver know how many shuttles would be needed in each line of the
design – to work out the cost.
Silk Natural fibre produced by silkworms. Originally cultivated by the
Chinese about 2500 bc. Many filaments are used to create a single fine
thread, which, when woven, creates a thin, lustrous fabric.
Silkworm The caterpillars of moths of Bombidiceae and Saturnidae fami-
lies, from which silks are derived.
Spin/spun Fibres of limited length (e.g. cotton, wool, linen) can be carded
(aligned so the fibres lie parallel to each other) and then drawn out and
twisted to form thread. The process is called spinning.
Supplementary warp or weft Supplementary threads are those added to a
textile that already has one set of warp and weft threads. If supplementary
threads are removed from a woven textile, the remaining fabric will still be
complete.
Tie-dye Called bandhani (G) in western India. Resist patterning created on
an already-woven textile by tying selected sections of cloth with thread, so
preventing the dye from entering the tied areas.
Tissue The generic name in England for a silk with two warp and two
weft systems. There were many varieties. A single tissue had one pattern
weft from selvage to selvage and thus had one colour in the pattern, a
double tissue had two colours, etc. Tissues could, however, be brocaded –
and still be tissues. The French term for this, lampas, has not changed in
meaning.
Twill A weave and, by extension, a fabric, in which the warp and weft
interlace at one or more removes as the textile progresses. It was a supple
material used for linings and softly draped fabrics.
Warp Set of parallel threads mounted on a loom frame, kept in supply on a
warp beam. In India, handweavers make warps long enough to make three
to six saris at a time. (The length of the warp determines the overall length
of the woven cloth coming off the loom.)

[ xiv ]
 G LO SSA RY O F TEX TI LE T E R M S

Warp-faced weave A cloth wherein the warp threads predominate on the

face of the fabric. In terms of fabric count, this can also result from there
being either considerably more warp threads than weft, or else much thicker
warp threads than weft.
Weft A set of threads that runs at right angles to the warp, interworking
with them to create various structures of weaves, such as plain or twill
weave.
Weft-faced weave A cloth wherein the weft threads predominate on the face
of the fabric. In terms of fabric count, this is produced by there being either
more weft threads than warp, or else thicker weft threads than warp.
Whitework Embroidery using white threads upon a white fabric, which is
usually fine and translucent so the embroidery will stand out.
Wild silk Silk from the products of silkworms that are not varieties of
Bombyx mori. Because their filaments are flat and spiral instead of circular
or triangular, and their sericin is difficult to remove, they usually cannot be
mechanically reeled or woven on powerlooms. Sometimes the spun threads
from the broken ends and ‘floss’ from B. mori cocoons are also – errone-
ously – called wild silk instead of raw silk. Indian wild silks include tasar,
muga and eria (endi).
Yarn-dyeing The yarn used to weave a textile is dyed before it is woven (as
warp or weft).

[ xv ]
 G L O S S AR Y OF INDIA N TEXTILE TERMS

(A) Assamese; (B) Bengali; (G) Gujarati; (H) Hindi; (Ja) Jaintia; (Ka) Kannada;
(Ko) Khondi; (M) Malay; (Pk) Prakrit; (Sk) Sanskrit; (Ta) Tamil; (Te) Telugu

Aar A hooked needle (awl) used for chain-stitch embroidery.

Abrawan (H) Flowing water. Very fine transparent fabrics of cotton or silk.
Ailacho, alacha Striped silk cloth used for making trousers (Sindhi).
Ajanta A series of elaborately carved and painted caves in western
Maharashtra which were used as Buddhist temples c.100 bc to ad 500.
Al Root of plants of the Morinda family containing red dye.
Alizarin Red dye obtained from the madder plant, Rubia tinctorum.
Amru (H) Figured silk that only has coloured silks, not zari, in its
construction.
Arakku (Ta) Lac. Used to describe red saris dyed with lac.
Badla, kamdaani Flattened gold or silver wire used for embroidery.
Bagh A shawl of which the surface is entirely covered with floss-silk em-
broidery in surface darn-stitch (Punjab).
Baluchar (B) Amru sari traditionally from Baluchar, West Bengal.
Bandhani (H, G) Tie-dye technique in which patterns are formed by resist-
dyeing dots. Bandana (H).
Batik (Ja) From tic ‘dot’. Cotton cloth decorated by a complex process of
repeated wax-resisting and dyeing. The wax may be put on with a spouted
applicator (canting), which produces tulis (‘hand-drawn’ batik), or with a
copper stamp (cap), a method chiefly associated with Java.
Bhat (G) Pattern. Used in describing patolu patterns, probably derived from
bharat.
Buta (H) Large, usually floral or foliate motif created in corners and endpieces
of saris. From Persian buteh.
Buti (H) Small, usually floral motif usually created as a repeat against a
plain ground. See Buta.
Butidar (B) Amru sari from west Bengal with many buti in field.
Chadar (H) Common north Indian name for shawl or upper wrap, literally a
sheet or cloth.
Chikankiri (H) Whitework embroidery from Lucknow.
Choli (H) Tight-fitting tailored blouse worn with most modern saris.
Dariyai (H) Type of tasar silk sari worn by Brahmins in eastern Madhya
Pradesh. Name daryai mentioned in Mughal accounts of silk cloth, so may
be an old name signifying good-quality silk cloth.
Dhoti (H) Male lower garment wherein untailored cloth is draped and drawn
between the legs.
Dukula (Ka) Fine silk cloth.
Dupatta (H) Two cloths (referring to cloth being folded in two when worn).
Veil worn with salwar kameez.

[ xvi ]
 G LO SSA RY O F I N D I A N TEX T IL E T E R M S

Endi, eria (H, B, A) Heavy wild silk produced in eastern and north-east
India, usually makes chadars and other heavy textiles. From cocoons of
Philosamia ricini which produces silk ranging from white to brick red.
Gorad (B) Undyed silk sari with simple border, often used as a puja sari.
Ikat (M) Literally ‘to bind’. Cloth in which the pattern is pre-dyed by resist-
binding bundles of yarns in the warp or weft threads. When done in both, as
in patola the process is known as double ikat.
Indigo From Sanskrit nila and Arabic al-nil, via the Portuguese anil; widely
referred to in trade records as nil. A dye extracted from the leaf of Indigofera
tinctoria, producing a great variety of hues of blue.
Jaal, jaala, jaali (H) Net, mesh. Any net-like design, large or small.
Jamdani (H, B) Fine transparent cotton muslin with discontinuous supple-
mentary-weft motifs woven in heavier cotton threads.
Kalabattun (G, H) Old-fashioned term for gold-wrapped thread once com-
monly used in the western region. Alternative name for kamdani embroidery.
Kalamkari (H) Painted cloth. A special pen (kalam) is used to draw freehand
designs in ink or resist medium (e.g. wax, resin).
Kalga (H) Curvilinear buta with hook-like end, also called mango (aam),
konia, paisley design. Name derived from Urdu galb (hook). Kalka.
Kamdani (H, G) Embroidery using fine zari, often created on fine sheer fabrics.
Kameez (H) Cut and sewn top traditionally worn by western Indian Muslim
women.
Kantha (B) Embroidered quilt made from used clothing.
Kincab, Kimkhab (H) Figured silk with more zari than silk showing in the
fabric surface.
Konia, kona (H, M, G) Corner. Name given to kalga design when placed in
corner of sari between endpiece and border. Konya (H).
Kosa (Sk) Silk-moth cocoon. Name for tasar in parts of eastern Deccan.
Lac (H) Red dye derived from secretions of insect Lacifer lacca, common in
eastern Deccan.
Lahariya, laheriya (H, G) Waves. Striped tie-dye pattern.
Lungi (H) 2.7 metre (9 foot) wrap covering legs from waist down, commonly
worn by men as well as some women in various ethnic groups. Name
derived from lunga (Sk) cloth, as in lungda (sari).
Marorhi Embroidery using couched gold-wrapped thread.
Masuria (H) ‘Muslim cloth’. Fine muslin from Kota (Rajasthan) with alter-
nating silk and cotton threads, name related to mashru, a heavy silk/cotton
cloth worn by Muslims.
Minakari (H) Inlay or enamelling. Supplementary coloured silks woven onto
a golden ground.
Muga (A) Light brown. Golden-coloured wild silk grown almost exclusively
in Assam (Antheraea assama).
Mukta (H) Freedom. Tasar silk fabric made from spun threads from cocoons
where the moth had escaped; consequently the name ‘freedom’.
Naksha (H) Traditional drawloom of northern India which uses warp-lifting
devices based upon threads tied to each warp thread. Called adai (Ta/Te) in
the northern Tamil weaving belt, and jala (O) in eastern Deccan.

