Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: 18th century
Tags: oil paint, printed cloth, linen
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

This fragment of an archive book binding is linen printed with oil paint. The earliest prints were made with soot: a mixture of soot and drying oil was applied on rough canvas. This technology almost went out of use in the early 19th century.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: 18th century
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: oil paint, printed cloth, linen

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: early 18th century
Tags: oil paint, printed cloth, linen
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

The process of block printing was not complicated but required a good hand. The craftsman spread some colouring paste over the felt-lined bottom of the box, applied the working surface of the wooden block to the paint, pressed the block to the fabric, and hit it with a wooden hammer. An experienced cloth printer earned from 10 to 15 roubles a week.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: early 18th century
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: oil paint, printed cloth, linen

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: latter half of the 18th century
Tags: linen, oil paint
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

A typical early block-printed fabric was rough linen canvas, and the pattern was applied manually with the help of carved wooden blocks. The most archaic patterns were geometric ones: squares, triangles, and motifs traditionally used in wood-carving.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: latter half of the 18th century
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: linen, oil paint

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: 1787
Tags: calico, upholstery, coarse calico, natural dyes
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

Calicoes were novel and were in high demand at the time. With a wide variety of spectacular patterns and vivid, lightfast colours, these thin fabrics could rival silk, so even the upper class used them in clothing, upholstery, and as wallpaper.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: 1787
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: calico, upholstery, coarse calico, natural dyes

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: 1787
Tags: calico, upholstery, coarse calico, natural dyes
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

Osip Sokov was lauded as "the first manufacturer to perfect the use of dyes and to introduce fabric bleaching." Not only was he a gifted colourist, but he also had a knack for designing patterns.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: 1787
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: calico, upholstery, coarse calico, natural dyes

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: 1787
Tags: calico, coarse calico, natural dyes
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

Unlike craftsmen, who printed with oil paints, Osip Sokov used a variety of organic and mineral dyestuffs and a new colour fixing technique. The mordant dyeing technique was the most advanced hand block printing technique, yielding exceptional colour fastness. Fabric was treated with a special dye fixative — a mordant, which was applied with a wooden block — and immersed into a dye solution. The solution was heated, and the dye affixed to the mordant, forming a precipitate — a stable lake pigment. As a result, the mordant-treated areas of the fabric became coloured, while the untreated remained plain. Each new colour and shade was applied separately. Mordant dyeing was common in the Ivanovo region in the 18th — early 19th century.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: 1787
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: calico, coarse calico, natural dyes

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: 1787
Tags: calico, upholstery, white background, coarse calico, natural dyes
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

Calicoes produced by Osip Sokov's Textile Works were known for their intricate patterns and vivid, colour-fast dyes. Its signature fabrics were white-background calicoes with thin floral and plant patterns.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: 1787
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: calico, upholstery, white background, coarse calico, natural dyes

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: 1787
Tags: calico, coarse calico, natural dyes, mordant dyeing
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

Osip Sokov spent a few years working at Christian Liman's calico-printing factory in Shlisselburg. In 1787, he founded the first calico-printing factory in the village of Ivanovo, where he also pioneered the novel textile colouring technique, mordant dyeing.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: 1787
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: calico, coarse calico, natural dyes, mordant dyeing

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: 1787
Tags: calico, upholstery, white background, coarse calico, natural dyes
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

Peasants in Ivanovo dyed their fabrics with madder root, indigo, sandalwood, onion skins, and other natural materials. In the mid-19th century a colourman could earn up to 3000 silver roubles a year.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: 1787
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: calico, upholstery, white background, coarse calico, natural dyes

Designer: Unknown
Manufacture date: 1787
Tags: calico, white background, coarse calico, natural dyes
Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing

The block printing technique involved the use of several tools: a printing table, a dye box, straps and poles for fabric drying (hangers), wooden blocks, and a wooden hammer. The cost of a wooden block with a large, complex pattern could reach 60 roubles in the early 19th century.

Section: Hand block printed fabrics
Manufacture date: 1787
Factory: O. S. Sokov's Textile Works
Designer: Unknown
Manufacturing method: Hand block printing
Tags: calico, white background, coarse calico, natural dyes