Yes, there were laws, but IIRC, the purpose was to keep unscrupulous weavers and merchants from selling cloth at a higher cost just because they could say it was "woven with "blank". They'd just leave out the 'percentage' that "blank". Just like the other guilds, they kept a close watch on their members, for fraud. I think that there might some examples of guild members being publicly punished, such as bakers, and other such folks.
Queen Elizabeth, at the urging of different guilds, to do some proclamations, but nothing specific comes to mind. Drat! I seem to remember reading somewhere that one of the Italian city-state guilds had even instigated the use of color coding the selvedges, to keep track. I'm away from my books, so don't can't verify right now. And my memory may be playing me false! Anyone who can help with those vague memories or let me know that my memory might be out of kilter, please post! Well, back to work... Elena/Gia -------------- Original message -------------- From: monica spence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I've read "The Devil's Cloth" and I agree that there are some interesting-- > and sometimes far fetched -- ideas presented there. I remember seeing a > painting right after I read the book. It was John the Baptist baptizing > Jesus. Jesus is wearing a striped undergarment. Somehow I doubt that He > would not be wearing something that was questionable-- even if it is a > painting. > > Just as a side note. I made the Beatrice dress. IMO the stripes have to be > spliced in or applied. I remember the stripes doing domething funky around > the shoulders. Remember too, that this is a postumous picture of her-- she > died in childbed (the baby she lost is kneeling next to her in the > picture)-- so she wouldn't be posing in the dress, anyway. > > As for stripes themselves-- everything woven would have to be yarn dyed, > unless there are two different fibers used. Then two chemically different > dyes, formulated to work with one of the fibers, could be dumped into the > same pot. This is a modern dye method and I am not sure how far back it > goes. > > But wasn't there laws about mixing two fibers in a cloth? > > Monica > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of Cat Dancer > Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 6:08 PM > To: Historical Costume > Subject: Re: [h-cost] Re: striped skirt > > > On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > Ooo, a whole book about it! Thanks! > > I don't remember where I found my copy. It's a fascinating book even if > some of his theories are off-the-wall. :-) The one thing it did do was to > get us to look critically at portrayals and look for themes and such. > > > > > Pixel, is there any way of knowing if the sumptuary laws meant woven-in > stripes, applied stripes or pieced stripes? > > > > That painting with Mary Magdalen looked like they might be applied. > > The Castilian law specifies types of cloth (which I will have to look up > when I get home) but the London law just says 'rayed cloth'. [I highly > recommend /Governance of the consuming passions : a history of sumptuary > law/ by Alan Hunt, if you want to dig deeper.] The rayed cloth of the > London law is probably woven-in stripes, stripes being what you, the > weaver, do if you have leftover yarns but not enough of any one color to > do anything useful with. I want to say that cloth woven of dyed wool is > going to be cheaper than cloth that is woven and then dyed, but I don't > have enough knowledge of the medieval textile industry to be saying that. > [Here is where someone who does, steps in and corrects me. ;-)] Certainly > the comments in the inventories and accounts are specific that rayed cloth > is for the members of the household fairly far down on the social > scale--the valets and such. > > What we've found, in going over some amazingly huge number of > illuminations, frescos, panel paintings, book illustrations, etc., is that > when someone is portrayed in stripes and/or parti-colour, that person is > somehow a social inferior to at least one of the other people in the > artwork. So we see stripes (and sometimes plaids) on musicians and on the > people that my consort refers to as "minions"--the various servants, > lackeys, etc. that tend to hang around important people in the art. > > Except in the Manesse Codex, where I suspect that stripes indicate someone > who is a fop or otherwise on the edge of fashion. Note that that's only a > hypothesis--it hasn't made it to theory yet. ;-) > > > > > Thanks to everyone who responded! I love this kind of conversation with > you guys! > > > > Tea Rose > > Anything to geek about stuff that isn't work! > > Pixel > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume > > > _______________________________________________ > h-costume mailing list > h-costume@mail.indra.com > http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
