hg 7284-4732

Des hg 7284 – 4732. Painted in Manchester our original framed artwork with its tonal gold and orange Ombre ground, overlaid with an Ogee fretwork is an example of textile designs in the North of England textile weaving industry in the early 1970’s. This contemporary gouache artwork was drawn up for H. Pratt who were based in the Ralli Building in Salford, Manchester, England in the 1970's. The company was a prominent Jacquard woven fabric design house that supplied design services to weavers. Their ‘behind the scenes’ work was on behalf of weaving Mills around the World transforming selected artwork into technical weaves on point papers. The technical point papers were then read to make perforated loom punch card which the end clients Jacquard machine 'read' to create the pattern in fabric or carpet. In an age before CAD, H. Pratt employed in house artists and jacquard design technicians. Their artists each had a specific hand/style and used traditional methods to paint scaled, in repeat drawings to the clients brief. H. Pratt also sourced other art from selective free-lance artists. It is rare to see any of these creatives sign their work, a common practice in industry. We know the internal sketch/art was no 4732 but do not know the name of the artist for this work or if the pencil notes were theirs or most likely the weave technician who set out the dimensions and how the fabric was constructed. Some experienced technicians also known to created artwork! What we do know that this original artwork was purchased by Herbert Green who were weavers in the West Yorkshire town of Silsden, which at the time was still the UK's hotbed of jacquard weaving factories. There is a small amount of wear and tear and you will find technicians pencil lines marking the design repeat on the artwork. Herbert Greens production number is listed -ref des 7284 at the foot of the artwork along side the H. Pratt company stamp and their sketch number 4732-6”. The jacquard machine operated at Herbert Green at this time woven 48” curtain width fabrics and had 600 and larger 1200 pattern hook machines with a thread tie of 100 warp ends per inch. Similar styles to this design wove with 30 weft picks per inch. The landscape artwork external measurement is; 20” (51cm) wide x 13 ¼”" (33.5cm) high on a 320 gram card. The frame measures 23" wide x 19" with 17" x 12 " internal art and is mounted centrally with a mount depth on the bottom of 3" and 2 1/2" at the top. Richard M R Smith December 2021