Sample strip of purple wool apparel fabric with white & rust colored pinstripes. One selvage. Small fragment pinned to one end. Unevenly cut. .Handwritten glued white paper seal: "114/ (/) 1.49 (/) Roubaix (/) France".
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.