[ xvii ]
 G LO SSA RY O F I N D I A N TEX T IL E T E R M S

Odhani (G, M) Large 2.7 metre (9 foot) half-sari worn as veil in western
India; name also means sheet. Orhna, orhni (H), odhvu, odhnu, odhaavvu,
odho (G), orna (B), orani, orona (A).
Pat Silk thread.
Patolu (G) Combined (warp and weft) ikat silk saris once made for export to
South-East Asia, now only made for home market. Pl. Patola.
Patta (Sk) Silk, upper garment, veil, cloth. Paata (Ko) cloth.
Phulkari ‘Flower work’. Floss silk embroidery on cotton done in the Punjab
for women’s shawls and garments.
Piece goods Cloths intended for attire, supplied to order in measured lengths.
Rangrez Western Indian caste of dyers. From rang (H) colour.
Sari (H) An untailored length of cloth, typically 5–6 metres, worn by women
as a wrapped garment, sometimes extended over the head.
Soosi Striped material made of cotton or cotton and silk, used mainly for
women’s trousers (shalwar).
Tarbana (H) Woven water. Tissue sari with warp of silk and weft of fine
zari.
Tasar (H, M) Most widely produced type of wild silk, form cocoons of vari-
ous Antheraea spp., such as A. mylitta, A. pernyi.
Valli (Ta) Foliate floral creeping vine design, from veelli (Pk).
Zardozi (H) Embroidery using zari, both muka and kamdani. Zardoshi (H).
Zari (H) Gold-wrapped thread, usually a core silk or cotton thread (asara)
around which wound a fine, flattened gilded silver wire. Jari.

[ xviii ]
 P R E F A C E A ND ACK NOWLED G EMEN TS

This book owes its origin to some collections of magnificent Indian silks that
exist in England. One collection has been especially inspiring; it is a group of
costly and complex silks collected in India in 1885–86 by the silk dyer Thomas
Wardle and now in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester. The collection
was first displayed at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London (1886)
followed by Manchester’s Royal Jubilee Exhibition (1887). The collection
represents Indian silk production at the end of the nineteenth century and is
testimony to the fine skills of weavers, dyers and embroiderers. Most items
are saturated with rich colour and many have gold and silver ornamentation.
Predominantly they are items of traditional Indian dress; saris, wide shawls
and turbans with just a few tailored items included.
This primary evidence in the form of silk cloth provides a wealth of infor-
mation that helps us to address a whole series of questions concerning the
interplay between aesthetics, trade and the British Empire. Undoubtedly these
magnificent textiles offered a huge amount of aesthetic pleasure, as they were
the best possible examples of their type. When the cloth is linked to other
sources, however, including a wide range of contemporary documentation,
much of which has never been evaluated, we gain a wider context and can
learn a great deal about the societies that produced and valued it. We can also
enhance our understanding of collections, exhibitions and display. Business
records, backed up with publications by leaders in the field of design, news-
papers, trade journals, correspondence and transcripts of public lectures, reveal
the complex negotiations that characterised the trade in silk between Eng-
land and India. In particular they exemplify concerns surrounding the meeting
of tradition with modernity during the period of the Raj.
The long history of Indian silk production is a rich field with considerable
scope for further investigation. Silk was a labour intensive, luxury commodity
that still provided livelihoods for hundreds of thousands of workers in Indian
and England during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It played
an important role in the economy of both countries, whole regions were
devoted to the production of silk yarn and cloth, which dominated the lives
of the people who lived there and demanded great skills from the work-force.
Silk was more than a source of income, however. It was important in other
ways; it provided beautiful, practical textiles, often with a significant cultural
value.
During research for my doctoral thesis1 I became aware that many collec-
tions of Indian silks in English museums, particularly the provincial collec-
tions, were unexplored and their importance unrecognised. These collections
had a particular significance when they were formed; they are significant
now, however, for different reasons. They are a powerful reminder of the era
of the British Empire and symbolise the strong bond that existed between
India and England, a trading relationship long overlooked.

[ xix ]
 PREFA C E A N D A C KN O W L E D G E M E N T S

I could not have explored the silk collections without the cooperation of
a number of individuals and institutions. The curators and conservators of
textiles at the Whitworth Art Gallery Manchester have been unfailingly help-
ful; Frances Pritchard in particular has given unstinting help, expertise and
encouragement over many years. Staff at Macclesfield Silk Museums have
also cooperated fully. I would like to thank Professor Anne Morrell, a friend
and renowned expert on Indian textiles, who has been characteristically gen-
erous with her knowledge, time and donations, and John Newell, Chairman
of Leek Historical Trust for his enthusiasm and faith in me.

Note
1 Collections of Indian Silk Textiles and Their Connection With the English Silk
Industry 1830–1930, London, The Royal College of Art, 2000.

[ xx ]
 INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

In order to fully understand the huge impact of India’s role in the

global silk trade and the intense design debates of nineteenth-century
Europe it is necessary to be aware of the technical, aesthetic and
cultural values embedded in Indian silks. The influence of India’s
designs in Europe went far beyond that of fashionable exotica; there is
overwhelming evidence for the positive and unbroken appreciation of
India’s silk textiles over centuries by industrialists, educators, design-
ers, theorists, museum curators and consumers.
Through collections of Indian silks made in the nineteenth century
we can explore the high regard in which India’s textiles were held.
The North-West of England is particularly rich in under-explored
textile archives and their associated documents.1 Manchester, for ex-
ample, currently houses magnificent and representative collections of
Indian silks from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century. These
silks were collected for specific purposes. They reflect the size and
diversity of India’s handmade silk industry and are testimony to a
wide range of traditional and complex weaving, printing, dyeing and
embroidery skills. What then was their relevance to the Manchester
region, widely known for the mass production of cheaply printed
cottons that dominated the English economy?
These collections of textiles were formed at a time when design
for industry was a subject of intense discussion in England. A better
understanding of universal design principles was considered neces-
sary for competitive advantage against foreign imports. This was,
furthermore, a time when textile manufacturers were calling for the
provision of regional textile museums to assist their understanding
of successful design. India’s role in the intense design debates in
England of the nineteenth century is fully explored in this context.
India’s designs and raw materials had a significant effect on com-
mercial designs in the manufacturing world. Due to the survival of
the finest craft skills, India was recognised for its centres of excel-
lence in silk production, which created every form of silk yarn and
complex silk cloth. Many distinguished artists and theorists upheld
Indian design as exemplary in every respect. Walter Crane, Henry
Cole, Lewis F. Day, Owen Jones and William Morris were just a few
of the prominent promoters of India’s designs. Principles of timeless,
universal design principles were seen to be evident, the command of
complex textile technology, the unparalleled use of colour and the

[1]
 SI LK A N D EM PI R E

continuation of traditional design motifs were acknowledged as uni-

versally important and promoted widely. This book emphasises the
impact that Indian textiles had on the English silk industry, design
education, museum collections and the Arts and Crafts Movement.
The role that small manufacturers played in international trade
demonstrates that the era of empire has to be understood in the con-
text of the small business and regional interests, as well as the global
economy. The 1870s and 1880s were crucial decades marking major
difficulties for both the English and Indian silk industries. Both nations
struggled to survive in the face of fierce competition from foreign
imports; a mutually dependent relationship developed in a way that
confirmed the beneficial aspects of commerce being conducted within
the framework of the empire. Product innovation, the understanding
of new technologies, the role of institutions, and a widespread under-
standing of appropriate design, were strategic in the fight for com-
mercial survival in England and India. The crucial positions that a
number of manufactures held in international trade are exemplified
through the story of Thomas Wardle (1831–1909), owner of a modest
silk dyeing company. Wardle (see Figure 1), from Leek, Staffordshire,
taught William Morris (1834–96), a major figure in the Arts and Crafts
Movement, to dye yarn and print cloth. Morris visited Wardle at his
Staffordshire dye works a number of times between 1875 and 1878.
The English Arts and Crafts Movement was mainly concerned with
the revival of handicrafts relating to architecture and the applied arts;
it was most active during the second half of the nineteenth century.
Although he shared the same moral values there is a great deal
more to Wardle and his involvement with the Arts and Crafts Move-
ment. He was also an expert on Indian sericulture and spent decades
researching the properties of India’s silks and dyestuffs. He became an
advocate of these silks because he wanted people to take advantage
of what lay in front of them. He was consistent in his desire to use
India’s silks for the benefit of its people in the first instance; he
wanted to preserve what was working well and used recent European
innovation as the best means of survival and ultimately growth for
India’s silk production. His were reasonable and achievable goals, yet
success was by no means guaranteed; he was well aware that human
agency was the key to future success. He was sent to India on a
rescue mission where he put his scientific knowledge to great use. He
made an exhaustive trawl through the major European silk centres,
acquiring the latest technology from France and Italy in order that
India could compete, both in its home industry and in the global silk
trade. Wardle’s work to reinstate the Kashmir silk industry was at
great personal cost and effort, it was a great achievement mainly

[2]
 INTRODUCTION

1 Portrait of Sir Thomas Wardle, 1904.

driven by humanitarian imperatives. He was widely acknowledged as

the person who gave most help to India’s declining silk industry and
gave it a more prominent place in international trade. His is a remark-
able success story that demonstrates that there are many colonial
experiences that reflect the different values of societies, including
their patterns of trade.
Poor understanding of sericulture, backward technology and little
exploitation of its vast resources of wild silks had led to India becom-
ing a net importer of foreign silk yarn, mainly from China and Bokhara,
as its own thread production fell. Wardle wanted to create a system of
manufacture that would leave India more independent of foreign im-
ports and therefore less vulnerable to external market forces. He was
very aware that the need for change was urgent; the Indian silk indus-
try would die if it did not adapt to new technologies. Unemployment
in both India and England was, therefore, a driving force for change, as

