A set of twenty-eight fabric samples sent from Surinam with small annotations in...

A set of twenty-eight fabric samples sent from Surinam with small annotations in Dutch, all taken from the ship Illustrious President, (master and sole owner Dennis Butler).

History: American merchant ship with largely Danish and Swedish crew bound from Paramaribo (Surinam) to Amsterdam laden with sugar, coffee, cocoa, cotton and Madeira wine, captured on 20 April 1795 when lying off Dover by a boat from the Flora privateer (Allan Peake commanding) and taken into the Port of London.

The samples were extracted from letters in the main boxes of papers from this ship, which are in HCA 30/374-HCA 30/379, although no indication survives of which letter each sample was presumably enclosed in; the samples are numbered and the material, design, colours, and size for each, are as follows:

• 1: cotton, geometric pattern, ikat-style, red on undyed cloth, width 345mm, height 195mm;
• 2: cotton, geometric pattern, ikat-style with blue/black and white background, width 45mm, height 25mm;
• 3: cotton, black background with white flowers and thin stripes, width 105mm, height 40mm;
• 4: cotton, design with small black flowers on undyed cloth, width 80mm, height 45mm;
• 5: cotton, design with small black flowers on undyed cloth, width 45mm, height 50mm;
• 6: cotton, geometric pattern, blue black diamond shapes repeated on white background, width 55mm, height 25mm;
• 7: cotton, thin black stripes and small flowers on undyed cloth, width 40mm, height 45mm;
• 8: cotton, dark blue background and white stripes, width 30mm, height 50mm;
• 9: cotton, a design with blue/black diamond shapes repeated, some with small white flowers inside and some with stripes filling the diamond shape, width 65mm, height 25mm;
• 10: cotton, a black background with white stem-like design, thin stripes and patterns within the stripes, width 120mm, height 20mm;
• 11: cotton, geometric design, black ikat-like repeated design on undyed cloth, width 90mm, height 50mm;
• 12: cotton, a blue/black background with white stripes, width 170mm, height 20mm;
• 13: cotton, black background and small white flowers, width 130mm, height 100mm;
• 14: cotton, blue background with repeated light blue circles, width 540mm, height 40mm;
• 15: cotton, blue/black background with fine white stripes, width 35mm, height 25mm;
• 16: cotton, small black flowers on undyed cloth, width 100mm, height 85mm;
• 17: cotton, black background and small white designs, width 345mm, height 110mm;
• 18: cotton, geometric design with stripes, zigzags and wavy lines repeated, red on undyed cloth, width 390mm, height 100mm;
• 19: cotton, red geometric design on undyed cloth, ikat-style repeated, width 95mm, height 60mm;
• 20: cotton, black with no design, width 100mm, height 65mm;
• 21: cotton, black with white stripes containing small black hearts and white wreath-like designs, width 240mm, height 60mm;
• 22: cotton, white cloth with small black flowers repeated, width 110mm, height 35mm;
• 23: cotton white cloth with small black design repeated, width 45mm, height 25mm;
• 24: cotton, geometric design with black oval dots repeated on white, width 50mm, height 30mm;
• 25: cotton, black scallop-like design on white cloth, width 50mm, height 20mm;
• 26: cotton, black background with a single white flower repeated with large spaces in between, width 500mm, height 90mm;
• 27: cotton, blue background with lots of large and small flowers and foliage black, blue, red, beige and white, width 640mm, height 170mm;
• 28: cotton, black with no design, width 470mm, height 110mm.

Further samples from the same ship can be found in HCA 65/8.

Topics

Navy

Armed Forces (General Administration)