Patchwork & Quilting UK – July 2019

54 British Patchwork & Quilting JULY 2019

FEATURE // textile treasures of the British Library

Walking under the large metal gate spelling out ‘British Library’ one would hardly think I was

going to look at some of their fabulous collection of textiles. Why would you think the Library

had textiles in the fi rst place when their prime consideration is ‘the word’? A quick answer to

that is that textiles of all kinds are related or attached to ‘words’ in many ways, as we shall see.

Textile Treasures

of the British Library

BY SHEILAH DAUGHTREE

Recognising that textiles have a separate identity, although

related to the item, is a fairly new concept. They have been

catalogued as one item over the years although the item, such

as a book had a cover attached, or a silk lining inside the book

cover. Now the job of the Textile Conservator, Liz Rose, is to

fi nd, identify and conserve textiles already in the collection and

also assess new items arriving.

Liz kindly spent time with me going through some of the

objects she has found, showing me the wide diversity of

textiles covering the four divisions grouped as Asian and

African, Western Heritage, European and American and

Contemporary British. To put textiles into some perspective

Francis Casey, last year’s PhD student, has defi ned textiles by

three major areas. Firstly ‘Textural’ meaning the whole article

is a textile such as the silk playbill. Secondly ‘Associate’ such

as a wrapping covering an item like the Torah Mantle Cover, a

wrapping covering the Jewish Torah. And fi nally ‘Component’

meaning attached to a part of an article such as the cover of

a Bible or lining inside a book cover. Sometimes they can be a

mixture of all three.

It could be possible to use technology to incorporate details of

textiles relating to an item, like the covered Bible, so the textile

features could be linked to the existing catalogue. To date,

approximately 1,074 have been recorded and identifi ed and

there may be another 10,000 to investigate. By having a Textile

Conservator since 2015 it is now possible to plan for the long

term care and preservation of textile items and the recognition

of textiles within the Library

Although the basis for the British Library was begun under

George III and housed in the British Museum, it wasn’t until

1973 that the British Museum Library became the National

Library of the United Kingdom through the Library Act of 1972,

granting them the care and protection of the ‘Foundation

Embroidery designed by D.H. Lawrence and embroidered by his wife Frieda Lawrence. For a wedding present to Maitland and Muriel Radford 1917. (MS 89029/2/12)