[3]
 SI LK A N D EM PI R E

was the production of beautiful and well-made things. Competitive

advantage was essential for Indian silk producers and the encounter
between western science and eastern products, which Thomas Wardle
organised, helped to ensure the continuation of India’s craft skills in
the face of fierce competition. Although greater stability could be
achieved by better control over silk yarn production, Wardle recognised
that a new system would only work on India’s terms, and that these
might rest on different assumptions. Through the agency of Thomas
Wardle, Indian silk producers acknowledged and accepted the imme-
diate benefit of improved technology from France, Italy, Germany and
England.
There was simultaneously great tension in the European silk trade
created in part by the influx of silk from China and Japan. Growing
globalisation had to some degree increased the mutually dependent
nature of the silk trade in Europe. One of Wardle’s aims was to re-
move barriers that may have prevented the free flow of information
between those involved in silk production and encouraged rival coun-
tries to pool their resources.
Textile archives clearly demonstrate that several modest, but impor-
tant, English textile manufacturers valued the preservation of more
time-consuming and, therefore, more costly craft skills in their work-
force. The evidence confirms that many small manufacturers aimed to
create textiles in which artistic value was recognised and they strove
for perfection in their pursuit of goods that were well designed and
well made. Wardle was a manufacturer who aimed for ethical business
practice and produced well-made beautiful objects. Other manufac-
turers shared his views, following Ruskinian principles in many aspects
of their production. In an age characterised by widespread technologi-
cal progress, silk manufacturers maintained craft skills concurrently
with technological advancement, well into the twentieth century.
Was William Morris really such a rebel, ‘against the age’, far removed
from the values of other textile producers? The evidence suggests that
a number of arts and crafts designers and textile manufacturers co-
existed in a mutually collaborative climate, which aimed to satisfy the
demands of a particular consumer group.
English silk manufacturers were suffering in the face of fierce compe-
tition from imported French silks. Desperate to break the monopoly
of French silks, they looked to India where the continuation of craft
skills, an understanding of design principles and use of colour was
considered to be exemplary. India’s textiles had provided the West
with exemplars in design, construction and utility since at least the
seventeenth century; they are still a rich source of stimuli to designers
worldwide. This sustained success has been due to a large extent to

[4]
 INTRODUCTION

the flexibility of Indian designs which could readily adapt to interna-

tional market forces. By the end of the nineteenth century, India’s
designs were well integrated into Western design practice. The result
of this interchange was a wonderful choice of practical and luxurious
English textiles. Many of the textile designs produced in England
have, however, been seen as merely unthinking Western interpreta-
tions of ‘Oriental’ designs, or as evidence of fleeting fashions, reflect-
ing Western whims for the exotic. It has, moreover, been assumed
that India’s textiles have been collected and exhibited in the West
solely for the purpose of indiscriminate commercial gain.2 This is an
important misunderstanding, as it has been widely accepted that Eng-
lish manufacturers used Indian designs primarily to better penetrate
the Indian market, and that this had led to the destruction of India’s
own textile industries. There has been the belief that, as a conse-
quence, India’s ancient textile traditions were ruined by European
industrial expansion and colonialism during this period. Debates con-
tinue over the extent of the decline.
However, there were complex conditions that contributed to the
changes in textile production in India and variations existed from region
to region. There are Indian economic historians who claim that ‘at
least as far as handloom weaving was concerned, the initial decline
quite clearly slowed down or reversed by the end of the nineteenth
century’.3 Judgements on this matter depend heavily on the data util-
ised. Roy emphasises that textile history in India has yet to address
the points of continuity between the pre-and post-1800 histories
in detail. The long-term impact of European trade has not yet had
an important role in research.4 There are so many variables affecting
the collection and presentation of data on India’s import and export
trade, and on production and consumption, that accuracy is difficult.
There is, however, a sizeable amount of evidence from English
archives, which provides great insight into the importance that Indian
silk textiles had for the West, forcing us to question the received
ideas referred to above. This evidence clearly indicates that great
efforts were made to retain and support the Indian silk industries.
The history of Indian silk has been overshadowed by the greater
economic importance of cotton in imperial history. There is a huge
amount of literature devoted to cotton and the empire; a prevailing
theme throughout many of the publications is of the British efforts to
open up India as the biggest export market for Lancashire’s mass-
produced cotton goods.5 In the case of silk the received wisdom about
imperial exploitation of the colonial dependency is questioned. India
traded textiles with other cultures for centuries before it traded with
Europe. This trade lasted throughout the era of empire and continues

[5]
 SI LK A N D EM PI R E

today. Simplistic assumptions about the exploitation of Indian textiles

workers by Western businessmen are undermined by the history of
silk production. Silk tied India and Britain together in a complex and
symbiotic trading relationship. The story here will weaken negative
assumptions about Britain’s trading relationship with India, as Wardle,
acting on behalf of Indian and English authorities, engaged with Indian
silks to the greater benefit of both.
Although the textile industry was a major employer throughout
the Victorian era, little is known about the training of textile designers.
Good design was, however, a major weapon in the fight against massive
imports of French silks during this period. Drawing on little-known
archive material it is possible to demonstrate how designers were
educated for the silk trade in major centres of production. Education-
alists, artists, designers and manufacturers worked together towards a
common goal and India’s design heritage played an exemplary role for
them all.
The nineteenth century was a time of influential international ex-
hibitions and the founding of many major museums. India was given
huge prominence in major international exhibitions; its goods were
fêted, they gained prestigious awards and made a huge impact on the
general public. India’s luxurious silks, which were displayed in numer-
ous exhibitions, were collected afterwards and many have survived in
British archives. The importance of much of this archive material has
remained unrecognised.
The lack of a comprehensive history of the English silk industry
is surprising as is the positioning of Indian silk history in the era of
empire. This history specifically addresses the production and con-
sumption of silk in an integrated manner. In particular it deals with
silk’s aesthetic values in the context of modern technological advances,
social forces, tensions between business practice and ethical produc-
tion and global trade; in doing so it reflects a growing interest in the
regionalisation of imperial history. Previous histories of the English
silk industry are fragmentary and it is a largely neglected area of
cultural history.6 Even though design was a significant factor in the
marketplace, there are economic histories that do not address aesthet-
ics; and there are a small number which deal with the aesthetic
aspects, but which do not include the vital economic base upon which
production was predicated. Throughout this period English consumers
imported French silks in vast quantities. This exacerbated the strains
on the English silk industry, which, unlike cotton with its economies
of scale, was more subject to fashionable trends and subsequent
periodic booms and busts. English silk design eventually developed
its own characteristics, reflecting the values of designers, manufacturers

[6]
 INTRODUCTION

and a distinctive consumer group. Good design was a key factor, yet
only a few theorists could provide clear definitions of what they felt this
to be. Besides William Morris, a key spokesperson on design values was
the less-well known, but influential silk manufacturer, Thomas Wardle.
His work and writings make him a key figure in this publication.
By pulling together a number of disparate histories this book contri-
butes to a better understanding of English and Indian silk industries.
The broad sweep is deliberate as such wide-ranging evidence sustains
the notion that there area number of neglected contexts for evalu-
ating India’s silk textiles. By advancing our understanding across a
variety of fronts it is possible to demonstrate the pervasiveness of the
idea that Indian silks displayed universal principles to a number of
key people.
The book is divided into two parts covering broad themes, as follows.
Part I summarises the Anglo-Indian silk trade and the global context
for silk production. Chapter One focuses on the state of sericulture
in England from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth
century. Chapter Two is concerned with design issues in the English
silk industry and the threat from mainland Europe, especially France.
It includes the importance of international museums and exhibitions
for the textile industries. It also summarises English design educa-
tion, which was identified as contributing to the weakness of design
skills. Case studies of Manchester Municipal School of Art, Bradford
Technical College and Macclesfield School of Art examine significant
information in the form of cloth samples, student notebooks and
educational publications, which reveal how design education for the
textiles industry operated in major centres of silk production and how
Indian silks were used as exemplars. Chapter Three provides a short
overview of silk textile production in India where cloth is central to
the culture. Although many splendid publications cover a vast range
of India’s textiles, this survey provides a brief introduction and con-
text for those who may be unfamiliar with the high quality fabrics,
exemplary designs and excellent manual skills in weaving, embroidery,
printing and dyeing. Chapter Four explains the state of sericulture in
India from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth century.
Part II focuses on Thomas Wardle and brings him in from the
margins. Chapter Five covers his background influences and high-
lights the role of the small business in international trade. It details
his aesthetic sense, in particular his appreciation of traditional Indian
textile designs and techniques. Chapter Six centres on Wardle’s
travels in India and his role in the modernisation of its silk industry.
A major interest is the collecting of silks in India, the displaying of
those silks in England and the politics of display that were involved.

