A brief chronology of silk

Silk has been known for over 5,000 years. According to legend, it was discovered by Lei Zu, the wife of the Chinese Emperor Huang-Di (cf. History of silk). Silk is considered the "queen of textiles" - without the "spun gold" of the silkworm, China would probably not have developed into such a great world culture so early on.

Around 100 BC, Chinese luxury goods such as silk robes were very popular and were traded all over the world. This gave rise to the first trade route between China and Europe: the Silk Road.

The silk of the Greeks and Romans

Pistachio moth (Pachypasa otus; © pyrgus.de)

The Greek philosopher Aristotle reported on the so-called "coic fabric" as early as 350 BC. This silk fabric was made from the secretion of the pistachio moth, but was not as fine as Chinese silk.

The silk of the Romans was called byssus. It was extracted from a spidery mussel from the Mediterranean. This shell silk was rare and therefore very expensive. For this reason, those citizens who could afford it wore Chinese silk.

Silk processing in Europe

For 3000 years, silk cultivation in China was a well-kept secret. Silk was therefore purely an imported product in Europe, which only very wealthy people could afford. But then knowledge of silk production spread from Kothan via Japan and India in all directions. Although the Chinese monopoly on silk production was broken, the quality of Chinese silk remained unrivalled for a long time.

By Annie Renouf Whelpley (Vincent Davenport) 1852 - ca. 1928 - Düsseldorf auction house

During the Norman period, Italy became a centre of silkworm breeding and silk spinning in Europe. The Venetians and the French allowed the silk painting of China to mature into a Western culture of its own. For a long time, Italy remained the predominant silk country in Europe, until France greatly expanded its silk weaving industry in the middle of the 17th century, overtaking Italy.

Birth of the chemical industry

Mauvein Perkin sample (© Historical Dye Collection and IAPP, TU Dresden)

In the middle of the 19th century, Italian and French silk producers suffered a serious setback. The so-called stain disease destroyed silkworms throughout Europe from 1854 onwards. At the same time, however, another industry was growing: when the Englishman William Henry Perkins produced the first synthetic aniline dye in 1856, the Lyon silk dyers were delighted - the violet dye "mauveine" became the fashionable colour around 1860 and a rush for new aniline dyes began. The silk dyers thus founded the European chemical industry.

Today, India, China, Japan, Brazil and Thailand are the largest silk producers.