Fabric printing block

Textile printing is a long-known technique of decorating fabrics. It came to Europe from the East. Fabric printing shops operated in many cities and larger towns across the entire Old Continent, but the textiles were also decorated by the local travelling craftsmen. Primary tools used by a textile printer were special stamps made of wood and covered with an ornament. Initially, the designs were rather simple, but gradually they took more and more intricate forms. The ornaments found on the printing blocks varied in subject matter: in addition to the most popular geometric and floral patterns and their combinations, there were also anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and architectural motifs. Sometimes, the purpose of a pattern was to imitate a specific type of fabric, e.g., a tartan or striped linen used to make women’s skirts. An example of such stamp is the one found in the ethnographic collection of the National Museum in Szczecin. It has a convex, geometric ornament consisting of three stripes of sharply pointed zigzags in the shape of the letter V. According to Roman Renfuss, author Polskie druki ludowe na płótnie, this design was meant to imitate the border decorations of silk scarves with a “shimmering multicoloured pattern, constructed in the same way”.