ESS 1147 BOW and SHIELD

One of our large limited edition (1/24) life size/facsimile Giclee print ESS 1147 Bow and Shield offers you a chance to own a piece of textile history.

Our unframed print measures 82cm x 148 cm (32 1/4" x 58 1/4")

We will frame by arrangement.

Here is some more information about how our ref ESS 1147 Bow and Shield.

This limited edition (1/24)of large Life size art print is a facsimile reproduction of an original point paper from Bradford, England. 

Measuring 82 cm wide by 148 cm high the print has an additional 2 cm plain border to facilitate the framer.

A unique piece of textile history, once framed and hung, your new artwork will not just be decorative it can be a fabulous topic for discussion.  Many of our customers are fascinated about the detail and accuracy of each painted square and love working out how each point/square plays its unique part in transferring its weave to create a woven fabric!

ESS 1147 design was drawn up from a sketch for the Bradford based weaver, E&S Smith by head designer Alan Stringer in may 1966. The end Customer for the 8 x 6inch wide patterns across the 48” wide fabric curtain fabric was called Haslam. Alan chose a mixture of 6 compatible weaves to develop the textured fabric. The darker red areas were raised warp thread satin and the surround of the shield was a plainer sateen weft.

The E& S Smith, Stadium Mill works, was weaving with Northrop looms at this time which had two Bradford made Samuel Dracup Jacquards above the loom. Each machine had 300 hooks in each to control the warp threads in the loom. The harness, which links the needles in the Jacquard that press into the perforated loom card, with the warp threads arranged in the loom below, was set at 90 ends per inch (wide) For this design each of the two jacquard engines ran a set of punched cards that had 260 weft thread picks corresponding to the 260 rows on the design paper. Great care had to be taken to make sure that upon start up the punched cards position on one Jacquard engine was aligned with the second Jacquard machine. Quite a lot of synchronisations of working parts and skilled workers were required to weave these styles of fabric.

Facsimiles - Lifesize collection

We have tried hard to reproduce accurate reproductions of the original point paper textile documents in our archive. After a high-resolution scan, we have left blemishes, pencil notes and even coffee mug stains when appropriate so that you see the ‘full picture’ our original industry art depicts.

Our specialist printer’s wide width scans are limited to .9m width, which thankfully is usually the maximum width of the individual papers once hand painted on the designer’s drawing tables. Commercial point paper's width used to determine this width as did a designer’s arm span!

In some cases, larger design repeats were drawn on several separate papers and often there may have been 2-6 pieces for one woven design repeat. 

In fact, some of the specialist 1900’s tapestry point papers we have involved up to 32 pieces to create a large wall hanging tapestry.

To create the ‘Lifesize Art’ we have joined up each scanned piece on CAD to replicate the scale and technical detail of the industrial work as close to the originals 'joined up' dimensions as possible. By joining up the separate panels of the original technicians work we have created a new piece of art to fill your wall space and pay respect to the 'old skills' in the Mills.