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Re: wool ply history
Karin
This is not my area of expertise, but I suspect that it would be
difficult to date a textile by the spin/ply of the yarns. As I
understand it, the introduction of spinning machinery across Europe was
uneven even within certain regions, and that it occurred over more than
70 years. Throughout that period local or regional machinists (to use an
anachronistic word) would have concocted their own--meaning that if we
could locate enough information about this or that machine yes it would
tell us only about the output of that machine, but there's no guarantee
that another machine somewhere else didn't produce something reasonably
similar.
It is also likely that older machines were either re-jigged and used for
long periods, either where they were originally installed or else sold
and used elsewhere.
And I would imagine that spinning standards would not have been enforced
until after about 1850, when they would have applied so widely that
collecting such information wouldn't tell you much.
I would be pleased to be corrected, though.
Cheers!
Sarah
Sarah Lowengard
New York, NY