The Holker Album, edited by Ariane Fennetaux and John Styles and published by Éditions des Arts Décoratifs, is a facsimile edition of an album of British textile swatches assembled in 1751-2 by the exiled Manchester calenderer and Jacobite, John Holker, for the French government. The album, now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, includes 115 swatches, mainly from Lancashire, as well as Holker’s comments on their production, their price and their use. It provides a rare insight into textile production in Britain on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. The book includes images of the whole album, transcriptions in French and English, and ten essays which examine Holker’s career, the cotton textile industries of Lancashire and Normandy, and their global connections. Click here for more information
