Joseph Paton Tablecloth Designer

Illustration: Joseph Neil Paton. Linen tablecloth design, 1851

This series of linen damask tablecloths were featured at the Great Exhibition of 1851. They were produced by the Scottish company of Beveridge, founded by Erskine Beveridge and was based in Dunfermline.

There is a small element of confusion concerning the designer of these particular tablecloth pieces. In the catalogue that accompanied the Exhibition, the designer was listed as Joseph Paton. However, there are two Joseph Paton's, father and son. Joseph Neil Paton the father was a well known Dunfermline designer of damask work. However, Joseph Noel Paton his son, also produced damask work in Dunfermline, but only briefly before his real career as a successful fine artist became paramount.

Illustration: Joseph Neil Paton. Damask tablecoth design, 1851

Illustration: Joseph Neil Paton. Damask tablecloth design, 1851

It is probably correct to think that Joseph Neil Paton a professional designer, was used for Beveridge's prestigious display at the Great Exhibition, though the work of his son cannot be entirely ruled out as a possibility, especially as Paton was to become a firm favourite of Queen Victoria, which Beveridge would have been an unwise not to have used as an opportunity. However, Joseph Noel Paton was at the start of his fairly illustrious career in 1851, and it might well have been a little too early to have caught the imagination and eye of Queen Victoria.

In this respect these design pieces will be attributed to Joseph Neil Paton. The work is typical of the 1840s and into the 1850s. Much of the decorative work is European based, particularly French in style. An interesting point is that tablecloth design work often seems to have imitated carpet and rug design work. This can clearly be seen with the examples shown here. There is much in the design work that imitates French carpet styling and decoration during the period of the 1840s and 1850s.

Illustration: Joseph Neil Paton. Damask tablecloth design, 1851

Illustration: Joseph Neil Paton. Damask tablecloth design, 1851

These tablecloths may well appear to us to be a little overly decorated for a table top cover. However, they are extremely fine examples of the genre and it must be remembered that they would have had to have competed with the best that France could produce, which was substantially above what British companies were manufacturing during this period. Although the company might well have struggled in supplying France with damask table linen, they did have a healthy export market to the United States as well as a very good domestic market for their product.

Beveridge the company, was obviously not taking any chances at either mis-representation or under-representation as these examples are only a handful of over a hundred that were on display at the Great Exhibition. Textiles were a very large part of the Exhibition, particularly during a period when Britain dominated the cheaper mass-production side of the world market. However, it was the decorative and design led textiles that drew attention, rather than, as was hoped, the technology of the machinery of mass-production.

Illustration: Joseph Neil Paton. Damask tablecloth design, 1851

Illustration: Joseph Neil Paton. Damask tablecloth design, 1851

Patriotism and a certain element of ingratiation was expected from a large proportion of at least the British and British Empire exhibits. Beveridge produced at least a proportion of tablecloth work that fitted this criterion. A medallion of Queen Victoria is one of the most obvious examples shown here. However, there were also examples that showed St George and the Dragon, and figures representing St Andrew and St Patrick. However, these were only ever meant to be display options and possible souvenirs, while the bulk of Beveridge and Paton's work was for the serious business of marketing and hopefully the creation of new export opportunities.

Many dismiss the Great Exhibition as a vulgar display of excess, badly designed and mis-placed creativity, and monotonous machine produced work. To a certain extent this was true, but only partially as there was a fairly broad spectrum of machine and hand made work, with many diverse examples from across the planet. To have engineered this extraordinary event, displaying the world as it was in 1851 at one venue, is a feat worthy of admiration. However, for all future generations it has proved to be a valuable snapshot, an example of the state of decoration and ornamentation, for better or worse, of the mid nineteenth century. It gives us an unrepeatable and fascinating library of decoration and design.

