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Glass Cloth

Embroidered glass cloth made of linen. Embroidered glass cloth made of linen.

From the end of the nineteenth century there were various products sold under the general heading of glass cloth. These included (a) textiles made from glass fibre; (b) a fine cloth coated with finely powdered glass, which was used for polishing or smoothing surfaces, and (c) a type of English linen cloth woven in a tabby weave with checks and/or warp stripes of various colours, including blue, green and red.

Apparently the last form of glass cloth (c), was also adopted for the purpose of larger embroideries, as well as for aprons, chair covers, etc., that were decorated with small designs worked within the squares and lines. According to The Dictionary of Needlework (1882, p. 223), this embroidery was often carried out with crewel thread or with ingrain cotton.

Sources:

  • CAULFEILD, Sophia Frances Anne and Blanche C. SAWARD (1882), The Dictionary of Needlework, London: L. Upcott Gill, p. 223.
  • TORTORA, Phyllis G. and Ingrid JOHNSON (2014). The Fairchild Books: Dictionary of Textiles, 8th edition, London: Bloomsbury, p. 262.

Digital source of illustration (retrieved 26 June 2016).

GVE

Last modified on Wednesday, 26 April 2017 15:27