This issue of Textile History begins with the sad notice of the death of Katrina Honeyman, for a number of years Joint Editor of this journal, and valued colleague and friend to the current Editors. We would like to thank David Jenkins for writing the obituary.
The journal opens with two articles that focus on the clothing practices and acquisition methods of the poor. Danae Tankard’s article examines the dress of the rural poor in seventeenth-century Sussex, England. Making innovative use of a range of sources, from probate inventories to the records of court cases, she shows that clothes could be obtained through a variety of distribution networks, both licit and illicit, and that while the dress of the labouring population needed to be functional, suited to lives of often hard manual work, this did not exclude colourful and decorative touches, including the striking ‘grass-green’ stockings of the article’s title. Victoria López Barahona and José Nieto Sánchez then move us from seventeenth-century England to eighteenth-century Spain, from the rural poor of Sussex to the urban labouring population of Madrid. At the heart of their article is the seeming paradox of increasing textile consumption at a time of declining incomes, with the second-hand trade and a myriad of practices that included mending, renovating, bartering, gifting and inheriting, filling the gap between demand and often unaffordable supply.
Hilary Turner focuses on the mending and repair of a very different group of textiles — high-status tapestries at the court of Queen Elizabeth. Through her detailed examination of their accounts, Turner not only reveals approaches to maintaining these textiles in various royal palaces, but also explores the nationalities and identities of the arras men, providing fascinating insights into their skills and the organisation of the department within the Great Wardrobe. Sarah Fee’s paper discusses weaving from a very different context, that of Madagascar. She discusses the highly skilled work of the Merina weavers, comparing evidence from the textiles with that from a little-known Merina text, Things for Making Cloth, and proposes new approaches to understanding these complex patterned cloths.
This issue also includes two ‘Object Lessons’, which use the evidence provided by surviving artefacts in order to shed light on the material culture and production techniques associated with them. In her contribution, Leanne Tonkin focuses on a section of the Whalley Abbey altar frontal, which dates from around 1400, in order to make some suggestions about manufacturing methods during the declining period of English Opus Anglicanum embroidery, as speed of production became an increasingly important driving force. Ruth Gilbert’s article then provides a close examination of a knitted cotton baby’s jacket, tentatively dated to the late seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. Comparing the jacket with surviving examples of similar items, Gilbert is able to speculate about the knitter’s skill, knowledge and level of expertise, arguing for a production method that differed markedly from the traditional image of a mother knitting garments for her own baby.
Nettles are generally considered a weed but Jane Harwood and Gillian Edom demonstrate in their Research Note that they have a forgotten history as fibre, often only of serious interest in Western economies in periods of deprivation and war. Despite its relatively poor qualities and technical problems, Harwood and Edom point out that ecological concerns are motivating a further re-evaluation of the commercial potential of nettle fibre.
In 2012 Dinah Eastop takes over the role of Exhibition Reviews Editor, bringing with her a wealth of conservation, curatorial and editorial experience. Alongside her work as conservator, including as founding Director of the AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies (2002–07), Dinah was the principal investigator behind the ‘Deliberately Concealed Garments’ project, which investigated a long-standing but seldom reported practice of deliberately concealing garments, other objects and animal remains within buildings.
Textile History is the journal of the Pasold Research Fund which is committed to supporting a wide range of textile history research. Suggestions for Pasold conferences should be made to the Director, Giorgio Riello (Global History and Culture Centre, Department of History, University of Warwick, Coventry cv4 7al, UK; tel: +44 (0)247652 3350; email: [email protected]). Grants include Research Grants (smaller activities and larger projects), the Raine Grants (which have an extended brief to support staff working in museums and related institutions undertaking object-based research into textile history) as well as support for postgraduate study (MA and PhD grants). The Fund’s website provides information about these grants: www.pasold.co.uk. This website also includes links to other organisations and institutions exploring textile history. The Fund is keen to extend these links. If you would like to suggest relevant organisations or make a link with your own organisation, please contact [email protected].
As usual, we conclude this note by inviting contributions of research articles in any field of textile history and of shorter contributions that can be published in the form of Object Lessons or Research Notes. Instructions for Authors are on the inside back cover of the journal and the Editors are always happy to discuss ideas for papers; contact either Laura Ugolini on [email protected] or Mary Brooks on [email protected]. Elizabeth Currie, the Book Reviews Editor, welcomes books for consideration for review and may be contacted on [email protected]. Books for review should be sent to Textile History, c/o Rebecca Lee, Maney Publishing, 1 Carlton House Terrace, London sw1y 5af, UK.
We would like to remind authors and potential authors of the annual prize of £400 for the best article published in Textile History as judged by members of the Editorial Board. We are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2011 prize is Kaori O’Connor.
Mary M. Brooks and Laura Ugolini