Description: In the burgeoning commercial and consumer culture of eighteenth century Europe, plain and patterned silks occupied a significant place in economic and social life, providing employment for large numbers of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled operatives, profits for the merchant co-ordinators of production, and material comfort and status for a growing market of domestic and international consumers. The designers and manufacturers who played an indispensable role in the success of the silk industry varied in their achievements and visibility, some earning substantial wealth and quasi mythical status, others eking out a modest and largely anonymous existence. Drawing on a wide range of new archival and material evidence, this book offers a series of individual portraits that illuminate broader social and economic concerns around the relationship of art and manufacturing, national and international networks, commercial education and culture, industrial espionage and the transfer of technology.
