Le Musée de l'Impression sur Etoffes

68072 Mulhouse, France (Grand Est)

The Museum of Printed Textiles

In 1833, a group of textile manufacturers based in and around Mulhouse formed an Industrial Society known as the "Societé Industrielle". They decided to collectively archive the designs they produced. In order to complement their own personal collections they added designs from other countries, and from earlier times. This collection grew in importance to become what is today the premier collection of printed textiles in the world.

Room 1 Introduction

Ranging from a sumptuous 18th Century decorative hanging, to a mass produced T Shirt used for advertising purposes, the art and craft of textile printing covers a vast area. To define textile printing as "the reproduction of a design or decoration", using an implement charged with a dye paste, is obviously too simple. To decorate a fabric involves today as in earlier times, the skills of a large number of dedicated craftspeople. The processes used are often laborious, and in earlier times, dangerous. Artists, designers, engravers, chemists and printers have worked together throughout the centuries and the fruit of their labor, as well as being useful and decorative result, holds an important place in the sociological hierarchy of it's time.

Room 2 The "Indiennes"

This room invites the visitor to study at close range the very first decorative textiles using the mordant technique which skillfully uses metallic salts to fix the colors onto the cloth. Printed onto a lightweight calico, these decorative panels were brought into Europe at the end of the 16th Century. Discovered by a population used to wearing heavy woolen, linen and highly embroidered silks, the freshness, and brightness of the designs, coupled with the lightweight cloth quickly seduced the European market, in terms of both decorative and apparel textiles.

Room 3 18th Century History and Technique

Technically, Printing on textile can be defined as the reproduction of one decoration by application of one tool loaded with colouring material on a textile support. In 18th century, the engraved Wood block, used since the 14th century for pigments printing, dominates. The meeting between the proceeds of coloration from India provokes its development.
The designer realize a model with gouache in a real size. For each colour of the motive, the engraver makes a block with a fruiterer wood often completed by the insertion of teeth and small strips of brass for a work in precision.
Finally, the printer put the blocks full of coloring material on the cloth and apply a blow of mallet. Wood block printing is practiced in plenty of workshops until the middle of 20th century. It remains until 1980.

Room 6 19th Century : Technique and Production

In 1769 Watt and Boulton invented the first steam driven machine. Unfortunately the high accident rate, coupled with heavy pollution slowed down it's progress. The year 1783 saw the first patent for textile printing machine using engraved copper rollers. Thomas Bell, a Scotsman was it's inventor. Fourteen years later, the textile manufacturer "Jouy en Josas" put into production the first copper roller textile printing machine in France. A rival machine, invented by Jean Louis Lefebvre at the beginning of the 19th Century proved to be very successful, and as widely used in Beauvais, the Paris area as well as in Alsace and Germany.

Room 7 Life and History in the 19th Century

In which historical context did the 19th Century textile industry flourish in France ? The "S.I.M", Mulhouse's Industrial Society was created in 1825 by a group of 25 young industrialists, to promote research and development in all area's of the textile industry. A specialized magazine was edited, and prizes were given to encourage young inventors.

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