Image from the Electronic Swatchbook

To quote from the Electronic Swatchbook home page:

Swatches or small samples of fabric have been collected and compiled in the form of swatchbooks for at least 300 years. The Powerhouse Museum has several volumes containing thousands of bright, unfaded samples of fashionable fabric designs, braids and laces ranging from the 1830s to the 1920s.

YOu can zoom in on individual images, email them, randomise them - lots of possibilities, including downloading (and they’re big, detailed files that can be 8mb in size). Check the legals info to see if they’re public domain in your country (they are in Australia - the Powerhouse Museum is in Sydney), or just browse and enjoy.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 2nd, 2007 at 8:32 pm and is filed under historic crafts, resources+business. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments will be moderated but will appear as soon as humanly possible.