Glossary

• block printing
  One of the earliest textile and wallcovering printing processes, in which wooden blocks carved in relief are used for each individual color application. The size of the pattern repeat is limited to the dimensions of the block.
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• broadcloth
  An especially fine and smooth plain- or twill-weave woolen textile.
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• calico
  A plain-weave, lightweight cotton fabric, usually with a small, allover printed pattern. The term derives from the name of the Indian city Calcutta, where the fabric was originally created. By the eighteenth century, European manufacturers began creating stylized calicoes based on original Indian motifs of trees, flowers, animals, and birds.
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• chocolates
  A nineteenth-century term developed by the textile industry to describe fashionable dark-hued calicoes appropriate for half-mourning.
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• colorways
  A group of variations of the color choices available for a specific pattern.
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• crêpe
  A woven fabric with a crinkled surface caused by using overtwisted yarns or yarns with both clockwise and counter-clockwise twists.
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• delaines
  A lightweight, fine fabric of wool or wool mixed with other fibers used for printed textiles. The term derives from the French for mousseline de laine, or muslin of wool.
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• duvetyn
  A soft fabric traditionally made of wool that takes its name from the French word duvet, meaning down. It is characterized by a soft, downy nap.
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• earthenware
  A type of pottery that is not highly fired and therefore porous if not protected with a glaze.
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• fulling
  A finishing process for woolen textiles that uses heat, friction, moisture, and pressure to shrink the textile enough to obscure the weave structure and produce a felt-like appearance.
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• glaze
  A coating for ceramics that may be clear or colored. It is used to seal a porous clay material, such as earthenware, and to give a smooth and shiny appearance to nonporous ceramics, such as porcelain.
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• londrins
  A French and English fulled woolen fabric exported to the eastern Mediterranean and South America.
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• mordant
  A chemical compound made of metallic salts or other naturally occurring substances. Mordants form chemical bonds between dyestuffs and textile fibers that would not otherwise have a natural affinity. They promote the absorption of dye while preventing fading and bleeding, and are used to alter and enhance natural dye colors.
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• natural dye
  A soluble coloring compound derived from natural sources. Common natural dyes derived from plant and animal sources include indigo, madder, weld, cochineal, and logwood. Mineral dyes, derived from inorganic minerals found in nature, were developed in the first quarter of the nineteenth century. They include chrome yellow, chrome orange, Prussian blue, manganese brown, iron buff, and antimony orange.
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• neats
  An allover printed pattern of small floral or geometric shapes, usually made up of one or two colors on a white background. Neats were used for inexpensive printed cottons. The small scale of the repeat meant that less yardage was needed to match up the pattern in dressmaking.
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• needle lace
  One of two predominant types of lace (the other being bobbin lace), it is constructed using a needle and without a woven foundation. The process begins by affixing a foundation cord with stitches to firm paper, following a predetermined pattern. Tiny loops and buttonhole stitches are used to attach and fill in the space surrounding the foundation cord. After completion of the design, the stitches connecting the cord to the paper are cut, releasing the piece of lace.
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• percale
  A smooth, firmly woven cotton fabric with a balanced plain-weave construction, which is either printed or piece-dyed.
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• porcelain
  A type of highly fired ceramic ware that is impervious to liquids and translucent when viewed through light.
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• punto-in-aria
  From the Italian meaning "a stitch in the air," this was the first true type of lace to be created without a woven foundation. Originating from cutwork (in which stitches were placed on a fabric background that was then cut away to reveal the pattern), punto-in-aria developed in the sixteenth century as a type of needle lace characterized by geometric and organic motifs.
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• roller printing
  A method of printing on textiles and wallcoverings by passing an engraved copper cylinder over the surface. This type of printing is suited for long lengths of fabric. The pattern repeat is limited to the circumference of the cylinder.
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• silkscreen printing
  A method of printing on textiles and wallcoverings in which pigment is forced through a fine mesh silk screen that has a resist pattern. The pattern blocks the pigment from moving through the screen in predetermined areas, similar to a stencil.
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• steam colors
  Invented in the early part of the nineteenth century, steam color processing allowed the printing of both natural dye and mordant together, instead of in two separate applications. The fabric (usually cotton) was steamed after printing to fix the natural dye.
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• straw work
  A term loosely applied to natural materials such as stem, stalk, grass, leaf, or manufactured fiber that is braided, plaited, or woven into hats, bags, shoes, trimmings, and mats.
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• synthetic dye
  A soluble coloring compound derived from coal tar or its intermediate forms. Synthetic dyes were developed in the middle of the nineteenth century through the emerging field of organic chemistry, which allowed for the isolation and synthesis of coloring agents. The first synthetic dye of commercial importance was mauve, patented by Sir William Henry Perkin in 1856. Other early synthetic dyes included alizarin and aniline dyes.
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• transferware
  A term used to describe ceramics decorated by using an inked, engraved copperplate to print a design on paper, which is then transferred to the clay surface. Color lithographic prints were also used to transfer designs to ceramics after the 1870s.