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Object Timeline
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1914 |
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1967 |
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2013 |
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2014 |
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2024 |
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Sample Book, Genuine Turkey Red
This is a Sample book. It was made for Sun and Lion Brand. It is dated late 19th–early 20th century and we acquired it in 1967. Its medium is label: woven cotton samples, leather binding, paper label, brass rivets. It is a part of the Textiles department.
The term Turkey red refers not to a dye, but to a technique for dyeing cotton a brilliant, wash-fast scarlet red, practiced throughout the Ottoman Empire but unknown in Europe. In order to discover the secret process for themselves, textile firms in England and France sent industrial spies to Turkey and Greece, or imported master dyers and established them at their workshops.
The process was labor-intensive and difficult, requiring 15 to 20 steps, including multiple baths in lye, potash, sheep dung, ox blood, and rancid olive oil. The technique was not adaptable to calico printing, and could only be used for dyeing yarns, or, with some difficulty, whole cloth. This sample book contains twenty-eight solid red samples of varying weights of cotton cloth, from batiste to canvas.
This object was featured in our Object of the Week series in a post titled Industrial Espionage.
This object was
donated by
Harvey Smith.
It is credited Gift of Harvey Smith.
- Drawing, Textile Design: Wasserorgel (Water Organ)
- brush and gouache on white wove paper.
- Museum purchase from Smithsonian Collections Acquisition and Decorative Arts....
- 1988-62-57
![A twill woven cotton and merino wool blanket with twenty-five horizontal bands of color which increase and descrease in saturation in small block increments from one side to the other. The colors include violet, olive green, pink, pale blue and lemon yellow. At the top of the blanket the words [RAW COLOR, MULTITONE, INDEX COLLECTION] are printed in violet capital letters](https://images.collection.cooperhewitt.org/90373_582628846e909e37_n.jpg "Blanket, Index Collection, 2012")
- Blanket, Index Collection, 2012
- organic cotton warp, merino wool weft.
- Gift of Raw Color.
- 2013-22-1
- Sample Book, Standard Color Card of America, 9th Edition
- label: board covers, printed cardboard pages, silk samples.
- Gift of The Color Association of the United States, Inc..
- 1960-82-1
Our curators have highlighted 7 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:
- Book Illustration, The Practical Ostrich Feather Dyer, Revised and Corrected...
- dyed feather samples.
- Collection of Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
- SIL39088007119563
- Carrying Cloth (Peru)
- red wool with white cotton.
- Museum purchase through gift of Jacques Seligmann.
- 1946-59-1
- Manufacturer's Color Blanket (USA)
- synthetic.
- Gift of Harvey Smith.
- 1968-135-76
Its dimensions are
H x W x D (closed): 14 x 19.7 x 1.9 cm (5 1/2 x 7 3/4 x 3/4 in.) H x W (open): 14 x 32.1 cm (5 1/2 x 12 5/8 in.)
It is inscribed
Genuine Turkey Red. Sun and Lion Brand.
Cite this object as
Sample Book, Genuine Turkey Red; Made for Sun and Lion Brand; England; label: woven cotton samples, leather binding, paper label, brass rivets; H x W x D (closed): 14 x 19.7 x 1.9 cm (5 1/2 x 7 3/4 x 3/4 in.) H x W (open): 14 x 32.1 cm (5 1/2 x 12 5/8 in.); Gift of Harvey Smith; 1967-20-35
Collections in Motion: Turkey Red Sample Book
Demonstration of the Turkey Red Sample Book being opened, closed, and pages turned.
This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design.