Reference links:
The Great Exhibition of 1851: A Nation on Display
The World for a Shilling: How the Great Exhibition of 1851 Shaped a Nation
Britain, the Empire, and the World at the Great Exhibition of 1851
The Industry of Nations, As Exemplified in the Great Exhibition of 1851. the Materials of Industry (2010 Reprint)
The Great Exhibition, 1851
1851 Great Exhibition Fete Paris Grand Ball Hotel Ville
Echoes Of The Great Exhibition (1851)
The Great Exhibition, 1851: A collection of contemporary documents; (Jackdaw)
Lectures On the Results of the Great Exhibition of 1851: Delivered Before the Society of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce
Great Exhibitions: London-New York-Paris 1851-1900
Journal of a trip to London, Paris, and the great exhibition, in 1851

Coptic Textile Design Work

Illustration: Silk textile design from Alexandria, 6th century

Some of the most colourful and obviously charming textiles to come out of what we would see as Ancient Egypt were those produced during the early Christian era. These Coptic textiles, named after the Christians of Egypt, the Copts, have little that seem at first to be immediately identifiable as belonging to Egypt. Many of the designs and pattern work derive from sources closer to Greece, Rome and Byzantium than they do Thebes or Memphis. However, these textiles come from an era when Egypt was first a province of Rome and then of the Greek Byzantine Empire and so the outside influence is obviously much stronger than that of Egypt itself.

Illustration: Textile roundel design from Egypt 6th century

Many of the examples that we can see today were actually robbed from Christian cemeteries in the nineteenth century. Interestingly it was gold ornaments that were at first surreptitiously removed from graves and then sold in the markets in and around Cairo, while the textiles were cast aside. However, when a steady market was discovered for ancient textiles in Europe, much more care was taken and grave robbing took on a more professional and careful stance. Unfortunately one of the habits of the local robbers was to divide spoils equally therefore a number of textile pieces were cut up and divided between individuals. These pieces were not always sold together and so original design work was often scattered across Europe. Another form of dividing fabrics was to cut out interesting motifs, panels or medallions and sell them separately from the rest of the garment. While this made good business sense, it has left us with lots of interesting detailed work, but relatively few intact garments, and so it is sometimes difficult to put the work in the context of a costume.

Illustration: Woven tapestry panel of wool on a linen background, Egypt

Much of the Coptic textile work that was sold by this method ended up in European museum collections. The V&A procured an increasingly large collection through the influence of the British in Egypt who occupied the country from 1882. The textile work robbed from graves was mostly in the form of clothing, much of it either woven or embroidered. Woven linen was the usual construction, with embroidered work often in wool which was unfortunate as although the linen survived largely intact, the wool was prone to be attacked by insects and eaten. However, some fine examples were produced that still had their original colouring largely intact and it is these items that today make these Coptic pieces so valued and popular.

As said earlier, there is little to truly identify these pieces as immediately Egyptian, rather than any other Eastern Christian region. The motifs used are largely standard Christian ones and any ornamental text is usually in Greek. The decorative work identifies quite closely with that of mosaic pattern and design work found right across the later Roman Empire and Byzantium. However, there are small, but definite reminders of Egypt's past, in particular the use of a stylised lotus motif that is not always prominent in the decorative composition, but is often placed perhaps as a reminder of Egypt's past uniqueness.

Illustration: Tapestry inlaid into a linen cloth background, Egypt 3rd or 4th century

It is sometimes hard to imagine the sheer longevity of the Egyptian culture. Egypt was already old in the period of Classical Greece, and when it became a province of the Roman Empire it had existed as an entity for over three thousand years. It is the power of Egypt's uniqueness that we are in awe of today. However, although there is an element of an unchanging and unbroken nature to the culture of Egypt, it is interesting how vibrant and young these textile pieces appear. It may of course have something to do with a culture adopting a relatively new religion, but it perhaps says much more about the lively human condition, that although a nation, empire or region may appear to be old and intransigent, the people who inhabit it are anything but, and the zest for creativity continues unabated.

Illustration: Woven tapestry and needlework star ornament, Egypt

It is difficult to try to condone or quantify grave robbing in any form. The dead were not expecting to relinquish their grave goods and certainly were not expecting to be stripped of their clothing to fuel Europe's expanding Museum collections. However, the textile skills of these anonymous Egyptian weaving, tapestry and embroidery crafts people is so spectacular that an uncomfortable balance has been formed between extricating grave goods and applauding the techniques and skills base of this particular Egyptian phase of their culture.

