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An Airmail Packet from London - Printable Version

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An Airmail Packet from London - Janet MacD - 13-02-2026

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This is a wonderful piece of mail for so many reasons! It has Machins, a customs declaration, a customs acceptance stamp, and advertising with product samples. Even better, it is an artifact that connects international trade from Victorian England to present day, and illustrates industrial mechanization in the textile industry. This was an envelope stuffed with history! And although I would like to keep the contents intact, I doubt I will be able to resist my urge to incorporate them in a quilted or collaged fibre art project!

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The business, Metro Textiles Corner in London, England was founded in 1968 and is still operating. They serve retail and wholesale customers, and they specialize in selling to west Africa. One of the manufacturers they represent is Vlisco, a Dutch company founded in 1846. Vlisco specializes in wax-based batiks, and acknowledges that their company history reflects “complex historical and cultural connections.” That is an understatement. 

In 1846 the company was called van Vlissingen & Co. The Dutch were colonizing Indonesia and van Vlissingen discovered traditional “wax resist” hand blocked textile design methods that dated back to the 11th century. He noted that the fabrics were used for women’s traditional dress but were not affordable to the masses. He developed the “Dutch wax” process to mechanize manufacturing. The Indonesians considered his fabrics to be poor quality and didn’t buy them. But - riflemen from Ghana, who were part of the Dutch colonial army in Indonesia, took home large quantities of the bright, colorful fabrics. Then, between late Victorian and Edwardian times, the missionaries arrived in Ghana and told women to cover themselves, increasing demand for inexpensive textiles. By the time this package of samples was mailed, Vlisco was manufacturing “wax fabric” in Africa and China was producing cheap knockoffs of Vlisco’s fabric. China has captured about 90% of the wax fabric market. Vlisco’s products now represent high quality. Traditional African fabrics have been pushed into the background.

Now, 180 years after their founding, Vlisco specializes in creating fabric for the west and Central African market, and Metro Textiles Corner sells their fabric to Africans in England and around the world. 

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Thank you, Roy, for the wonderful history lesson!

RE: An Airmail Packet from London - Carmen - 14-02-2026

Fascinating, Janet, and right up your fabric alley too! I have always appreciated and admired those striking colours that many Africans wear! Really does seem to make our North American fashion and haberdashery dull and listless in comparison, yes?

RE: An Airmail Packet from London - Webmaster - 14-02-2026

Janet,

When I put that item aside as a gift for you, I had no idea of your interest in fabrics. I just thought it "might" be something that might interest you.

Happy to see it hit the mark and found the perfect home!

Roy

RE: An Airmail Packet from London - Webmaster - 14-02-2026

As I finished writing the foregoing post, I thought for a moment about the journey this item made in the decades since it left London.

First from London to Chicago, then who knows how many points and owners between, to being buried in a box at an eastern auction house, to rural Verona and finally to change hands in Kingston and find the perfect adoptive home in rural Wolfe Island.

Roy

RE: An Airmail Packet from London - Janet MacD - 16-02-2026

Roy, it is sad to think how many hidden treasures like this are being lost as younger family members deal with estates without knowing the value of the possessions they mindlessly toss in the trash. I won’t live long enough to curate everything I own. I don’t even remember where half my stuff came from. But I am trying to take photos and write an information page for a few items every week. Thank you for the lovely surprise, and for a little more info about its travels! I am still looking for info about the recipient. And there are other fabrics in that envelope that I haven’t identified yet. A real gift that keeps on giving … ?

RE: An Airmail Packet from London - Carmen - 17-02-2026

Thought of you, Janet, yesterday as I was wandering through my Unitrade Canada and happened upon Scott 1461-1465 - those great beautiful examples of the use of textiles such as "Doukhobor Bedding Cover" and so on...

RE: An Airmail Packet from London - Janet MacD - 17-02-2026

Yes, that was a nice issue. I am not yet deliberately collecting textiles on stamps, or stamps on textiles. I think the Austrian Covid mask stamp, appearing in 2021 when I was a new collector, drove me away from the topic.

I can’t resist advertising cards with “national costumes” on them, however. Mark had some lovely cards advertising Singer sewing machines … which go well with my accidental collection of sewing machines!