With exacting drawings of the Jacquard Loom Process and Jacquard Punched Cards (1901)

P. Berjon (instructor). L. Monnier (student)

[JACQUARD WEAVING]. Cours de theorie pour le tissage

Lyon: 1901. Thick folio (445 x 305 mm; weight: 5 kg). Contemporary quarter black roan (abraiding but COMPLETELY SOUND), pebbled buckram boards (scuffed, corners bumped), original exposed sewing, three leather labels pasted on, marbled endpapers. Each facing page is protected by original tissue guards (some wrinkled or -- less frequently -- torn). CONTENTS: 11 sewn gatherings containing 332 handwritten and meticulously illustrated pages, plus two additional pages on which are pasted numerous original woven fabric swatches, NONE OF WHICH ARE MISSING, plus a woven silk portrait of President Sadi Carnot (dated 1899, produced by the firm Marcoux & Chateauneuf in Saint-Etienne) and a polychrome Jacquard-woven silk ribbon from 1892 depicting the statue of Christopher Columbus. The pages and woven swatch fabrics are preserved in extremely fresh condition, no doubt due to the presence of all the original tissue guards, highly suitable for research and exhibition. Very good. Item #4570

METICULOUS AND EXACTING TECHNICAL MANUSCRIPT OF EXCEPTIONAL BEAUTY AND INTEREST IN WHICH ARE CONTAINED ORIGINAL WOVEN SWATCHES OF FABRICS, ALL INDICATED WITH CODED INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE JACQUARD LOOM, INCLUDING MULTIPLE DRAWINGS OF PUNCHED CARDS. THIS MASSIVE TOME CONTAINS A STUDENT'S FINAL PROJECT FOR THE THEORY AND MECHANICS OF MECHANIZED WEAVING COURSE TAUGHT BY P. BERJON AT THE LYON SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS.

This extraordinary manuscript is introduced by a photographic reproduction of a Jacquard-woven portrait of Joseph-Marie Jacquard, and a brief description of the textiles most commonly used in the production of everyday fabrics (Silk, Wool, Cotton, Linen, Hemp, Jute, Ramie, etc.). This is followed by the theory and mechanics of silk manufacture itself (Sericulture, Silk Farming, Necessary Equipment, Hatching, Worm Care, Spinning, Processing, Testing, Official Silk Conditioning, Skein Preparation, Dyeing, Reeling, Warping, Mechanical Warping, and Folding). This is followed by descriptions of Drawing-in, Reeding, and Fabric Types, including Taffeta, Twill, Satin, Velvet, English Gauze, Ribbed fabrics, Reps, Gros de Tours, etc.). The curriculum continues with Various Weave Structures, Weave Cards, Analysis of Weave Structures, Specific Arrangements (Pongee, Faille, Grenadine, Poplin, Turquoise, Taffeta, Cristalline, Louisine, Lyon Satin, Twill, Satins, Pekins, Checked fabrics, etc.).

Of particular interest to us are the detailed notes and diagrams documenting the relationship between the heddle leveling, the Jacquard card, the loom mechanism, and the resulting fabric patterns and thickness. There are diagrams of Jacquard cards for Figured Fabrics; Beaming; Analysis of Figured Fabrics via weft effects, warp effects, contrasting weaves, raised pile, and sinuous threads. The final sections concern Compound Beaming and English Gauzes, including examples of actual fabric productions.

In the massive tome are contained multiple pages of “Remettage” (diagrams of setting up the loom and threading the warp ends), some in red and black, full-page drawings of a loom; “Piquage” (sleying), with full-page drawings in color, drawings of punched cards, numerous diagrams with fabric swatches, “Décomposition de Façonnés” (breakdown of the figured material), with watercolors of a loom, diagrams of patterns with additional samples of material, “Gazes à fils” (gauze weaves), with colored drawings, diagrams, and more fabric swatches.

The represents what we now descript as early "programming" processes, with numerous diagrams of punched cards and instructions for "coding" which, by means of the punched cards, instructed the weft to pass under or over each warp silk thread -- a binary ON/OFF or ZERO/ONE process which made possible the automatic production of unlimited varieties of complex woven patterns. The manuscript also contains illustrations of complete looms.

CATALOGUER'S NOTE: As is well known, in the early 19th century Joseph-Marie Jacquard devised a revolutionary control for looms. Using punched cards to program patterns, the loom was able to create woven fabrics without intervention from the weaver. The introduction of these looms caused riots against the replacement of people by machines. Despite that, the loom was very successful and its control method is widely recognised to be a precursor of the computer. With its use of punched cards, the “mill”, the “store” and binary logic, the loom contained many features still evident in modern-day computers. Jacquard’s punched cards were later modified and evolved into computing punched cards by Babbage and Herman Hollerith.

FASCINATING VOLUME PRESERVED IN EXTREMELY GOOD CONDITION, RARE THUS.

Price: $4,200.00