Textile fragment entitled Les Travaux de la Manufacture. Jean Baptiste Huet (French painter, 1745 - 1811) for Oberkampf. Jouy-en-Josas, France. 1783-1784. Copperplate-printed cotton tabby. 934.4.443.A Harry Wearne Collection, Gift of Mrs. Harry Wearne. [Image 1: woodblock printing]. [Image 2: copperplate printing].
Textile fragment entitled Les Travaux de la Manufacture. Jean Baptiste Huet (French painter, 1745 - 1811) for Oberkampf. Jouy-en-Josas, France. 1783-1784. Copperplate-printed cotton tabby. 934.4.443.A Harry Wearne Collection, Gift of Mrs. Harry Wearne. [Image 1: woodblock printing]. [Image 2: copperplate printing].
Fellowship Year: 1991
Project Title: European Textile Printing, 1680-1780
European Textile Printing, 1680-1780
Dr. Endrei had first published an article on early European textile printing methods in 1963, and since then had researched and published on the subject repeatedly, with special focus on how European block printing was derived from Middle Eastern and Asian methods and technology. Leading up to his time as a Gervers fellow, he was increasingly interested in how it was possible that in the hundred years from 1680 to 1780, the style of and technology producing European prints were able to improve so drastically and rapidly (e.g. polychrome printing, capturing effects such as shade and delicate line, etc), despite the fact that many European countries had banned the printing of cottons and their importation. For his research at the ROM, he drew from the large sample of extant 17th and 18th century textiles, investigating first evidence of global (specifically Turkish and Indian) influence on European printed cotton textiles, as well as influence from printers of other fibers and material, namely woolen, linen, and wallpaper printers. After establishing influences, he sought to document the way manufacturing processes were changed to accomodate cotton printing, and what innovations were borne of these accommodations: new types and methods of using mordants, dyes, changes to chemical and mechanical processes, and an increase in colours and colourways used.
About the Fellow:
Dr. Walter Endrei was born in Budapest in 1921. After graduating from high school in 1939, he worked at a number of textile mills in various positions (as a dyer, printer, and a technician in the spinning and weaving departments) and attended a school specializing in textiles from 1941 to 1942, and university from 1943 to 1947. He was appointed Department Head of the Central Administration of the Textile Industry in 1948, a position from which he was dismissed “for political reasons” in 1949. He then spent four years as a textile-patent application referee in the Patent Office, while simultaneously beginning to give lectures at the Polytechnic, followed by four years as a “documentarist of technical information” at the Ministry of Light Industry. Dr. Endrei took part in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, and as a result lost his job at the ministry, but quickly found a place with a textile export company, where he stayed until his retirement in 1981 as Head of Technical Development. He began publishing articles about historical textile technology in 1953.
His first book dealt with spinning and weaving since the Middle Ages, edited by the Sorbonne in 1968. He got his first passport in 1969 in order to travel to Prato, Italy, for a conference. Between 1969 and 1990, he presented at more than twenty international conferences. He qualified as a university lecturer in 1978 and was offered a professorship at Eötvös Loránd University after his retirement from the export company. At the time of his fellowship, in addition to his lecturing, he was Vice President of the Committee of History of Science of the Hungarian Academy of Science, and an adviser of the Goldberger Textile Museum in Budapest.
Dr. Edrei passed away in November 2000.
Dr. Walter Endrei was born in Budapest in 1921. After graduating from high school in 1939, he worked at a number of textile mills in various positions (as a dyer, printer, and a technician in the spinning and weaving departments) and attended a school specializing in textiles from 1941 to 1942, and university from 1943 to 1947. He was appointed Department Head of the Central Administration of the Textile Industry in 1948, a position from which he was dismissed “for political reasons” in 1949. He then spent four years as a textile-patent application referee in the Patent Office, while simultaneously beginning to give lectures at the Polytechnic, followed by four years as a “documentarist of technical information” at the Ministry of Light Industry. Dr. Endrei took part in the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, and as a result lost his job at the ministry, but quickly found a place with a textile export company, where he stayed until his retirement in 1981 as Head of Technical Development. He began publishing articles about historical textile technology in 1953.
His first book dealt with spinning and weaving since the Middle Ages, edited by the Sorbonne in 1968. He got his first passport in 1969 in order to travel to Prato, Italy, for a conference. Between 1969 and 1990, he presented at more than twenty international conferences. He qualified as a university lecturer in 1978 and was offered a professorship at Eötvös Loránd University after his retirement from the export company. At the time of his fellowship, in addition to his lecturing, he was Vice President of the Committee of History of Science of the Hungarian Academy of Science, and an adviser of the Goldberger Textile Museum in Budapest.
Dr. Edrei passed away in November 2000.