Hanging in a local antique mall is this piece of shattered history. I’m just guessing that it was once a piece of a shawl, as that is what it appears to be. At any rate, it is a really good lesson on why textiles should not come into contact with brown paper and cardboard. Silks from the 1920s and earlier are often unstable due to metals and salts that were added to them in order to give them some heft.
Putting a textile right next to paper is just asking for trouble. Most paper, especially older paper, has a very high acid content due to lignin in the wood pulp. Those same acids remain in the paper, and will work on anything that comes into long term contact with it.
I didn’t check the price on this piece, but it really does amaze me that someone even considered this to be salable. It will, of course, continue to deteriorate.
What a sad disaster! Weighted silks are so frustrating to find. Even if stored ‘properly’ they still seem to crack and fall apart (at least that has been my experience).
True. In this case, I can’t say if the damage is partly due to added salts or to the contact with the acidic paper. Either way, you can see the results!
That embroidery is still drop dead gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!
Yes, the embroidery was hand sewn, and is a lovely example of this type of thing.
How sad to view this once wonderful silk scarf…now just a whisper of what used to be. Appreciate the advice on how to care for vintage silk. Thanks.
All silk seems to shred over time. Some of my great grandmother’s clothes from the 1890′s have been kept and the cotton lawn tennis dresses and petticoats are fine although yellowed by the silk ones have all shredded over time, along with the gorgeous butterscotch silk velvet sash that my grandmother had worn with her dresses as a little girl that I used as a scarf when in college. Despite great care being taken with it and it’s not being near any paper it fell apart -
Sarah, did you see the comment above about “weighted” silks? That was a practice of dipping silks in a chemical solution. It made them seem to be heavier, better-grade silks than they actually were. Unfortunately, it was also very bad for the fibers over the long term. However, not all silks were weighted. It was a very common practice in the late 19th and early 20th century, though not universal; ironically, many earlier silks, from before the practice became widespread, are now in better condition.
Yes, it is often the presence of metals or salts or acids that lead to the disintegration of silk.