Fabric printing block

In the ethnographic archives of the National Museum in Szczecin, there is a large collection of over hundred pieces of fabric printing stamps. The presented example comes from the resources of the Pommersches Landesmuseum Stettin. It was made of two rectangular joined boards. One side of the stamp which was used to imprint the pattern on the fabric is covered with a convex ornament created by studding the wood with brass pins and small plates. They form small designs in the form of four-pointed stars with leafy stems coming out of them and single flowers in the centre. Whilst geometric and floral motifs were very common on textile printing blocks, the arrangement of the ornaments on the stamp is quite peculiar. Much more popular than the simple layout, i.e., one in which „the ornaments are arranged in rows overlapping both vertically and horizontally”, was the chequered layout, one in which „consecutive rows of ornaments are arranged in such a way that the ornaments of even rows fall below the empty spaces of odd rows” (Roman Reinfuss, Polskie druki ludowe na płótnie). In the corners of the stamp there are small nails that were meant to facilitate the printer’s job – they left small marks on the fabric when the stamp was placed on it and thanks to that, the printer knew exactly where to put it next time to ensure sure the patter is even. This stamp was used to cover the fabric with ornament by using the batik printing technique. It involved impressing an insulating paste on the fabric which protected it from being covered by the dye. This allowed obtaining the pattern in the natural colour of the fabric on a dyed background.