Document Print & Reproduction

The 10" Layer Cakes

The featured print in the 1862 Battle Hymn repro collection is a large paisley that forms a serpentine stripe.

I called it Yorktown after an 1862 battle site. It comes in 5 colorways.

Battle of Yorktown from Harper's Weekly

The document print (the source) was in a swatchbook.

We had just enough to figure out the repeat and it works in a really graceful fashion.

The document print was shades of a steel blue with accents of a true black and a pinkish tan, color combinations you wouldn't really see during the Civil War. I thought the swatchbook was about 1880. You can see in the swatch book above the paisley a very bright floral done in the new dyes developing about 1880---NOT Civil War.

The print itself seemed quite appropriate for a Civil War memorial if it was recolored in shades more like natural dyes. In the reproduction collection we did several in madder-style reds and browns, and one subdued navy blue. It's dated on the reproduction selvage as 1870-1890.

It's going to make some terrific borders.

Bettina Havig sent me a snapshot of her first border in her Hewson medallion. She cut a single stripe out and appliqued it. I told her she's a genius.