Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the Best Books on Devon's History: Academic Award from the Devon History SocietyA richly illustrated exploration of the national and international importance of the early modern Exeter cloth trade.This book reproduces a newly discovered manuscript detailing the exports of Claude Passavant, a Swiss émigré merchant. Passavant's dispatch book comprises the most extensive surviving collection of Devon cloth with 2,475 surviving cloth samples. Thirteen chapters discuss the local and wider contexts of eighteenth-century cloth making. This study explores the quality, range, and vibrancy of cloth that lead to Exeter becoming an internationally renowned centre for the manufacture and trade of woollen cloth.
Trade Reviewa well rounded detailed study of various aspects of the wool trade and cloth production in Exeter and surrounding area, based on a variety of sources, placing Exeter and Devon in comparison to other English textile centres of the period like Norfolk or Manchester. * The Journal of Dress History *
Taken as a whole, this handsomely-produced and very readable volume adds significantly to what was previously known about Devon clothmaking and can serve as a comprehensive handbook for those coming to the subject for the first time. -- Local Historian
Table of ContentsIntroduction CLAUDE PASSAVANT AND EXETER Claude Passavant Exeter in the 1760s CLOTH MANUFACTURE Claude Passavant's dispatch book: an analysis Exeter's cloth merchants and industry in the 1760s The Incorporation of Fullers, Weavers and Shearmen, in 1764 Exeter's fulling mills in the mid eighteenth century The archaeology of the cloth industry in Exeter Cloth dyes and dyeing in the eighteenth century An outline history of the Exeter dyers Exeter lead cloth merchants' seals - a provisional listing Tillet blocks CLOTH Tiverton's woollen cloth trade in the 1760s Sandfords PATTERN BOOKS Westcountry pattern books Norwich pattern books, pattern cards and patterns Folding pattern cards: marketing Lancashire fustians in the 1780s THE DISPATCH BOOK Appendix 1: The Topsham bale book, 1763 Appendix 2: The cloth account of John Hern of Ashburton, 1771-76 Appendix 3: Letter of Claude Passavant to Henry Pelham, 16 October 1752 Appendix 4: Letter of John Siper to Thomas Windeatt, 5 July 1756 Appendix 5: Four Devon dye recipes, c.1710
