Pattern and Loom

A Practical Study of the Development of Weaving Techniques in China, Western Asia and Europe

John Becker (with the collaboration of Donald B. Wagner)

  • Published: 2014
  • Pages: 429 pp.
  • highly illustrated
  • Series number: 127
Available from NIAS Press worldwide
ISBN Hardback: 978-87-7694-138-3, £80 (September 2014)

About the book

Reconstruction of an important but long out-of-print work, posthumously published in 1987, that revealed much new knowledge on the development of weaving techniques across the centuries from China through to Europe. This second edition will bring the results of the author’s experimental investigations to a new generation of researchers and weavers.

 

When John Becker’s Pattern and Loom was posthumously published in 1987, the work was hailed as an important work that revealed much new knowledge on the development of weaving techniques across the centuries from China through to Europe. The key to the book’s almost forensic investigation of its subject was the author himself, a Danish damask weaver with a lifetime’s practical experience in his craft and an intimate knowledge of weaving techniques that allowed him to decipher, experiment and interpret original techniques from small remnants of surviving material. Long out of print, the work has been tidied and reset by Becker’s collaborator on the original work, the sinologist Don Wagner.

 

About the author

author image not supplied

Is lecturer emeritus in Chinese at the University of Copenhagen, has written widely on the history of science and technology in China.

 

Go to author page

Reviews

by Ellen Bangsbo
From journal:
Rapporter fra tekstilernes verden, Nr. 3, 2014

"Pattern and Loom er sublim gennemarbejdet research, en banebrydende historisk og teknisk gennemgang af udviklingen af avancerende vævetekniker fra oldtiden til nu, i Asien med linjer trukket til Europa og Skandinavien.

"Pattern and Loom er sublim gennemarbejdet research, en banebrydende historisk og teknisk gennemgang af udviklingen af avancerende vævetekniker fra oldtiden til nu, i Asien med linjer trukket til Europa og Skandinavien.

(…) Pattern and Loom er en klassiker indenfor avanceret vævning, rom tekstil håndbog, leksikon og bibliografi, og er stadigvæk uundværlig."

by Ellen Bangsbo
From journal:
Rapporter fra tekstilernes verden, Nr. 3, 2014

"Pattern and Loom is a sublime and thorough research, a groundbreaking historical and technical review of the development of advanced weaving techniques from ancient times to now…

John’s extensive knowledge and expertise enabled him, even from smaller pieces available material, to decipher and interpret the original techniques used centuries ago…

"Pattern and Loom is a sublime and thorough research, a groundbreaking historical and technical review of the development of advanced weaving techniques from ancient times to now…

John’s extensive knowledge and expertise enabled him, even from smaller pieces available material, to decipher and interpret the original techniques used centuries ago…

…a classic in advanced weaving, as a textile manual lexicon and a bibliography, and is still indispensable." (translated from Danish)