‘A Colourful Past’, a feature article in the latest issue of Open is delightful in that it highlightes a rare and extremely valuable collection held by the Botanical Survey of India, in the form of John Forbes Watson’s Textile Manufactures and Costumes of the People of India and Thomas Wardle’s Specimens of Fabrics dyed with Indian Dyes containing several thousand dye samples. However, there are a few key facts which the writer has got wrong and which we’d like to clarify. First, the collections in question were discovered by the BIS not a few months ago as is claimed in the article, but over TWO YEARS ago. Further, EKA curated and displayed the collections for the very first time on behalf of the Kolkata-based NGO SUTRA (see Vriksha) . The exhibition was timed to coincide with a major international conference titled ‘Raksha’ organised by SUTRA from 20th – 27th February 2010, which focussed among other things on Watson’s and Wardle’s work. A number of details about the volumes thus emerged last year, during the research that led up to the exhibition as well as the conference, including a proper understanding of the true rarity and significance of these materials. EKA and SUTRA benefitted from the expertise of several senior scholars like Dr. Brenda King, a textile historian who has researched textiles by Thomas and Elizabeth Wardle for many years and is the Chair of the Textile Society (UK). She discovered that Wardle’s samples were made NOT IN INDIA as the article implies, but in Wardle’s lab in England and subsequently shipped here in the form of the abovementioned volumes.
Reproduced below is the relevant portion of an original text panel authored by Dr. King for the exhibition with the relevant sections underlined. Incidentally, the exhibition EKA curated also showcased the over 10,000 botanical illustrations held by the BSI which the article mentions. However, it does not specify them as the work of William Roxburgh (the implication being they are part of Watson and Wardle’s work), and for the record, they were not discovered along with the textile samples but held in mint condition in another Kolkata office of the BSI.
Panel 5: Silk and Science
Thomas Wardle worked in all branches of silk dyeing. He developed expertise in chemistry and was elected a Fellow of the Chemical Society (UK) in 1875.
For years Wardle struggled to discover why tusser silk fibers took dye so irregularly. Science eventually provided him with the key. Through microscopic examination he studied the physical properties of silk fibres. He applied knowledge of chemistry to dissolve a protective gum which coated them and made progress through the better application of dyes and mordants. At first only shades of grey and brown were possible, followed by weak tones of primary colours. Black and white were the most difficult colours to obtain. In 1872 a good yellow, pale blue and other tertiary colours were obtained; years of effort were rewarded. Thereafter samples of Wardle’s dyed tusser silk was displayed at South Kensington Museum, London, (V & A).
In 1874 his results attracted the attention of the Secretary of State for India and Wardle was asked to make his knowledge available to Indian dyers. Although they were thought the best in the world Indian dyers had not successfully dyed wild silks permanently.
Wardle suggested that a complete collection of India’s dyestuffs, along with samples of wild silks, were shipped to his dye works in England. So much arrived that storage was a big problem. There were two main motives for his actions. First, to prevent deterioration of India’s dyeing skills through the introduction of European dyes, with their fugitive and crude colours. Second was the better use of the remarkable variety of indigenous dyestuffs to dye India’s wild silks.
Over seven years, with an assistant, Wardle experimented with India’s dyestuffs. The outcome of testing 181 dyestuffs resulted in the first work of reference of its type. The publication The Dyes and Tans of India, (82 pages) was finished in 1882. It was accompanied by three thousand five hundred dyed cloth samples, on 360 sheets, which clearly illustrated the results. Copious notes described the tinctorial properties of the dyes and mordants commonly used in India. The samples Specimens of Fabrics Dyed With Indian Dyes, were housed in the Science and Art Department of South Kensington Museum. A complete set of samples was sent to Calcutta. Wardle firmly believed in the sharing of knowledge and all his findings were published to give as many people as possible access to technical information.”