Dunfermline textiles research
On a recent visit to Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries I got a strong lead for ideas to inform my commission for Dunfermline Learning Campus. I was looking at methods used to translate drawings into finished woven fabrics including a rudimentary sketch on hand gridded paper and punched cards used on Jacquard looms, but what I was really interested in discovering next was if I could find any of Joseph Neil Paton’s original drawings – he was a well respected damask designer, and father to the famous Joseph Noël, Amelia Robertson and Waller Hugh. At one time they all lived at Wooers’ Alley Cottage which was north of the Glen Bridge in Dunfermline.
According to the Patons of Dunfermline leaflet (which I picked up at the library) Neil was ‘A collector of historic Scottish artefacts, he opened his small gothic-revival style home, Wooers’ Alley Cottage, as a museum to the public. Much of his collection is now in the National Museum of Scotland.’ Next stop Fife Collections Centre, Bankhead, Glenrothes.
Through sending a specific enquiry using my initial research to pin down what would be useful to see, I managed to arrange a visit to the Collections Centre where Lily Barnes the Collections Curator had skilfully picked out several relevant things to look at. These drawings are all by Joseph Neil Paton except the one on the top left which is by Waller Hugh, below some details from these.
A problem with damask is that it’s generally white on white and so it’s quite difficult to determine the design on it, that’s why I hoped to see the drawings.
The sample books that I’d seen in the Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries that had coloured yarns made it much easier to read the patterns and it’s these that are going to be most useful to me.
Noticeable in the images above are the different reds, the botanical ones are from the sample book Extra & Best Turkey Damask and the ones with wildlife are from Special Alizarine Damask, all of these samples are associated with Erskine and Beveridge (1867 – 1930) and Winterthur Silks (1932 – 1970). Specific imagery from this research has been used in my designs for site-specific sculptures, which I will present to the Dunfermline Learning Campus client group towards the end of August.
