Sample of Collins & Aikman Corporation figured upholstery velvet, 1929. Multi-color lustrous cut pile pattern of floral/foliate meander against a gray pile background with deliberate strie, and a voided floral pattern tied in twill. The pile colors are organized in vertical bands (predominatly rust-brown-red and predominantly green-blue-yellow, in the cataloging sample). The pile warps are woven into the ground on the reverse of the cloth, not sheared. Colors: gray ground with deliberate strie shading; dark brown, yellows, reds, blues, greens. Half width.
Collins & Aikman Corporation was founded in 1891 and incorporated in 1929. The company made high end upholstery fabrics, including velvets and plushes in cotton, mohair, and silk, and beginning in the 1910s, artifical silk (rayon). Early on the firm competed successfully in the market for automotive and aviation fabrics. In the 1920s the company had mills in Astoria (Queens), New York; Philadelphia, PA; and North Carolina.