Description
French Swatch Book of 463 Silk Samples for Men’s Neckties. For cravates à dessins, cravates à formes géométriques, and cravates avec motifs. Bound in an album (registre) made by Auguste Coste, 12, rue des Jardins, Saint-Étienne, No. 154, 32 cm x 29 cm, these 463 samples mostly measure 9 cm x 7 cm, with a few smaller. The front cover bears the Initials of “F.G. & Cie Soies.” Long known for the manufacture of silk ribbons and silk neckties, Saint-Étienne, was in the shadow of Lyon’s silk industry. This firm (F.G. & Cie) kept a record of the sources of their silk on a partially legible sheet pasted to the inside cover of this swatch book: France, Spain, Piedmont, Italy, Levant, Syria, Bengal, China and Japan. From the styles of the patterns and from the references to both Piément and Italie as well as the Levant and Syrie as sources of their raw materials, this album cannot be earlier than 1861. The paper covers have been repaired with binding tape.