[7]
 SI LK A N D EM PI R E

Three major international exhibitions are highlighted: the Paris

International Exposition of 1878, the Colonial and Indian Exhibition
of 1886 and the Manchester Royal Jubilee Exhibition of 1887. The
roles of major exhibitions are discussed in the context of the silk
trade during the era of the British Empire. The magnificent Indian
silk collection in the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, is given
prominent coverage; case studies of other Indian silk collections are
included. Chapter Seven considers the Arts and Crafts Movement in
the context of English silk production. It focuses on William Morris,
the Leek Embroidery Society and Liberty and Co. The Conclusion
discusses the wealth of evidence in the form of objects and texts,
which are the legacies of the silk trade between England and India.
The most important evidence used for this publication is in the form
of the many nineteenth-century Indian silk textiles that survive in
the provinces and in London.
The provincial collections have never previously been fully re-
searched, although they are clearly an important resource for histor-
ians and designers. They are, for the most part, collections acquired
by leading English institutions directly from major exhibitions during
this period. International exhibitions have been identified as forma-
tive events in design development, yet some, such as Manchester’s
Royal Jubilee exhibition (1887), have not hitherto been researched.
Many of the specialised textile collections formed by national and
provincial museums were collected to serve practical commercial con-
cerns, one of which was the promotion and support of a local, regional
or national industry. Although there is a growing body of literature,
which explores the politics of museum collections and exhibitions,7
the textile archives used for this research have not been previously
assessed in this manner.
Seen from an English perspective the accumulated evidence of both
objects and documents confirms that a wide range of institutions and
individuals valued the same technical expertise and pattern-making
elements in Indian silks. Individually, the collections discussed here
demonstrate why Indian silk textiles were valuable to a specific insti-
tution. Collectively they show patterns and regularities in collecting
policies. By linking formerly disparate collections it is possible to
confirm the centrality of India’s textile designs and to underscore the
widespread and consistent nature of their influence. Although other
cultures and eras provided important sources of inspiration to England’s
textile industries, India offered the widest range of textile techniques
as well as providing a long-standing record of excellence in dyeing.
The main themes of this book are competitiveness and commercial
survival through collaboration, making things well, understanding

[8]
 INTRODUCTION

appropriate design principles, the importance of design education to

commercial success and the role of the textile museum. The most
important theme, however, is that there are many experiences that
make up the British Empire and that the role of individuals can be as
important as the role of major institutions.

NB It is important to note that when discussing Indian silks that

there are two distinct types: the ‘domesticated’ or mulberry-feeding
silkworms (Bombycidae) and the ‘wild’ or non-mulberry feeding silk-
worms (Saturnidae). Mulberry feeding and non-mulberry feeding are
more accurate terms than domesticated or wild, as certain ‘wild’
varieties have undergone a degree of husbandry over the centuries.
Very early references to Indian silk usually indicate the non-mulberry
feeders, as the cultivated silkworms of commerce did not arrive from
China until possibly the second century bc. ‘Wild’ and ‘cultivated’ are
the more commonly used terms in publications, however, and are less
clumsy for repetitive use, therefore, they will be used within. Further-
more, this is an English history; Scotland had its own connections
with India’s textile industry.

Notes
1 I refer to archives in The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; the Gallery of Cos-
tume, Platt Hall, Manchester; Manchester Metropolitan University; Macclesfield
Silk Heritage Museum, Cheshire; Salford Museum; Bradford and Ilkley Technical
College; the Local History Collection, Leek Library, Staffordshire.
2 Banham, Macdonald and Porter, 1991, p. 48.
3 Roy, 1996, p. 13.
4 Ibid.
5 Twomey, 1983, p. 37.
6 I refer to Warner, 1921; Mathias, 1969; Coleman, 1969; Berg, 1994; Federico, 1997.
7 Barringer and Flynn (eds), 1998; Elsner and Cardinal (eds); Hooper-Greenhill, 1992;
Karp and Lavine (eds), 1990; Pearce, 1992.

[9]
SI LK A N D EM PI R E

[ 10 ]
S I LK MANU FA C TU RI N G I N EN G LA N D F R O M 1 8 3 0 T O 1 9 3 0

P AR T I

The Anglo-Indian silk trade

[ 11 ]
TH E A N G LO - I N D I A N SI L K T R A D E

[ 12 ]
 COLOUR PLATES 1 AND 2

Macclesfield School
of Art, student’s
design on paper for
woven silk, 1910

Macclesfield School
of Art, student’s
design woven in
silk, 1920s
 COLOUR PLATES 3 AND 4

Brocaded tasar silk samples, woven in Macclesfield, 1885

Silk printed in Macclesfield with ‘Indian’ designs, 1930s – 40s

 COLOUR PLATE 5

Silk printed in Macclesfield with ‘Indian tie-dye’ and ‘Kashmir’ inspired designs, 1930s – 40s
 COLOUR PLATE 6

A patolu sari, India, 1885

COLOUR PLATES 7 AND 8

Kinkab, detail, red silk and gold

thread, India, 1885

Embroidered shawl, Kutch, India,

1885
 COLOUR PLATES 9 AND 10

Detail of Embroidered shawl, Kutch, India, 1885

Macclesfield School of Art, student’s design woven in silk, 1920s

 COLOUR PLATES 11 AND 12

William Morris designs printed by

Thomas Wardle on Indian silk cloth, c.1878

Leek embroidery on silk brocade (detail), c.1880

 COLOUR PLATES 13 AND 14

Leek embroidery, ‘Indian Poppy’ on Indian tasar silk (detail), c.1880

Leek embroidery (detail) on Indian tasar silk, border inspired by Indian designs, c.1880
 S I LK MANU FA C TU RI N G I N EN G LA N D F R O M 1 8 3 0 T O 1 9 3 0

C HAP T E R ON E

The state of silk manufacturing

in England from 1830 to 1930

Throughout the nineteenth century the textile industries in Europe

were central to economic developments worldwide. The English silk
industry of this period is, however, an under-researched field and few
previous works have addressed this subject in an integrated manner.1
Surprisingly, even though design was a significant factor for consumers,
scholars of economic history have paid little attention to the aesthetic
aspects of silk production, in particular the role of colour, which was
such a vital element in the marketplace.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, English silk manu-
facturing saw its highest achievements and its most serious problems;
by the last quarter of the nineteenth century it was an industry in
decline. Throughout the nineteenth century the English silk industry
remained structurally diverse and geographically scattered. Silk pro-
duction in one form or another existed mainly in small pockets in
Cheshire, Coventry, Derbyshire, Essex, Greater Manchester, Hamp-
shire, Leicester, Nottingham, Norfolk, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Scot-
land and Ireland. Although the expansion, which had begun in the
eighteenth century, continued, the 1860 Chevalier-Cobden Treaty with
France was to prove a watershed. This commercial treaty with France
was disastrous for the English silk industry. It removed protection
from English silk cloth and exposed a then fragile industry to the full
onslaught of foreign competition. Richard Cobden’s vision placed great
confidence in free trade as a defender of peace and prosperity.2 His
theory was that non-interventionist trade would connect correspond-
ing economies, extending the trade between them in such a way that
war would be improbable. However, several petitions from struggling
silk manufacturers to Parliament opposed it. The terms of the treaty
regarding the silk trades allowed French silk goods into England free
of charge while English silk goods were to be subject to a duty in
France not exceeding 30 per cent ad valorem.3 The consequence was

[ 13 ]
 TH E A N G LO - I N D I A N SI L K T R A D E

a major contraction of English silk production as more than 250 silk

manufacturers were badly affected by the more open competition from
France.
The English silk industry was the subject of much debate in the
nineteenth century as English consumers imported vast quantities of
French silks. Even though they were more expensive, they were con-
sidered to be superior on a number of counts, and their designs in
particular were preferred to English ones. This exacerbated the strain
on the English silk industry, which, unlike cotton with its economies
of scale derived from mass production, was a luxury product subject
to changes in fashion, which brought about periodic booms and busts.
Large supplies of cheap labour, often children, meant that manu-
ally operated winding and throwing mills continued long after water
and steam power appeared in the cotton industry. Moreover, the yarn
produced by these mills was still bought by handloom weavers, work-
ing at home or in small workshops. Records show that Manchester
and its environs alone still had approximately 8,700 handloom weav-
ers working at the end of the nineteenth century. As Warner argues,
the lack of cohesion and unity of effort, in political, economical, tech-
nical and educational matters, was undoubtedly a source of weakness.4
This was the case whether judged relative to the prosperity of silk
workers in other countries, or to those engaged in the other branches
of the textile industries in Great Britain and Ireland.
Provincial as well as foreign competition reduced the Spitalfields
silk weavers to sweated labour by the early nineteenth century. After
the rapid entry of cheaper labour from redundant cotton handloom
weavers in the 1820s, the status of silk weavers in Macclesfield and
Manchester took a similar course. By far the biggest growth in weav-
ers was in greater Manchester; Jacquard looms were operating there
from 1823, thereafter there was regular production of figured silks.5
Having survived free trade initiatives in 1820s and 1845, the expan-
sion, which had begun under eighteenth century protection, contin-
ued. However, the Cobden Treaty was a heavy blow. The industry at
that point was diverse in character; it was composed of companies
scattered across twenty-two counties, some of which carried out nu-
merous processes while others were more specialised. ‘Hard’ silk (a
yarn that still retained the silk-gum on the thread), was used by some
manufacturers for cheaper goods such as plain umbrellas and dress
silks. ‘Soft’ silk (a yarn that had the gum removed), was utilised for
more general weaving. The more recent and swiftly expanding busi-
ness of spun silk used silk waste for the manufacture of velvets,
plushes and upholstery trimmings. Many English textile manufacturers

