Strip of woven wool apparel fabric. Aqua colored worsted wool with a white stripe woven into selvage. Part of fabric eaten away beneath remnants of paper label. Marked on red and white glued paper label: "118/20 ctm (/) 1 fe 87 (/) Roubaix."
Roubaix was the premier wool weaving center in France; producing fine fabrics for both the domestic and export markets. It is likely that this group of selvage width strips of wool were all collected by a US Consular officer and sent back to the Dept. of Commerce as an example of the quality of the competition American woolen manufacturers faced in products from Roubaix.
Consular Collection: Part of collection of samples acquired by US Consuls overseas between about 1898 and 1918, in the interests of promoting US trade and business opportunities; which was transferred by the Dept. of Commerce in the 1920s-30s.