33 



there is no doubt the ordinary reeling appliances of Italy 

 and the South of France would leave nothing to be desired 

 in effectively and economically reeling the Tusser cocoons.* 



M. David, the largest ribbon manufacturer in St. Etienne, 

 seeing this improved manufacture and dyeing in the Indian 

 section of the Paris Exhibition, where they were first dis- 

 played, offered to buy all the cocoons produced in India, 

 if the price would not be more than one franc per kilo- 

 gramme. He has applied to the India Government for 

 2,000 kilogrammes of cocoons for experiments at his own 

 cost. It would be a very good thing for a trade to spring- 

 up in Tusser cocoons. The natives could easily be en- 

 couraged to breed a larger supply, whilst improvements 

 in reeling would require time, and would meet with 

 obstacles of race, religion, and habit difficult to overcome ; 

 the enterprise in this direction would have to be 

 purely private and mercantile, as I think the Government 

 of India would not enter into commercial undertakings, 

 but would probably, and certainly ought to, give most 

 strenuous encouragement and help to stimulate the further 

 spread of this most interesting industry. 



I was requested by Dr. Birdwood, in 1878, to show, 

 in the Indian section of the Paris Exhibition, the develop- 

 ments of which Tusser silk was capable. He placed me 

 in communication with Sir P. Cunliffe Owen, K.C.M.G., C.B., 

 who entered most warmly into the idea, and took the 

 greatest interest in it throughout, giving me all the en- 

 couragement and help required to make the collection 

 worthy of being represented side by side with the 

 beautiful objects from India, worthy of the traditions of the 

 gorgeous East. It was the India of the artist which 

 asserted itself at Paris — the old historic land, from which 

 art manufactures in brocades, printed calicoes, jewellery, 

 ivory carving, and pottery may still draw their highest 

 aspirations. 



In the wild-silk exhibits which I have been requested to 

 bring together in the new India section of the South 

 Kensington Museum are shown, not only the improvements 

 in manufacturing and dyeing of which I have spoken, but 

 another and more decorative phase, and one developed, 

 so far as I can gather, for the first time in the history of 



* This machine has been recently much improved and patented. It will 

 shortly be brought to England for inspection, the inventor having sanguine 

 hopes of a very extended use for it in the silk-reeling districts of Asia and 

 Europe, both for reeling mulberry and Tusser silks. It will now produce a 

 larger quantity and will yield a perfectly classical silk. 



Q 3255. C 



