Cours de Tissage weaving manual

This manuscript volume is a student thesis or weaving manual prepared by J. Savey, apparently a student of Professeur F. Brocard, for a course at the École de la Salle Commerciale et Industrielle in Lyon, France, in 1914-1915. Savey’s manuscript reflects a mastering of the mechanical aspects of looms and weaving and includes 180 colorful fabric swatches illustrating patterns and finishes.

Savey’s Cours de Tissage contains technical instructions and diagrams on how to weave various types of fabric on mechanical looms. The text begins with a brief discussion of the production of silk and other materials, including how to spin and reel thread, warp a loom, and dye fabric. The volume also provides diagrams of associated machinery. After explaining how to achieve different weaving patterns, Savey introduced a variety of colorful fabric swatches, including taffeta, serge, satin, and velour. Each swatch is accompanied by a diagram of its weave structure. Savey showed how to create different repeating patterns, including chevrons, diamonds, and diagonals. For each fabric, he described its composition, the types of threads needed, how to warp the loom, and how to weave. This section of the volume also includes instructions for creating punch cards for weaving, formulae for calculating the weight of silk per meter of fabric, and methods for calculating the cost of fabric per meter.

Following a blank page after 162, Part 2 begins, in which Savey looked more closely at looms and the production of fabric. The author provided both front and side views of the looms and labeled the mobile and stationary parts of the machines (e.g. needle bed, claw, belts, pulley). The author also included diagrams of both Jacquard and Verdol punch cards and instructions on how to use them to create repeating patterns. Some examples of these patterns are shown on brightly colored flowers, leaves and berries, and hearts. Starting on page 210, the author discussed embroidery with a particular emphasis on damasks. This section was followed by more information on satin, velour, and gauze.

The last part of the volume begins after a gap of five blank pages. In this brief section, Savey detailed the different parts of the loom and how they were constructed. He also described how to assemble and maintain weaving machines that use these parts.

The volume is bound with aubergine leather over the covers and dark leather over the spine. The spine reads “Cours de Tissage/ J. Savey” in gilt-stamped writing. There are also four gilt-stamped floral designs on the spine. The volume has green marbled endpapers and flyleaves. It contains a red fabric title page which reads “École de la Salle/Commericale et Industrielle/Lyon/Cours de Tissage/J. Savey/1914-1915/ F. Brocard/Professeur” in gold thread. The text is surrounded by a gold thread border. A paper title page follows with geometric designs and four cartouches containing the words “Commerce” and “Industrie” as well as a shield with a lion rampant. The text on this page is surrounded by a rococo leaf design. The volume’s pages are gridded paper with text expertly penned in black ink on both the rectos and versos, providing an example of master penmanship. All of the pages have a geometric lined border and page numbers on the rectos and versos. Diagrams are primarily in black and red ink, but incorporate blue, green, and yellow shading for more complex designs. The volume contains 180 fabric swatches, which start on page 28 of the text.