Research Catalog

Title

Threads of global desire : silk in the pre-modern world / edited by Dagmar Schafer, Giorgio Riello and Luca Molà.

Publication

Woodbridge : The Boydell Press, 2018.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Schäfer, Dagmar
• Riello, Giorgio
• Molà, Luca, 1962-

Description

xvii, 412 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color); 25 cm.

Summary

Silk has long been a global commodity that, because of its exceptional qualities, high value and relative portability, came to be traded over very long distances. Similarly, the silk industry - from sericulture to the weaving of cloth - was one of the most important fields of production in the medieval and early modern world. The production and consumption of silks spread from China to Japan and Korea and travelled westward as far as India, Persia and the Byzantine Empire, Europe, Africa and the Americas. As contributors to this book demonstrate, in this process of diffusion silk fostered technological innovation and allowed new forms of organization of labour to emerge. Its consumption constantly reshaped social hierarchies, gender roles, aesthetic and visual cultures, as well as rituals and representations of power. 'Threads of Global Desire' is the first attempt at considering a global history of silk in the pre-modern era. The book examines the role of silk production and use in various cultures and its relation to everyday and regulatory practices. It considers silk as a major force of cross cultural interaction through technological exchange and trade in finished and semi-finished goods. Silks mediated design and a taste for luxuries and were part of gifting practices in diplomatic and private contexts. Silk manufacturing also fostered the circulation of skilled craftsmen, connecting different centres and regions across continents and linking the countryside to urban production.

Series Statement

Pasold studies in textile, dress and fashion history, 2515-9038 ; 1

Uniform Title

Pasold studies in textile, dress and fashion history ; 1.

Subjects

• Fashion
• Silk industry > Social aspects
• Fashion > History
• Silk Road
• History
• Silk industry > Social aspects > History
• Asia > Silk Road
• Clothing and dress > History

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-395 and index.

Contents

Introduction : silk in the pre-modern world / Dagmar Schäfer, Giorgio Riello, and Luca Molà and -- Part I. Asian origins : -- Power and silk : the central state and localities in state-owned manufacture during the Ming Reign (1368-1644) / Dagmar Schäfer -- Why velvet? Localised textile innovation in Ming China / Angela Sheng -- The Dutch East India Company and Asian raw silk : from Iran to Bengal via China and Vietnam / Rudi Matthee -- The localisation of the global : Ottoman silk textiles and markets, 1500-1790 / Amanda Phillips -- Part II. European developments : -- Ottoman silks and their markets at the borders of the Empire, c. 1500-1800 / Suraiya Faroqhi -- A study in contrasts : silk consumption in Italy and England during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries / Lisa Monnas -- 'What d'ye lack ladies? Hoods, ribbands, very fine silk stockings' : the silk trades in Restoration London / David M. Mitchell -- Part III. Global exchange -- From design studio to marketplace : products, agents and methods of distribution in the Lyons Silk Manufactures, 1660-1789 / Lesley Ellis Miller -- The Manila galleon and the reception of Chinese silk in New Spain, c. 1550-1650 / José L. Gasch-Tomás -- 'The Honour of the Thing' : silk culture in eighteenth-century Pennsylvania / Ben Marsh -- A global transfer of silk reeling technologies : the English East India Company and the Bengal Silk Industry / Karolina Hutková -- Changing silk culture in early modern Japan : on foreign trade and the development of 'national' fashion, from the sixteenth to nineteenth century / Fujita Kayoko -- Textile spheres : silk in a global and comparative context / Giorgio Riello.

Call Number

JFE 18-8935

ISBN

• 9781783272938
• 1783272937

OCLC

1038006990

Title

Threads of global desire : silk in the pre-modern world / edited by Dagmar Schafer, Giorgio Riello and Luca Molà.

Publisher

Woodbridge : The Boydell Press, 2018.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Pasold studies in textile, dress and fashion history, 2515-9038 ; 1

Pasold studies in textile, dress and fashion history ; 1.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-395 and index.

Added Author

Schäfer, Dagmar, editor.

Riello, Giorgio, editor.

Molà, Luca, 1962- editor.

Research Call Number

JFE 18-8935