British Galleries: These ribbons were shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 to demonstrate the complexity of design that could be woven by the jacquard process. The Exhibition catalogue boasted that 10,000 jacquard cards had to be cut and 24,000 cords lifted during weaving. Here, the threads on the reverse of one ribbon can be compared with the surface pattern on another. The ribbons were judged so successful that the type became known as the Coventry 'Town Ribbon'. [27/03/2003]