[ 14 ]
 S I LK MANU FA C TU RI N G I N EN G LA N D F R O M 1 8 3 0 T O 1 9 3 0

considered that the powerloom could never be successfully adapted to

elaborate silk weaving. Although large numbers of handloom weavers
were still employed as outworkers, increasing numbers of weavers
were operating powerlooms in large factories to produce cheaper plain
silks.
In England silk was classed as ‘small manufactures’ compared to
the thriving cotton and woollen industries. The silk industry was,
therefore, given little consideration by those outside the trade, espe-
cially politicians, compared to the huge interest accorded to the more
prosperous sector concerned with mass-produced textiles such as cot-
ton. The consequence was that the Spitalfields silk industry virtually
disappeared. Many middlemen and retailers prospered, however. They
filled their warehouses and shops with cheaper goods from France
made specifically for the purpose, at less difficulty and threat to them-
selves than hitherto; and they were sold alongside cheap stock from
Spitalfields firms that had closed. This influx of cheaper French silks
hastened the extinction of those English manufacturers who made
similar goods, which for some time had been the mainstay of Spital-
fields weavers.
After the 1860s, protective tariffs remained in place in a number
of European countries. Many European manufacturers, moreover,
operated with newer and better machinery and/or lower labour costs.
During the final decades of the nineteenth century the silk industries
of France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and America grew rapidly,
supplying their home markets and competing with English goods in
export markets. French and Swiss silk textiles were exported to Bri-
tain in increasing quantities. The worldwide expansion of silk manu-
facturing did prevent raw silk prices from falling, although ominously
the centre of the European raw silk market moved from London to
Lyons. The inadequacies of English technical education and weak
designs became more obvious than ever. Consequently, all parts of
the English silk industry faced a series of grim challenges from 1860
onwards. Different reactions to these challenges moulded the future
of the industry. Spun and hard silks were less affected, but falling
prices, foreign competition and increasing tariff barriers exacerbated
the general slump. The number of artisans engaged in English silk
production fell to about a quarter of the number employed in 1850,
mostly due to the contraction of handloom weaving. At the same
time, the imports of silk textiles reached five times the volume of dom-
estic production. The overall result was that silk manufacturers were
drastically reduced in number. Towards the end of the nineteenth
century, however, those who had captured a specialised segment of

[ 15 ]
 TH E A N G LO - I N D I A N SI L K T R A D E

the market had survived (see Chapter Six). Macclesfield remained the
strongest of the provincial centres, although marginal products were
weeded out of production.
Thomas Wardle was a key figure in the development of the English
silk industry at a crucial time. He was elected as the first President of
the Silk Association of Great Britain and Ireland when it was formed
in 1887, an office which he kept until his death in 1909. The associa-
tion was formed in order to promote and develop the silk industry in
all its branches at a time when it was causing deep concern. Member-
ship included silk manufacturers, merchants, dyers and finishers
and others who were interested in the well-being of the industry. Silk
manufacturers were acutely aware that their industry was not main-
taining equilibrium and might become fixed in a position where it
would be beyond rescue. The best they could try to do was to prevent
disaster; some were more concerned with preventing further decline
than with huge profit margins. Technical instruction was given a high
profile and largely due to the efforts of the association the important
Municipal School of Technology was founded in Manchester.6
The desire to preserve the English silk industry was very clear, and
many manufacturers refused to consider that Britain would be forced
by French imports to abandon silk production. They recognised that
it was not simply a matter of reducing wages to make English silk
goods cheaper to produce and subsequently be more competitive
on price. There was a clear and constantly stated need to substitute
imported French silk goods with well-designed English silks that would
satisfy the discerning English consumer. The production of a better
product would lead to greater employment in the silk industry and
prevent the poverty that followed unemployment. It was crucial to
raise the image of English silks to encourage fashionable English con-
sumers to purchase them. The formation of the Ladies’ National Silk
Association in 1890 set out to promote British silks to British women.
The first President was HRH Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of
Teck; she was succeeded by her daughter the Princess of Wales.
Exhibitions of British silk were organised by this association at
prestigious addresses in London, aiming to draw the public’s atten-
tion to the fact that British manufacturers could produce excellent
silks for furnishings and dress. Although the stratagems were a down-
to-earth response to fundamental global changes and the unprecedented
level of international competition, one question dominated: just how
much must the domestic economy be forced to adjust to the dictates
of the international economy? In 1905 the Silk Association success-
fully appealed against proposed increased tariffs by the French Senate
on silks entering France. The tariffs, if adopted, would have seriously

[ 16 ]
 S I LK MANU FA C TU RI N G I N EN G LA N D F R O M 1 8 3 0 T O 1 9 3 0

damaged the British silk industry, particularly the producers of black

silk crape who had a large export trade with France.
In addition to these pragmatic services, which helped to reinvigorate
the silk industry, the Silk Association also provided an important
means of inter-communication between its widely scattered mem-
bers, which had not previously existed, and operated for the benefit of
them all. They shared the same concerns and often the same values,
and it was increasingly obvious that they needed to tackle huge prac-
tical problems together, if they were to stimulate design education to
improve English silk designs as well as produce beautiful fabrics. In
1886 the Report of the Royal Commission on Depression in Trade7
revealed that many Macclesfield manufacturers were well aware of
the minutiae of international trade and foreign markets and had a
working knowledge of business practices, as well as art and technical
education in France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The importance
of good technical education was clearly understood, as was the role
of trade museums in generating a sense of good design. They shared
similar concerns, had analysed the reasons for silk industries decline
and offered well-thought-out solutions.
Many silk manufacturers and design theorists who were consistent
in their thinking and who wanted to make beautiful things in an
ethical manner followed the ethics of the Arts and Crafts Movement.
They shared the same moral values as Morris and Ruskin, only differ-
ing in the best way to maintain skills. Some leading English designers
adopted an aesthetic that derived from the Arts and Crafts Movement
(see Chapter Six). England became a less successful market for French
exports when a preference for different styles heralded a period of
change towards the end of the century. This was a time when French
silk patterns, particularly those for furnishings, did not change dra-
matically and many designs inspired by the eighteenth century con-
tinued to be produced in France until well into the twentieth century.
Features of the distinctly new style Art Nouveau, which took many
of its features from Arts and Crafts design and oriental influences,
were evident in English designs from the 1880s and were also in
demand in France. English consumers demanded softer silks for dress
and furnishings, with an increasing range of fashionable colours. Sur-
viving evidence in the form of manufacturers’ pattern books reveals
that a huge range of designs were manufactured throughout the first
quarter of the twentieth century, indicating that a variety of tastes
were catered for. Handloom weaving was still practised, albeit for a
highly specialised market, as late as the 1930s in Sherborne in Dorset
and as late as the 1980s in Macclesfield, when one handloom weaver
was still working.

[ 17 ]
 TH E A N G LO - I N D I A N SI L K T R A D E

Notes
1 A notable exception is English and American Textiles by Schoeser and Ruffey,
1989.
2 Richard Cobden (1804–65), English economist and politician, known as the ‘Apostle
of Free Trade’, was financially involved with the cotton industry.
3 Chadwick, The Silk Manufacturers, p. 14.
4 Warner, 1921, p. 151.
5 The Jacquard loom was invented by Charles Marie Jacquard (1752–1834) in France
in 1801–8. It was a major technological development which greatly reduced the
time needed for weaving complex patterns.
6 This became known as UMIST.
7 The Royal Commission on Depression in Trade. Report of Evidence of a Deputa-
tion from Macclesfield on the Decline of the English Silk Trade, 1886.

