Material marketing: How Canton manufacturers sold embroidered silk shawls, 1800-1930

In late imperial Guangzhou, pattern books containing samples – small pieces of cloth which revealed the quality and novelty in material, structures, and pattern of a textile – were key tools for manufacturers of embroidered silk shawls. The textile trade relied on the use of such books, helping foreign customers make informed choices about embroidery techniques, pattern, colour, and drape; physical and aesthetic qualities which were difficult to represent satisfactorily in either words or images. Taking as its point of departure, three such books in collections across Australia (University of Sydney), North America (The Metropolitan Museum of Art), and the United Kingdom (Jardine Matheson Archive), this paper examines the decision-making processes, quality standards, and market adaptations that shaped the transcultural trade. 

How did the often serialised combination of colours, repeat patterns, and motifs allow manufacturers to accommodate changes in fashion for new designs into ready-made decorative schemes? This paper treats the pattern book as a source for understanding: a) the methods by which these textiles were marketed and the nature of commercial correspondence between merchants and international markets, and b) the importance of merchants who possessed skills in innovation and knowledge of overseas fashions, enabling them to shape and predict global tastes. 

Part of the Art History Seminar Series, convened by Mary Roberts and Nick Croggon, and presented by the Power Institute and the discipline of art history at the University of Sydney.

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