Blog

Over the last few months we have been looking at presenting more information about specific textiles or groups of objects to the public. In this context, we have been talking with various groups about a range of scientific analysis techniques that can be carried out at the TRC or elsewhere.

A slightly domed metal button with an alpha-type shank, with flowers within flowers inside a dotted border on the front. The Netherlands, 15th-16th century (TRC 2024.2582).We are already working with various techniques. Emilie Lambert, a TRC volunteer and archaeology student (Leiden University), for example, is examining a group of 15th to 19th century metal buttons that were found in the Netherlands. She wrote a separate blog on the subject, published on 16th October 2024.

Emilie is studying the buttons with XRF (X-ray Fluorescence). This non-destructive technique sends radioactive signals through an object, and quickly provides precise ratios of its elemental components.

The knowledge gained is often used for provenancing. With respect to the TRC buttons, this work is being carried out in order to identify what exactly they are made from and perhaps determine their provenance, but also to see if there are similarities that might indicate  if any have the same profile, suggesting they might even have been made in the same workshop. The aim is to have some of the metal analysis results appearing in the TRC Database from May onwards.

My name is Mayte Van den Broeck, an MA student of Heritage and Memory at the University of Amsterdam, who started an internship at the TRC in early February. As my first month as an intern at the TRC has flown by, I wanted to reflect on the experiences I have had so far by describing what a day at the TRC can look like as an intern.

Fig. 1. An impression of the depot with the TRC collection.A typical day starts at 9am with a cup of tea, as I organise what I plan to do that day. One of my main tasks as an intern is to go through the Chinese collection in the depot (Fig. 1), box by box, to make sure that each textile piece is in order. This means checking each piece for issues such as mold or damage, as well as making sure all the information on each piece is present and correct in the database.

When I started with this particular work, the very first box I chose from the Chinese collection, picked at random, was full of shoes, particularly lotus shoes (see the TRC online exhibition on the subject). The practice of foot binding started over a thousand years ago in the Early Song Dynasty (960-1279) and lasted until the early 20th century.

The girls and women whose feet were bound, in accordance to this widespread practice, would wear these finely decorated lotus shoes. The colours and decorations would depend on the wearer’s social status and the symbolism that they wished to emulate through the decorative designs on the shoes.

As part of the TRC’s work on the history, techniques, designs and uses of textiles, we are working quietly and steadily on making the TRC and Leiden an international centre for the study and teaching of embroidery in all its multiple forms. We currently have nearly 5,000 examples of embroidery from all over the world. 

Fig.1. Fragment of linen with an embroidered design worked in wool, probably from a child's tunic Egypt, 5th-6th century AD (TRC 2000.0014).

Fig. 2. Fragment of linen with an embroidered design worked in purple, orange and blue wool, probably from a child's tunic. Egypt, 5th-6th century AD (TRC 2000.0015).

by Emilie Lambert, TRC volunteer and archaeology student at Leiden University

Last February marked a year since I joined the TRC as an intern and a part-time volunteer. In that time, I had the opportunity to do a large number of personal projects and I came to fully appreciate the TRC as a place of learning. This piece is a short reflection on the variety of work I have been doing.

Fig. 1. A pair of temple pendants from Afghanistan (TRC 2024.0637a-b).

by Hanke van Prooije, TRC volunteer

Not many items in the TRC collection are as easy to date as this pair of socks from 2019, illustrated below (Figs. 1-2). The cuff detail with the year of knitting, but also the initials of the wearer are a famous feature of the Sanquhar design.

Fig. 1. Pair of Sanquhar hand knitted socks, 2019 (TRC 2019.0274a-b).

A few days ago, Gillian and I returned from a quick drive to Nice in southern France to see our dear friends Rolando and May Schinasi. Sharing my fascination with Afghanistan, and Gillian’s interest in textiles (or should I say: obsession?), they kindly gave us a number of original, mid-19th century prints of Afghanistan showing local people and their clothing, drawn by foreign artists. I want to discuss a number of them, not so much because of the people depicted, but mainly because of the garments they are wearing.

Fig. 1: "Umeer Dost Mahomed Khan”.Tinted lithograph. Plate XII in Hart and Atkinson 1843. TRC 2025.0194.

by Ann Brysbaert, Professor in Ancient Technologies, Materials and Crafts, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. She is also the Director of the Netherland Institute at Athens, Greece. 

***

For quite some time, I knew about this seemingly small place of the Textile Research Centre (TRC) in Leiden (as seen from the outside). Initially, I never found it open when I passed by on my walks, although the fascination for it was always there.

Eventually, I looked it up online in 2021, and found out that a famous textile scholar ran it: Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, a name all too familiar to 2nd year students of the BSc. (Hons, now MSc.) conservation course at UCL, which I took in the mid-90s, and which incorporated a course on the materials, technologies and conservation issues relating to woven materials and textiles.

Dyeing experiments with different types of fibres in cochineal-and-mordant solution. Photograph by author.

Before the Nakba of 1948, the creation of embroidered cushions in Palestine was an integral part of a bride's dowry and a way to adorn her home with handmade beauty. These cushions were not just functional items but intricate masterpieces, decorated with sophisticated embroidery patterns. Each piece was crafted with care, symbolizing the pride and skill of the embroiderer, as well as the traditions that were passed down through generations.

Part of an embroidered cushion cover, Palestine, 1920s (TRC 2025.0007).