Damask
specifically, a twilled linen fabric, plain or figured, in use for tablecloths and table napkins, centerpieces, doilies, etc. The name damask designates the weave, rather than the material. The lustrous quality of all damask is due partly to what is known as the satin weave, which means that the warp is brought to the surface to a greater extent than in plain weave. A weft thread, for instance, may pass under sixteen warp threads, over one, under sixteen, and over one again. In figured damask, this is, of course, more or less interrupted by the pattern.
The figures of the pattern are produced by bringing the warp threads to the surface in groups, allowing them to be skipped by the weft threads, according to a regular design. The warp and woof threads thus lie at right angles to each other on the surface of the material, in more or less broad groups. The play of light upon the fabric defines the pattern from the ground. In a plain color, the angle at which the light strikes the surface determines whether the pattern appears lustrous and the ground dull, or the pattern dull and the ground lustrous.
Originally damask was a silken fabric. It was woven in colors, as well as plain, and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The weaver used a draw loom,--so called from the fact that certain of the warp threads must be drawn up to allow the weft threads to skip them. This was done by hand, cords being attached to the separate warp threads. Often the weaver had a boy to assist in drawing these threads. From this the contrivance was sometimes called the "draw-boy loom." The draw loom originated, it is thought, in China, where the village weaver still weaves damask silk on a rude contrivance that many well have been the forerunner of the modern damask loom. The Hindus were celebrated for their damasks. Babylon became a weaving center. At one time a Babylonish garment had the reputation in the oriental world that Parisian gowns now have in modern society. A knowledge of the draw loom was one of the numerous bits of knowledge brought back to Europe by the Crusaders. During the Middle Ages the great artists of France, Germany, and the Netherlands considered it by no means beneath their dignity to contribute original, and, it is needless to say, beautiful designs for damasks.
The name, damask, is from Damascus, Syria. The silk weavers of this city attained so great perfection in the manufacture of this textile that the name was given to the fabric without regard to the place of its production. Since the sixteenth century, this name has come to be applied to any material woven after the manner of the first damask, but at present, if used with no qualifying word, damask implies a linen material.
The damask or draw looms required a great deal of skill and patience, as the weaver must insert his threads by hand over and under the warp to bring out the design. The Jacquard loom performs these operations automatically; but the preparation of the designs is one of the most important and difficult features of the production of damask. An artist in textile design paints or draws the original pattern. A drawing of the required size is then made, which is marked off in thousands of tiny squares, each square representing a thread of the weft. Then the perforated cards used in the Jacquard attachment are prepared; a piece of work requiring, if the design is elaborate, several weeks to complete.
Linen damask is known as "double" or "single," according to the number of threads brought to the surface in a group, in applying the "satin" principle of weaving. In double damask eight threads to one "tied down" appear; in single damask four threads to one tied down. In double damask the finest grades of linen are used, and the work is usually done on hand-looms. The terms double and single came probably from the fact that in double damask the pattern is almost equally distinct on the two sides. Coarse linens would not look well woven "double," as the quality of the thread would be too conspicuous.
The linens of Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and Austria are all notable for the beauty of the material and weave. French linen is probably the best of all, its fineness, beauty of design, and superior "satin" effects making it especially desirable, but very expensive.