[TEXTILE SAMPLES]. Carte de nuances des teinturiers de Saint-Etienne.

Carte de nuances des teinturiers de Saint-Etienne.
Saint-Etienne, Automne, 1914.
(23.5 x 15 cm). 10 accordion folding leaves mounted (one side only) with 473 different silk samples (17 samples are absent). Publisher’s original cloth-covered housing with brass clasp. Gilt title on the front cover and on the flat-spine. A small indent to the front cover and cloth splitting at the external joints, but with bright, well-preserved textile samples.

Color Standardizations and collaboration among Saint-Etienne textile firms:
In the late 19th and early 20th century many industries sought to standardize color production and identifications across industries. This “Nuance” color chart from the textile dyers of Saint-Etienne bears witness to such efforts with the names of the 11 collaborating firms listed on the inside cover. Saint-Etienne has been a significant producer of silk textiles since the 1600s, rising in the middle of the 19th century to be among the best in the world for textile production and an innovator in techniques in the evolving industry. In nearby Lyon, where weavers specialized in larger sheets of textiles, the production of woven silk ribbons was the focus in Saint-Etienne. Manufactures in the latter city were among the first in Europe to broadly adapt the Jacquard looms (invented in Lyon).