[ 18 ]
 DES I GN I SSU ES I N TH E EN G LI SH S IL K IN D U S T R Y

CHA P T E R T WO

Design issues in the English

silk industry

The period that began with William Ewart’s work towards the Parlia-
mentary Commission on Art and Design Education between 1834 and
19361 and ended with the Gorrell report on Art and Industry in 1932,2
was a time when trade between India and England underwent changes
and the English textile industries were identifying new markets for
their products. It was a time of intense interest in art and technical
education and increased interaction between art schools and industry,
when India’s textile designs provided models for best practice and had
a unitary significance in different regions and institutions. Industrial-
ists and educators aimed to balance production with consumption
and improvements in art and technical education were seen as crucial
elements in the battle to retain a hold over world markets. Concern
over design education was related to the series of international exhibi-
tions and coincided with the growth of museums. All of these devel-
opments were directed towards producing a better-trained workforce
for industry, rather than an individual worker’s self-improvement.
A wide range of primary evidence ranging from textbooks and
students’ notebooks to cloth samples woven by students attending art
schools and technical schools,3 has given new insights into the teach-
ing of textile design in the nineteenth century.
Extensive reports in trade journals such as the Textile Recorder
and journals for theorists such as the Journal of Design and the Journal
of Decorative Art, along with minutes and other documents relating
to the individual institutions are important sources of information
relating to textile designs and trade matters. Publications by designer-
educators, aimed at artisans training for the textile industries, provide
a clear picture of late nineteenth-century industrial and theoretical
attitudes. Statements about Victorian design values, however, carry
little meaning unless we can comprehend how the objects under discus-
sion relate to the theories. The publications were, therefore, examined

[ 19 ]
 TH E A N G LO - I N D I A N SI L K T R A D E

alongside contemporary textiles in order to arrive at an understanding

of what the theorists meant by true and false principles of design and
how they related to design education. Collections of Indian textiles
in teaching institutions provide invaluable primary sources, as do
samples of English silk textiles produced during the period. When
texts and objects are examined together they have the potential to
give us a clearer understanding of what was meant by ‘good’ design
principles than either would when studied alone.
Due to rapidly increasing changes in the methods of production dur-
ing the nineteenth century, artisans designing for the textile industry
needed to respond to new technologies and more complex markets.
As a result, art and technical education became formalised and more
detailed. As we have seen, French silk goods posed the greatest threat
to the English silk industry. In 1847 Manchester manufacturers alone
were spending about £20–30,000 per annum on imported French de-
signs in order to provide consumers with the patterns they demanded.4
In addition, competition from Germany, Switzerland and the USA
increased towards the end of the century. In the face of such fierce
competition, powerful English textile manufacturers attempted to
galvanise the government into action in order to improve design
and technical education. The Parliamentary Commission on Art and
Design Education (1835–36) resulted in a national system of art and
technical education, which was centrally organised by the Board of
Trade. In 1836 the Central School of Art and Design5 was founded,
swiftly followed by a branch in Spitalfields, then the centre of English
silk production. There followed a period when schools of design were
opened in manufacturing areas throughout the country. However, the
result was often an erratic distribution of institutions, which in some
cases duplicated the Mechanics’ Institutes, already in place.6 Overall
standards in the schools were inconsistent and became a matter for
public concern.
The problem of what to teach and to whom was one that had been
recognised earlier when Mechanics’ Institutes were established. This
continued, amid a great deal of confusion surrounding the curriculum
of the schools of design in their early years. However, there was ‘an
important discussion of principle, a debate concerning the nature of
art schools, which turned on the question of whether they should be
workshops or academies’.7
There was an established precedent of manufacturers’ involvement
in education, in industrial regions. The Manchester Mechanics’ Insti-
tute had involved local industrialists and had been influential in pro-
ducing an informed workforce for the local industries. However, each
local textile industry was differently structured and attitudes towards

[ 20 ]
 DES I GN I SSU ES I N TH E EN G LI SH S IL K IN D U S T R Y

the education of artisans depended on the type of product being manu-

factured. The more enlightened manufacturers took many factors into
account when they became involved with local education; furthermore,
they often needed to battle with their more indifferent colleagues.
Generally, as Rifkin observes, ‘The Utopian dream of a wise and cultiv-
ated workforce enters profoundly into the cultural make-up of the
industrial managers and entrepreneurial classes’.8 And, if industrialists
and design educators did not always agree about how to achieve this
Utopian dream in Manchester, they remained equally convinced of
the important role which Indian textiles had to play in design educa-
tion. As we shall see, Indian textiles remained a constant factor in the
debate over the teaching of design.
Despite the fact that the schools of design were the result of both
state provision and the support of manufacturers, after a decade or so
there were still no obvious discernible benefits for the luxury indus-
tries such as silk. This was all too evident when English textile manu-
factures were displayed at the Great Exhibition, and theorists such as
Henry Cole (1808–82) and Richard Redgrave (1804–88) among others,
pronounced the schools of design failures in the Journal of Design,
which Cole founded. Cole and his supporters introduced reforms and
proposed a new ethos that revolved around theories of appropriate
design. Publications followed in which true and false principles of
design were discussed. Alongside discourses on aesthetics were others
concerned with foreign competition, the realities of production, profit
and loss and the relationship between production and consumption.
Overall, foreign competition was the strongest motivating force for
change.
At the mid-point of the nineteenth century, the supremacy of the
British textile industry lay in its highly industrialised sectors. The
manufacture of dyed and printed cotton cloth was mechanised and
intensive factory production, with its economies of scale, meant that
it was more cost-effective and price was a deciding factor for the
consumer of cotton. English silk production, on the other hand, still
depended on a great deal of hand technology and a division of labour
that created a lower profit margin. The production of costly luxury silk
goods had more to fear from foreign goods, as superior designs were
their main attraction, and more to gain, therefore, from improved
design education. Consequently, although they occupied a smaller
sector of the market, silk manufacturers were a driving force for
educational reform. They knew only too well that French designers’
superior skills were the result of training that allowed for greater in-
dividual creativity. Most French designers were capable of practising
all aspects of the silk weaving process, as well as producing designs

[ 21 ]
Another Random Scribd Document
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of An
Introduction to Entomology: Vol. 2
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
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Title: An Introduction to Entomology: Vol. 2

Author: William Kirby

William Spence

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN

INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY: VOL. 2 ***
 Plate IV

AN

INTRODUCTION
TO

ENTOMOLOGY:
OR

ELEMENTS

OF THE

NATURAL HISTORY OF INSECTS:

WITH PLATES.

By WILLIAM KIRBY, M.A. F.R. and L.S.

RECTOR OF BARHAM,
AND

WILLIAM SPENCE, Esq. F.L.S.

 IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

FIFTH EDITION.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,

PATERNOSTER ROW.

1828.

PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR,

RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
 CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
Letter Page

XVI. Societies of Insects.

1. Imperfect Societies 1-25

XVII. Societies of Insects continued.

2. Perfect Societies.
White Ants. Ants 26-106

Perfect Societies of Insects

XVIII. continued.
107-
Wasps. Humble-bees
118

Perfect Societies of Insects

XIX. continued.
119-
Hive-bee
167

Perfect Societies of Insects

XX. concluded.
168-
Hive-bee
214

Means by which Insects defend 215-

XXI. themselves 266

XXII. Motions of Insects.

267-
Larva and Pupa
299
XXIII. Motions of Insects continued.
300-
Imago
370

371-
Noises produced by Insects
XXIV. 403

404-
Luminous Insects
XXV. 424

425-
Hybernation and Torpidity of Insects
XXVI. 459

460-
Instinct of Insects
XXVII. 523
AN INTRODUCTION TO
ENTOMOLOGY.
 LETTER XVI.
SOCIETIES OF INSECTS.
IMPERFECT SOCIETIES.

I see already, and I see it with pleasure, that you will not content
yourself with being a mere collector of insects. To possess a cabinet
well stored, and to know by what name each described individual
which it contains should be distinguished, will not satisfy the love
that is already grown strong in you for my favourite pursuit; and you
now anticipate with a laudable eagerness, the discoveries that you
may make respecting the history and economy of this most
interesting department of the works of our Creator. I hail with joy
this intention to emulate the bright example, and to tread in the
hallowed steps of Swammerdam, Leeuwenhoek, Redi, Malpighi,
Vallisnieri, Ray, Lister, Reaumur, De Geer, Lyonnet, Bonnet, the
Hubers, &c.; and I am confident that a man of your abilities,
discernment, and observation will contribute, in no small degree, to
the treasures already poured into the general fund by these your
illustrious predecessors.
I feel not a little flattered when you inform me that the details
contained in my late letters relative to this subject, have stimulated
you to this noble resolution.—Assure yourself, I shall think no labour
lost, that has been the means of winning over to the science I love,
the exertions of a mind like yours.
But if the facts already related, however extraordinary, have had
power to produce such an effect upon you, what will be the
momentum, when I lay before you more at large, as I next purpose,
the most striking particulars of the proceedings of insects in society,
and show the almost incredibly wonderful results of the combined
instincts and labours of these minute beings? In comparison with
these, all that is the fruit of solitary efforts, though some of them
sufficiently marvellous, appear trifling and insignificant: as the works
of man himself, when they are the produce of the industry and
genius of only one, or a few individuals, though they might be
regarded with admiration by a being who had seen nothing similar
before, yet when contrasted with those to which the union of these
qualities in large bodies has given birth, sink into nothing, and seem
unworthy of attention. Who would think a hut extraordinary by the
side of a stately palace, or a small village when in the vicinity of a
populous and magnificent city?
Insects in society may be viewed under several lights, and their
associations are for various purposes and of different durations.
There are societies the object of which is mutual defence; while that
of others is the propagation of the species. Some form marauding
parties, and associate for prey and plunder;—others meet, as it
should seem, under certain circumstances, merely for the sake of
company;—again, others are brought together by accidental causes,
and disperse when these cease to operate;—and finally, others,
which may be said to form proper societies, are associated for the
nurture of their young, and, by the union of their labours and
instincts, for mutual society, help, and comfort, in erecting or
repairing their common habitation, in collecting provisions, and in
defending their fortress when attacked.
With respect to the duration of the societies of insects, some last
only during their first or larva state; and are occasionally even
restricted to its earliest period;—some again only associate in their
perfect or imago state; while with others, the proper societies for
instance, the association is for life. But if I divide societies of insects
into perfect and imperfect, it will, I think, enable me to give you a
clearer and better view of the subject. By perfect societies I mean
those that are associated in all their states, live in a common
habitation, and unite their labours to promote a common object;—
and by imperfect societies, those that are either associated during
part of their existence only, or else do not dwell in a common
habitation, nor unite their labours to promote a common object. In
the present letter I shall confine myself to giving you some account
of imperfect societies.
Imperfect societies may be considered as of five descriptions:—
associations for the sake of company only—associations of males
during the season for pairing—associations formed for the purpose
of travelling or emigrating together—associations for feeding
together—and associations that undertake some common work.
The first of these associations consists chiefly of insects in their
perfect state. The little beetles called whirlwigs (Gyrinus),—which
may be seen clustering in groups under warm banks in every river
and every pool, and wheeling round and round with great velocity;
at your approach dispersing and diving under water, but as soon as
you retire resuming their accustomed movements,—seem to be
under the influence of the social principle, and to form their
assemblies for no other purpose than to enjoy together, in the
sunbeam, the mazy dance. Impelled by the same feeling, in the very
depth of winter, even when the earth is covered with snow, the
tribes of Tipulariæ (usually, but improperly, called gnats) assemble in
sheltered situations at midday, when the sun shines, and form
themselves into choirs, that alternately rise and fall with rapid
evolutions[1]. To see these little aëry beings apparently so full of joy
and life, and feeling the entire force of the social principle in that
dreary season, when the whole animal creation appears to suffer,
and the rest of the insect tribes are torpid, always conveys to my
mind the most agreeable sensations. These little creatures may
always be seen at all seasons amusing themselves with these choral
dances; which Mr. Wordsworth, in one of his poems[2], has alluded
to in the following beautiful lines:

