sponge prints

[Annette Bethke]

Can anyone describe or have an image of "sponge prints"?

Here is the context from the Houston Tri-Weekly Telegraph, December 17, 1862, p. 2, c.5

Just Received.
215,000 yds. Brown and Bleached Domestic. 15,000 yards Sponge Prints; 1200 papers Pins. 30 lbs. Flax Thread. 500 Corsets. Merino and Cotton Hose.
Darling & Merriman.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: sponge prints

While not from "our period", the museum at Ft. Pitt here in Pittsburgh, PA has a few garments on display which are said to have been "sponge printed", the designs if I remember correctly were of a repeating floral pattern.

If I understand correctly, the process was to have a sponge/die cut with the pattern desired...and then this would be used to apply the dye/paint to the fabric to achieve the desired affect...this is a process that would be replaced by screen-printing.

Paul B.

[Annette Bethke]

Re: sponge prints

That's what I was thinking, but I had never heard of it before in this time in this large of a quantity.

thanks.

[Carolann Schmitt]

Re: sponge prints

I started looking for information on sponge prints and found two possibilities so far.

The first refers to how the fabric is printed. I found a patent from 1835 for a new technique for block printing that prints two colors at the same time. The method uses a layer of sponge in the printing process.
A copy of the verbiage for the patent can be found at http://books.google.com/books?id=Jgg...m=100&as_brr=0 or http://tiny.cc/fhmD4 I haven't had an opportunity to search for any patent drawings that might make the explanation easier to understand.

The second was part of a definition:
Sponge cloth - A term applied at various times to different cloths of various fibers that suggest a spongy character. Also applied to fabrics know by the French word eponge. A twilled dress fabric woven with nub yarn of cotton, wool, silk, or other fibers. 3. A cotton dress fabric made of coarse yarns in a sponge or honeycomb weave.

Eponge - 1. A soft,sponge-like woolen dress goods made with a plain warp and fancy yarn filling (or the reverse); dyed in the piece.

I'll keep searching and post any other information I find.

Regards,

[Annette Bethke]

Re: sponge prints

Those are interesting. I'll need to sit and try to visualize exactly what those would look like. Maybe they are also known by another name? Hmmm....interesting.