Duplan Silk Corporation figured crepe satin dress silk; 1921.
date: label: Date made
content: 1921
notes: label: Description
content: Duplan Silk Corporation figured crepe satin dress silk; 1921. Figured novelty crepe. Woven at Hazelton, Pa. A silk crepe fabric with a lustrous, broken surface in an ondulee or waved effect produced by interlacing of extra weft artificial silk yarns on the back of the fabric. These floating yarns form a detached flower motif, combined with a satin warp figure.
label: Description
content: Jean Leopold Duplan, a French businessman, founded Duplan Silk Company in New York in 1898 as an extension of his silk weaving plant in Lyons, France. The 1897 American tariff spurred Duplan to supply the American silk market with domestically made cloth. Duplan Silk began producing artificial silk (now known as rayon) as early as 1911. The lustrous artificial silk was spun from cellulose and a gelatin extracted from seaweed. Duplan himself was quite secretive about the artificial silk production process, keeping the looms in a separate, boarded section of the mill. Eventually, Duplan Silk produced silk velvets, formulated its own dyes, and printed fabrics in its own mill.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Hazleton
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Textiles
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content: American Silks
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content: American Silk Industry
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content: American Textile Industry
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content: Textiles
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of the Duplan Silk Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TE.T04260.000
label: accession number
content: 66772
label: catalog number
content: T04260.000
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Fabric Length
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: silk (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: artificial silk (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: red-purple (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: burnt orange ground (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: crepe satin (overall style)
label: Physical Description
content: compound weave, jacquard woven (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 in x 40 in; 45.72 cm x 101.6 cm