Three early 19th century cotton prints for Mandal Husflid in Norway. 
By Martin Ciszuk.

During this spring Durán Textiles has finished a special order of printed cottons for the local craft association Mandal Husflid in Norway. In this place there is an ongoing project where a regional costume is reconstructed based on preserved original garments, with the goal to create a bunad – a Norse regional costume- as it might have looked like in Vest Agder region in the beginning of the 19th century. The possibility to hand print the old designs in India led to cooperation with Durán Textiles.

Now three fabrics have been reproduced. The original is to the left and our reproduction to the right.

Lin, is a block printed apron with black dots on red ground. It origins from the Holmegård collection at Vest-Agder museum in Mandal and is dated to the beginning or the 19th century. These types of plain design could be produced on the countryside with simple wooden printing blocks. Small scale designs, however, got very popular in the early 19th century and were also printed using modern technology at the factories in the cities.

Cornelia, is an apron fabric of c. 1820 from the Vest-Agder museum department in Kristiansand. The design has small flowers on white ground divided by stripes filled with a linear pattern in beige. It might be considered as an early example of the mixing of styles and motifs which is characteristic for designs of the19th century. The angular shapes in the flowers imitate motifs from woven shawls in silk and wool, while the stripes resemble arabesque or renaissance designs. The development of textile technology made new designs and combinations possible. The print might have an English origin, as this was the cradle of cotton industry. The colors of the old fabric are heavily faded, but the reproduction shows the original nuances of the print.

Soleie, Norwegian for Buttercup, origins from a petticoat which was used together with a wedding dress, dated 1810. The fabric shows small white dots and flowers in beige, pink, green and blue on brownish black ground. The color of the flowers were added by hand after printing the dark ground, but the dyestuffs did not stand years of washing and exposure to light and are now faded and discolored. The reproduction has been made using the original bright nuances. These small scale designs on dark ground were popular in the first decades of the 19th century. They reflect the fashion of the empire style with its strong colors in contrast to the earlier neoclassic “gustavian” style where light colors dominated.

To resemble the original fabrics the prints are made on finer cotton than what Durán Textiles use for our 18th century prints. This finer quality is due to the breakthrough of machine spun cotton in the beginning of the 19th century. Originally the cheap and thin cotton yarn was imported from England, where the first cotton spinning mills were started already in the end of the 18th century. But soon spinning mills were established in Scandinavia which out concurred the hand spinning of cotton. Factories for mechanical weaving followed in the paths of the spinning industry, but majority of the early 19th century fabric are probably still hand woven. The printing technique also developed and was mechanized in the same time. The block printing was replaced by rotary printing, where the design was engraved in metal sheets or rollers. This made it possible to print large repeats as well as design with fine lines and many colors, but it also required the finer and more even ground fabrics. New dyestuffs and chemical processes to fix them on the fabric were developed. Some of these methods were experiments and many colors were not water and light resistant, which is clearly shown on some of the Mandal fabrics. The new inventions of color and production methods had a great impact on fashion. Printed cottons became everyday wear which could be afforded by a growing part of the population. Both on the countryside and in the cities the market for mass-produced goods was growing and home production decreased. All these factors contribute to give the 19th century printed fabrics a totally different appearance compared to the 18th century block printed cottons.

Duran Textiles is grateful for the good cooperation with the local craft association Husfliden in Mandal. Every new design is a challenge which requires a lot of effort, both for the documentation of the original fabrics and by the Indian craftsmen, to make the reproduction as close to the originals as possible. In the same time, the studies of the old fabrics and garments produce new knowledge of both production and use of textiles and the very different assignments often generate inspiration and contact for new projects.

If you want to buy the new fabrics please contact Mandal Husflid. mandal@norskflid.no