I recently bought three sample books, which were City and Guilds entries. It seems as if someone was working in a weaving factory and also getting qualifications at the local college for weaving.
None of the folders are dated!! But this one was also entered into a competition and won the first prize of £20. I guess that's why it was kept, someone was very proud of this prize...
Not dated, but there is a name Alexander Kinnell of Deanston, Doune in Perthshire (Scotland) and studying at Lauder Technical College in Dunfermline.
The samples are all of various linen and linen mix fabrics...
....and are furnishing and dressmaking fabrics. Looking on the internet, I found that Dunfermline was a centre of damask linen weaving from 1709. After WWI this type of heavy fabric, which was used for furnishing, tablecloths, serviettes and the like, became unfashionable and the industry declined. Man-made fabrics started to take over. By 1933 there were only three damask factories in Dunfermline. By 1986, only Erskine Beveridge was still producing, although cotton damask, not linen. It shut in 1989. The other two firms were Reids Hay and Robertson and Winter Mier.
So it is my guess that Mr Kinnell worked for one of these three firms after WWII? More research could tie it down a bit more...interesting to see what was produced, there are also diagrams showing the loom set ups; the production of fabric is much more complex than I had realized!
What a useful book, are those sample Fabrics
ReplyDeleteliterally attached to the book it self? if that so well it would be a great advantage as it is so easy to inspect/check with.