Ribbon, Jacquard-woven, silk, by M.Clack, Coventry, 1850British Galleries:
The Great Exhibition was intended as a forum for displaying developments in technology. The textile industry was revolutionised by numerous technical inventions in the 19th century. These complex designs, woven on a jacquard loom, were so successful that such ribbons came to be known as Coventry 'Town Ribbons'. [27/03/2003]Jacquard-woven silk ribbon, multi coloured naturalistic flowers on a cream groundThis is a typical woven ribbon of the mid-19th century, which would have been used to decorate women's garments and bonnets. The ribbon was exhibited in the section devoted to Silk (in the sub-section on Fancy Ribbons) at the 1851 Great Exhibition and was also illustrated in the <i>Art Journal</i>catalogue of the exhibition.
It was designed by M. Clack, a pupil of the Coventry School of Design and depicts a richly coloured and naturistically realised band of woven floral design on a cream ground. Coventry was famous for manufacturing highly sophisticated ribbons of Jacquard-woven silk. Introduced into Britain from France at the beginning of the century, the jacquard loom was not widely adopted for industrial use until the 1830s. It allowed a far greater range of patterns to be woven than had previously been possible