"Nor wanting here to entertain the thought,

Creatures that in communities exist,
 Less, as might seem, for general guardianship
Or through dependance upon mutual aid,
Than by participation of delight,
And a strict love of fellowship combined.
What other spirit can it be that prompts
The gilded summer flies to mix and weave
Their sports together in the solar beam,
Or in the gloom and twilight hum their joy?"
Another association is that of males during the season of pairing. Of
this nature seems to be that of the cockchafer and fernchafer
(Melolontha vulgaris and Amphimalla solstitialis), which, at certain
periods of the year and hours of the day, hover over the summits of
the trees and hedges like swarms of bees, affording, when they
alight on the ground, a grateful food to cats, pigs, and poultry. The
males of another root-devouring beetle (Hoplia argentea) assemble
by myriads before noon in the meadows, when in these infinite hosts
you will not find even one female[3]. After noon the congregation is
dissolved, and not a single individual is to be seen in the air[4]: while
those of M. vulgaris and A. solstitialis are on the wing only in the
evening.
At the same time of the day some of the short-lived Ephemeræ
assemble in numerous troops, and keep rising and falling alternately
in the air, so as to exhibit a very amusing scene. Many of these also
are males. They continue this dance from about an hour before sun-
set, till the dew becomes too heavy or too cold for them. In the
beginning of September, for two successive years, I was so fortunate
as to witness a spectacle of this kind, which afforded me a more
sublime gratification than any work or exhibition of art has power to
communicate.—The first was in 1811:—taking an evening walk near
my house, when the sun declining fast towards the horizon shone
forth without a cloud, the whole atmosphere over and near the
stream swarmed with infinite myriads of Ephemeræ and little gnats
of the genus Chironomus, which in the sun-beam appeared as
numerous and more lucid than the drops of rain, as if the heavens
were showering down brilliant gems.—Afterwards, in the following
year, one Sunday, a little before sun-set, I was enjoying a stroll with
a friend at a greater distance from the river, when in a field by the
road-side the same pleasing scene was renewed, but in a style of
still greater magnificence; for, from some cause in the atmosphere,
the insects at a distance looked much larger than they really were.
The choral dances consisted principally of Ephemeræ, but there
were also some of Chironomi; the former, however, being most
conspicuous, attracted our chief attention—alternately rising and
falling, in the full beam they appeared so transparent and glorious,
that they scarcely resembled any thing material—they reminded us
of angels and glorified spirits drinking life and joy in the effulgence
of the Divine favour[5]. The bard of Twickenham, from the terms in
which his beautiful description of his sylphs is conceived in The Rape
of the Lock, seems to have witnessed the pleasing scene here
described:

"Some to the sun their insect wings unfold,

Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;
Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight,
Their fluid bodies half dissolv'd in light;
Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,
Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew,
Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies,
Where light disports in ever mingling dyes,
While every beam new transient colours flings,
Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings."

