Victorian lampshades can help those who are seeking to make their home into a haven; not a precious or purist re-creation of the past, but a shelter in the best sense of the word, comfortable and welcoming. Art work is not only defined as a wall hanging, but envelopes furniture, windows, wallpaper, flooring, and lampshades.
August 20, 2010
August 13, 2010
Where to Find Modern Victorian
Nothing demonstrates better the renewed interest in Victorian domestic architecture than the resurgence of manufacturers, craft studios and designers covering virtually every aspect of period restoration. On our site, plainjaneshop.com, you’ll find hundreds of period lampshades and an ample selection of period lamps. We also have links to sites where you’ll find period fittings and decorations, both genuine antiques and authentic reproductions.
June 9, 2010
End of an Era
By 1900 Cocheco printed more than 50 million yards of fabric each year. Pacific Mills had taken them over in 1909, and shut down the printing operations three years later. They continued to spin and weave the cloth for Pacific Mills until 1940, when the doors permanently closed.
June 3, 2010
Popular Victorian Prints
Throughout most of the 19th century, Cocheco made a shirting print with a tiny vine and floral all-over pattern, in one or two colors, with a miniature blue or red dot on some of them. They also produced eccentric geometric designs, fancies, one and two-color stripes, and conversation prints featuring different sporting and hobby equipment, animals, and other common objects of the day in the last quarter of the 19th century.
May 31, 2010
Victorian Colors
Following the discovery of synthetic dyes, such as aniline in 1856 for purple (not used on cotton until the early 1860s) and alizarin in 1869 for Turkey Red, a change occurred in common print work companies color palette,. At Cocheco, they used these, along with natural dyes such as logwood, lamp black, and indigo, throughout the 1880s. In 1887, a fire devastated the company, destroying all of their machines and ultimately closed them down for an entire season. This led to further changes in their palette, from deep browns, dark reds and pretty pastels, to more complex and varied colors on prints. Pinks became more violet. Shades of copper and bronze appeared. New shades of blue appeared, from royal, to turquoise, to gray.
May 28, 2010
Victorian Fabrics Patterns
A favorite pattern of Cocheco looked like bubbles rising through the air, or strings of pearls. Purple fabrics with small print motifs in black or white, was considered a staple in ladies wardrobes. Paisley shawl prints and Oriental motifs were found on shirting, muslin, batistes, satine and fancies. Chocolate prints were white or gray motifs on a chocolate brown background. Quite popular in the 1880s, the dark brown could make the gray appear light blue.
May 26, 2010
Victorian Fabrics
Furnishing fabrics made of cotton were also relegated to less formal rooms as decor. Cretonnes were considered “charming.” Cretonnes were large-scale prints, like early chintz florals, but never glazed and sometimes in a twill weave, or textured weave. Furnishing fabrics used more colors, and were more complex and time-consuming to produce. These style trends were slower to change.
May 25, 2010
Victorian Fabrics
Satines purposely imitated silk’s smooth and lustrous finish and were the most popular novelty fabric at Cocheco in the mid-1880s. Satines often imitated Japanese indigo prints. As the 1880s ended, they made prints with dull and lusterless finishes, challises and cashmeres. A finishing process called calendaring was used to achieve both of these looks. A shiny finish went out of style at the end of the decade, as did border and scenic prints.
May 24, 2010
Victorian Fabric Patterns
A favorite pattern of Cocheco looked like bubbles rising through the air, or strings of pearls. Purple fabrics with small print motifs in black or white, was considered a staple in ladies wardrobes. Paisley shawl prints and Oriental motifs were found on shirting, muslin, batistes, satine and fancies. Chocolate prints were white or gray motifs on a chocolate brown background. Quite popular in the 1880s, the dark brown could make the gray appear light blue.
May 21, 2010
Victorian Furniture Fabrics
Furnishing fabrics made of cotton were also relegated to less formal rooms as decor. Cretonnes were considered “charming.” Cretonnes were large-scale prints, like early chintz florals, but never glazed and sometimes in a twill weave, or textured weave. Furnishing fabrics used more colors, and were more complex and time-consuming to produce. These style trends were slower to change.