Reference links:
Looms and Textiles of the Copts: First Millennium Egyptian Textiles in the Carl Austin Reitz Collection of the California Academy of Science (Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences)
A Coptic Textile Fragment Egypt, circa 4th-7th Century AD Giclee Poster Print, 36x48
Coptic Textile Designs: 144 Egyptian Designs from the Early Christian Era (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Coptic Weaves: Notes on the Collection of Coptic Textiles in the Merseyside County Museums
Coptic textiles;
Coptic Textiles in the Brooklyn Museum
Late antique Coptic and Islamic textiles of Egypt
Coptic Fabrics
The Coptic Tapestry Albums: And the Archaeologist of Antinoe, Albert Gayet
Early Coptic textiles: Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, May 4 to May 25, 1969 (Stanford art book)

Medieval Sicilian Textiles

Illustration: Sicilian Islamic themed woven brocade 12th century

Although the Islamic occupation of Sicily did not reach its final stage until 965, the influence of partial occupation and trade links with the larger Islamic world for the previous two centuries had an enormous influence on the crafts and culture of this Mediterranean island.

Sicily was well known for its textile production during the emirate period of its history. To be fair, most if not all of the textiles produced were largely Islamic in flavour and theme. However, Sicily had long been both a province of Byzantium and had maintained a sizeable Greek population. The culture of the eastern Greek empire was enmeshed into the local one, so that what textile work was produced had a combination of Byzantine and Islamic flavours, though of course it should be noted that the Islamic influence was always the strongest.

Illustration: Satellite map of Sicily

Sicilian Textiles not only found their way to different ports along the North African coast, but interestingly, much further north into Central Europe. They were well prized, expensive and even made their way into royal collections. It is interesting that although Christian Europe was technically in confrontation with Islam throughout this period, at a practical level trade and cultural exchange seemed relatively unhindered. It would be interesting to note how far Sicilian produced textiles, with their Islamic inscriptions and motifs, travelled into the heart of Christian Europe.

With the coming of the Normans to the island in about 1060, it added yet another element to the already confusing layers of Sicilian culture. Without going into the politics or religious aspects of the island's history in too great a detail, it is fair to say that the combination of cultures, although clashing ideologically, did produce some of the most beautiful textiles of the period. The border area of Islam which was to include all of the major islands in the Mediterranean from Crete to Mallorca, and of course modern Spain and Portugal, was a hot bed of innovation and creative thinking through a whole range of crafts from ceramics through to textiles.

Illustration: Spanish Islamic woven textile design 14th century

The illustrations shown in this article are all from the twelfth century and all from Sicily, bar one. The fourteenth century woven textile design above was placed here because for a long period this particular fabric was considered to be either Sicilian or Spanish. It couldn't really be decided in which region it had originated. It seems as though most experts are now happy to authenticate the design as being from Islamic Spain. However, although it is important to trace the origins of this particular piece, what is more important is that it also clearly represents a very similar style to the work produced in Sicily. It can be seen from this how extraordinarily expert was both the design and production of these European Islamic textiles.

Illustration: Sicilian Islamic themed woven brocade 12th century

It would be tempting, though inaccurate, to see Sicily with its Classical Greek and Roman routes, its layers of Byzantine, Islamic and Latin Christian cultures along with that of the Normans, as an ethnically and religiously tolerant oasis in the maelstrom of early medieval Europe. Although admittedly even long after Sicily became a province of the Normans, Arabic was still spoken as the court language and much of the Islamic institutions were kept in place, it proved only a matter of time before an intolerance of Islam, much harsher than that of the previous Islamic rulers, was set in place. Islam and all its external influences, including the decorative arts, were cleansed of much of the work that could be attributed to Islam. This spelt the end of a period of Sicilian textile history that had separated it, in style and influence, from the mainland of Italy and much of Europe. Later Sicilian textile work, although individual to the island to some extent, did tend to follow the fashions and themes set down by the mainland and the rest of Europe.

Illustration: Sicilian silk textile design 12th century

The loss of a connection between Sicily and North Africa was also a loss of connection between Europe and the Islamic arts. As European history developed any connections that did remain between the two cultures got narrower and more alien, until eventually the gulf between the two proved too difficult to bridge. However, these Sicilian Islamic themed textiles are still part of the European tradition of textile design and they were to play an interesting and important role in nineteenth century Britain in particular, where William Morris much admired the workmanship of these iconic designs.

Reference links:
History of Islamic Sicily (Islamic Surveys)
Arabic Administration in Norman Sicily: The Royal Diwan (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization)
Siculo-Norman Art: Islamic Culture in Medieval Sicily (Islamic Art in the Mediterranean)
Al-Idrisi and Representations of the Medieval Muslim World: An entry from Gale's Science and Its Times