William Skinner and Sons silk and rayon crepe fabric length, in green; 1934. Medium weight, reversible, harsh, lusterless novelty crepe fabric, in armure effect. Same construction as sand crepe (6 shaft harness) and 66 end harness repear -- 40 harness chain repeat. Reed 24/2/1. woven with warp and weft onde crepe yarns (2 right and 2 left), consisting of 1 end 150 denier dull Celanese 40 filaments 3 turns spiraled with 10 turns twist-on-twist around 1 end 63 denier 3-thread 20/22 lustrous silk 65 turns; 2310/1. Commercial name "Mossy Crepe." Color is "spring green."
William Skinner emigrated from England to Massachusetts in 1843, finding work as silk dyer. He eventually opened his own silk manufacturing company, the Unquomonk Silk Co., making silk threads and yarns for weaving and sewing. In 1874, the mill was destroyed when the Mill River Dam gave way. Skinner moved his company a few miles away, to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and rebuilt the mill, expanding production to include woven fabrics (Skinner satins were nationally famous) and silk braids. He ran the company until his death in 1902, and the firm stayed in the family, and remained in operation in Holyoke, until 1961, when his heirs sold it to Indian head Mills, which immediately closed the Holyoke operation.
A. H. Straus & Co.printed taffeta dress silk length; 1917. Canary yellow ground, Persian-inspired roundel design. "Luxor Taffeta" made by A. H. Straus & Co. Commericially known as "Sasanidian-Web", a lustrous, reversible fabric with a discharge-printed Persian design of patterned disks taken from a costume of 6th and 8th centuries. Original in Milan. Colors: blue, green, black and purple on canary yellow ground. Some variation between purples and pinks in the printing, some are lighter colored than others. Print is of medallions made of three concentric circles of print beginning with multi colored blocks, then a ring of paisley, then a black geometric print. The circles are 3.75 inches in diameter. Printing not perfectly exact, some bleeding and blurred lines. Print is continued onto the selvedge which is the same color as the ground and is 0.125 inches wide. May have been inspired by the same Persian fabric as TE.T2549A.
A. H. Straus and Co. was active in the 1910s and 1920s. The company was based in New York City and was a premier importer and manufacturer of printed silks. Many fabric lengths in this collection have prints copied from ancient textiles.