I wish you may have the good fortune next year to be a spectator of
this all but celestial dance. In the mean time, in May and June, their
season of love, you may often receive much gratification from
observing the motions of a countless host of little black flies of the
genus Hilara, (H. maura,) which at this period of the year assemble
to wheel in aëry circles over stagnant waters, with a rush resembling
that of a hasty shower driven by the wind.
The next description of insect associations is of those that
congregate for the purpose of travelling or emigrating together. De
Geer has given an account of the larvæ of certain gnats (Tipulariæ)
which assemble in considerable numbers for this purpose, so as to
form a band of a finger's breadth, and of from one to two yards in
length. And, what is remarkable, while upon their march, which is
very slow, they adhere to each other by a kind of glutinous
secretion; but when disturbed they separate without difficulty[6].
Kuhn mentions another of the same tribe (from the antennæ in his
figure, which is very indifferent, it should seem a species of agaric-
gnat (Mycetophila)), the larvæ of which live in society and emigrate
in files, like the caterpillar of the procession-moth. First goes one,
next follow two, then three, &c., so as to exhibit a serpentine
appearance, probably from their simultaneous undulating motion
and the continuity of the files; whence the common people in
Germany call them (or rather the file when on march) heerwurm,
and view them with great dread, regarding them as ominous of war.
These larvæ are apodes, white, subtransparent, with black heads[7].
—But of insect emigrants none are more celebrated than the locusts,
which, when arrived at their perfect state, assemble as before
related, in such numbers, as in their flight to intercept the
sunbeams, and to darken whole countries; passing from one region
to another, and laying waste kingdom after kingdom:—but upon
these I have already said much, and shall have occasion again to
enlarge.—The same tendency to shift their quarters has been
observed in our little indigenous devourers, the Aphides. Mr. White
tells us, that about three o'clock in the afternoon of the first of
August 1785, the people of the village of Selborne were surprised by
a shower of Aphides or smother-flies, which fell in those parts.
Those that walked in the street at that juncture found themselves
covered with these insects, which settled also upon the hedges and
in the gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they alighted.
His annuals were discoloured by them, and the stalks of a bed of
onions quite coated over for six days after. These armies, he
observes, were then, no doubt, in a state of emigration, and shifting
their quarters; and might have come from the great hop-plantations
of Kent or Sussex, the wind being all that day in the east. They were
observed at the same time in great clouds about Farnham, and all
along the vale from Farnham to Alton[8]. A similar emigration of
these flies I once witnessed, to my great annoyance, when travelling
later in the year, in the Isle of Ely. The air was so full of them, that
they were incessantly flying into my eyes, nostrils, &c.; and my
clothes were covered by them. And in 1814, in the autumn, the
Aphides were so abundant for a few days in the vicinity of Ipswich,
as to be noticed with surprise by the most incurious observers.
As the locust-eating thrush (Turdus gryllivorus) accompanies the
locusts, so the lady-birds (Coccinellæ) seem to pursue the Aphides;
for I know no other reason to assign for the vast number that are
sometimes, especially in the autumn, to be met with on the sea-
coast or the banks of large rivers. Many years ago, those of the
Humber were so thickly strewed with the common Lady-bird (C.
septempunctata), that it was difficult to avoid treading upon them.
Some years afterwards I noticed a mixture of species, collected in
vast numbers, on the sand-hills on the sea-shore, at the north-west
extremity of Norfolk. My friend the Rev. Peter Lathbury made long
since a similar observation at Orford, on the Suffolk coast; and about
five or six years ago they covered the cliffs, as I have before
remarked[9], of all the watering-places on the Kentish and Sussex
coasts, to the no small alarm of the superstitious, who thought them
forerunners of some direful evil. These last probably emigrated with
the Aphides from the hop-grounds. Whether the latter and their
devourers cross the sea has not been ascertained; that the
Coccinellæ attempt it, is evident from their alighting upon ships at
sea, as I have witnessed myself.—This appears clearly to have been
the case with another emigrating insect, the saw-fly (Athalia?) of the
turnip (which, though so mischievous, appears never to have been
described; it is nearly related to A. Centifoliæ)[10]. It is the general
opinion in Norfolk, Mr. Marshall informs us[11], that these insects
come from over sea. A farmer declared he saw them arrive in clouds
so as to darken the air; the fishermen asserted that they had
repeatedly seen flights of them pass over their heads when they
were at a distance from land; and on the beach and cliffs they were
in such quantities, that they might have been taken up by shovels-
full. Three miles in-land they were described as resembling swarms
of bees. This was in August 1782. Unentomological observers, such
as farmers and fishermen, might easily mistake one kind of insect for
another; but supposing them correct, the swarms in question might
perhaps have passed from Lincolnshire to Norfolk.—Meinecken tells
us, that he once saw in a village in Anhalt, on a clear day, about four
in the afternoon, such a cloud of dragon-flies (Libellulina) as almost
concealed the sun, and not a little alarmed the villagers, under the
idea that they were locusts[12]: several instances are given by Rösel
of similar clouds of these insects having been seen in Silesia and
other districts[13]; and Mr. Woolnough of Hollesley in Suffolk, a most
attentive observer of nature, once witnessed such an army of the
smaller dragon-flies (Agrion) flying in-land from the sea, as to cast a
slight shadow over a field of four acres as they passed.—Professor
Walch states, that one night about eleven o'clock, sitting in his study,
his attention was attracted by what seemed the pelting of hail
against his window, which surprising him by its long continuance, he
opened the window, and found the noise was occasioned by a flight
of the froth frog-hopper (Cercopis spumaria), which entered the
room in such numbers as to cover the table. From this circumstance
and the continuance of the pelting, which lasted at least half an
hour, an idea may be formed of the vast host of this insect passing
over. It passed from east to west; and as his window faced the
south, they only glanced against it obliquely[14]. He afterwards
witnessed, in August, a similar emigration of myriads of a kind of
ground-beetle (Amara vulgaris,)[15].—Another writer in the same
work, H. Kapp, observed on a calm sunny day a prodigious flight of
the noxious cabbage-butterfly (Pontia Brassicæ), which passed from
north-east to south-west, and lasted two hours[16]. Kalm saw these
last insects midway in the British Channel[17]. Lindley, a writer in the
Royal Military Chronicle, tells us, that in Brazil, in the beginning of
March 1803, for many days successively there was an immense flight
of white and yellow butterflies, probably of the same tribe as the
cabbage-butterfly. They were observed never to settle, but
proceeded in a direction from north-west to south-east. No buildings
seemed to stop them from steadily pursuing their course; which
being to the ocean, at only a small distance, they must consequently
perish. It is remarked that at this time no other kind of butterfly is to
be seen, though the country usually abounds in such a variety[18].—
Major Moor, while stationed at Bombay, as he was playing at chess
one evening with a friend in Old Woman's Island, near that place,
witnessed an immense flight of bugs (Geocorisæ), which were going
westward. They were so numerous as to cover every thing in the
apartment in which he was sitting.—When staying at Aldeburgh, on
the eastern coast, I have, at certain times, seen innumerable insects
upon the beach close to the waves, and apparently washed up by
them. Though wetted, they were quite alive. It is remarkable, that of
the emigrating insects here enumerated, the majority—for instance
the lady-birds, saw-flies, dragon-flies, ground-beetles, frog-hoppers,
&c.—are not usually social insects, but seem to congregate, like
swallows, merely for the purpose of emigration. What incites them
to this is one of those mysteries of nature, which at present we
cannot penetrate. A scarcity of food urges the locusts to shift their
quarters; and too confined a space to accommodate their numbers
occasions the bees to swarm: but neither of these motives can
operate in causing unsocial insects to congregate. It is still more
difficult to account for the impulse that urges these creatures, with
their filmy wings and fragile form, to attempt to cross the ocean, and
expose themselves, one would think, to inevitable destruction. Yet,
though we are unable to assign the cause of this singular instinct,
some of the reasons which induced the Creator to endow them with
it may be conjectured. This is clearly one of the modes by which
their numbers are kept within due limits, as, doubtless, the great
majority of these adventurers perish in the waters. Thus, also, a
great supply of food is furnished to those fish in the sea itself, which
at other seasons ascend the rivers in search of them; and this
probably is one of the means, if not the only one, to which the
numerous islands of this globe are indebted for their insect
population. Whether the insects I observed upon the beach wetted
by the waves, had flown from our own shores, and falling into the
water had been brought back by the tide; or whether they had
succeeded in the attempt to pass from the continent to us, by flying
as far as they could, and then falling had been brought by the
waves, cannot certainly be ascertained; but Kalm's observation
inclines me to the latter opinion.
The next order of imperfect associations is that of those insects
which feed together:—these are of two descriptions—those that
associate in their first or last state only, and those that associate in
all their states. The first of these associations is often very short-
lived: a patch of eggs is glued to a leaf; when hatched, the little
larvæ feed side by side very amicably, and a pleasant sight it is to
see the regularity with which this work is often done, as if by word
of command; but when the leaf that served for their cradle is
consumed, their society is dissolved, and each goes where he can to
seek his own fortune, regardless of the fate or lot of his brethren. Of
this kind are the larvæ of the saw-fly of the gooseberry, whose
ravages I have recorded before[19], and that of the cabbage-
butterfly; the latter, however, keep longer together, and seldom
wholly separate. In their final state, I have noticed that the
individuals of Thrips Physapus, the fly that causes us in hot weather
such intolerable titillation, are very fond of each other's company
when they feed. Towards the latter end of last July, walking through
a wheat-field, I observed that all the blossoms of Convolvulus
arvensis, though very numerous, were interiorly turned quite black
by the infinite number of these insects, which were coursing about
within them.
But the most interesting insects of this order are those which
associate in all their states.—Two populous tribes, the great
devastators of the vegetable world, the one in warm and the other
in cold climates, to which I have already alluded under the head of
emigrations—you perceive I am speaking of Aphides and Locusts—
are the best examples of this order: although, concerning the
societies of the first, at present we can only say that they are merely
the result of a common origin and station: but those of the latter,
the locusts, wear more the appearance of design, and of being
produced by the social principle.

So much as the world has suffered from these animals[20], it is

extraordinary that so few observations have been made upon their
history, economy, and mode of proceeding. One of the best accounts
seems to be that of Professor Pallas, in his Travels into the Southern
Provinces of the Russian Empire. The species to which his principal
attention was paid appears to have been the Locusta italica, in its
larva and pupa state. "In serene warm weather," says he, "the
locusts are in full motion in the morning immediately after the
evaporation of the dew; and if no dew has fallen, they appear as
soon as the sun imparts his genial warmth. At first some are seen
running about like messengers among the reposing swarms, which
are lying partly compressed upon the ground, at the side of small
eminences, and partly attached to tall plants and shrubs. Shortly
after the whole body begins to move forward in one direction and
with little deviation. They resemble a swarm of ants, all taking the
same course, at small distances, but without touching each other:
they uniformly travel towards a certain region as fast as a fly can
run, and without leaping, unless pursued; in which case, indeed,
they disperse, but soon collect again and follow their former route.
In this manner they advance from morning to evening without
halting, frequently at the rate of a hundred fathoms and upwards in
the course of a day. Although they prefer marching along high roads,
footpaths, or open tracts; yet when their progress is opposed by
bushes, hedges, and ditches, they penetrate through them: their
way can only be impeded by the waters of brooks or canals, as they
are apparently terrified at every kind of moisture. Often, however,
they endeavour to gain the opposite bank with the aid of
overhanging boughs; and if the stalks of plants or shrubs be laid
across the water, they pass in close columns over these temporary
bridges; on which they even seem to rest and enjoy the refreshing
coolness. Towards sunset the whole swarm gradually collect in
parties, and creep up the plants, or encamp on slight eminences. On
cold, cloudy, or rainy days they do not travel.—As soon as they
acquire wings they progressively disperse, but still fly about in large
swarms[21]."
"In the month of May, when the ovaries of these insects were ripe
and turgid," says Dr. Shaw[22], "each of these swarms began
gradually to disappear, and retired into the Mettijiah, and other
adjacent plains, where they deposited their eggs. These were no
sooner hatched in June, than each of the broods collected itself into
a compact body, of a furlong or more in square; and marching
afterwards directly forwards toward the sea, they let nothing escape
them——they kept their ranks, like men of war; climbing over, as
they advanced, every tree or wall that was in their way; nay, they
entered into our very houses and bed-chambers, like so many
thieves.——A day or two after one of these hordes was in motion,
others were already hatched to march and glean after them.——
Having lived near a month in this manner——they arrived at their full
growth, and threw off their nympha-state by casting their outward
skin. To prepare themselves for this change, they clung by their
hinder feet to some bush, twig, or corner of a stone; and
immediately, by using an undulating motion, their heads would first
break out, and then the rest of their bodies. The whole
transformation was performed in seven or eight minutes; after which
they lay for a small time in a torpid and seemingly in a languishing
condition; but as soon as the sun and the air had hardened their
wings, by drying up the moisture that remained upon them after
casting their sloughs, they reassumed their former voracity, with an
addition of strength and agility. Yet they continued not long in this
state before they were entirely dispersed." The species Dr. Shaw
here speaks of is probably not the Locusta migratoria.
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