My favorite things: a dress from RAMMs Collection
Day Dress 1808 to 1809
From the collections at RAMM. Accession No. 59/1927/2
A short history of the lapis print technique
By Natalie Raw, Assistant Curator of Costume, RAMM
The former curator of costume at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum is also a resident of St Thomas. We asked her to choose her favourite object from the collection.
At first glance of the bold and vibrant geometrical pattern of this dress you would be forgiven for thinking that is was a modern design. In fact this dress, from the costume and textile collection at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter, is almost two hundred years old and dates back to 1808 to 1812. The pattern of a red background with small spot of white with a blue surround is a clever technique for printing on cotton called lapis printing.
At the start of the 19th century printers of cotton were experimenting in ways to create new patterns using the traditional plant and vegetable dyes available at the time. James Thomson of Primrose Printworks, in Lancashire, invented the technique used to create this design around 1808. The lapis method allowed for red and blue dyes to be printed exactly next each other. This, even today, is difficult to achieve, as printing two adjacent colours together usually leads to a slight white gap or overprinting. The blue achieved in this printing style is a mid-tone blue. It is the same as the beautiful colour of the semi precious stone lapis lazuli hence the name given to the printing technique.
This long sleeved dress with a slight train to the skirt and an open apron front that ties at the back is an important and rare example of lapis print being used for a garment of dress. Although lapis printing technique was used primarily for dress fabrics there are very few examples that have survived. In the past fabric was an expensive commodity. Dresses would often be re-modelled to fit the current fashions or the fabric would be recycled for other things. Today lapis print fabric is likely to be found having been cut up and used for patchwork quilts and coverlets.