Color study of historic silks

Abstract

The chemical characterization of silk textiles of historic value may be necessary to achieve a better understanding of the production processes applied, to evaluate their preservation, to detect manipulations or forgeries, and to value the combination of tradition and innovation in contemporary manufacturing techniques. The main objective of this work was to study four historical silks from the Garín collection, all of them from the 20th century, although with 19th century designs. To this end, non-invasive spectroscopic and microscopy techniques were applied in order to obtain information on the dyes used during their production and their link with those used in the silk industry in previous centuries, and to ascertain their state of conservation. Moreover, the images in LM, SEM and CM are contributing to the development of a 3D virtual loom that will favor more accessible and inclusive museography in museums specialized in the silk sector. Both the study of dyes and silk fibers and their virtual reproduction through artificial intelligence programs applied to the study of cultural heritage, by specialists from the Robotics Institute of the Universitat de València, has been developed in the framework of the SILKNOW project (https://silknow.eu/).

Keywords

• silks
• colour
• diffuse reflectance spectroscopy
• natural dyes
• Fourier transformed infrared - attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR)
• microscopic image by LM