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Essay on History of Toile Fabric
Toile, as we know it today, was created in 1752 by Francis Nixon at the Drumcondra Printworks near Dublin, Ireland using hand-carved wooden print blocks. Ink was applied to the blocks and then transferred by hand to un-dyed cotton. It was later introduced into England in 1756 and France shortly thereafter. Only the rich and the royal, including Louis XVI, could afford the results of this painstaking process.
In 1759, France lifted its embargo on imported fabrics. However, by that time there were few French fabric manufacturers available, and the industry was forced to recruit foreigners, especially from Switzerland and the southwestern German state of Württemberg.
Christopher-Philippe Oberkampf was one such immigrant from Württemberg, who came from a family of dyers. He opened his print shop, The Manufacture Royale de Jouy, in 1760 with only three employees, and became responsible for making toile accessible to the masses by employing a copper printing process. One story goes that while in England, he discovered the secrets of etching designs onto a copper-plate roller. Oberkampf and his brothers secretly copied directions for this process on cotton percale fabric, using an alum solution tinted with red dye, and then dipped the fabric in vinegar to render the writing invisible until after they crossed the Channel.
Another story is that Oberkampf wanted his factory to stay abreast of technical progress, so he sent some of his key workers abroad to learn new technologies. One of his employees brought back from Switzerland a machine able to print fabric using copper sheets.(Arsi,1999)
Toile is decorating pattern that has been around since the 1800's. It is a classic. It is good for the frugal decorator because it never goes out of style. Right now it is extremely popular....
