A piece of calico used in a shopping bag

Calico is a plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may contain unseparated husk parts, for example. The fabric is less coarse and thick than canvas or denim, but owing to its unfinished and undyed appearance, it is still very cheap. Originally from the city of Kozhikode, Kerala, India (known by Europeans as Calicut in the 11th century). The fabric was made by the traditional weavers called chaliyans. The raw fabric was dyed and printed in bright hues and calico prints became popular in Europe.

History[link]

Calico originated in Kozhikode, India (also known as Calicut) during the 11th century.^[1] It was mentioned in Indian literature by the 12th century when the writer Hemacandra described calico fabric prints with a lotus design.^[1] By the 15th century calico from Gujarat made its appearance in Egypt.^[1] Trade with Europe followed from the 17th century onwards.^[1] Calico was woven using Surat cotton for both the warp and weft.

The politics of cotton[link]

In the eighteenth century, England was famous for its woollen and worsted cloth. That industry, centred in the east and south in towns such as Norwich, jealously protected their product. Cotton processing was tiny: in 1701 only 1,985,868 pounds (900,775 kg) of cotton-wool was imported into England, and by 1730 this had fallen to 1,545,472 pounds (701,014 kg). This was due to commercial legislation to protect the woollen industry.^[2] Cheap calico prints, imported by the East India Company from "Hindustan", had become popular. In 1700 an Act of Parliament was passed to prevent the importation of dyed or printed calicoes from India, China or Persia. This caused grey cloth (calico that had not been finished—dyed or printed) to be imported instead, and these were printed in southern England with the popular patterns. Also, Lancashire businessmen produced grey cloth with linen warp and cotton weft, known as fustian, which they sent to London to be finished.^[2] Cotton-wool imports recovered and by 1720 were almost back to their 1701 levels. Again the woollen manufacturers, in true protectionist style, claimed that this was taking away jobs from workers in Coventry.^[3] Another law was passed, to fine anyone caught wearing any printed or stained calico; muslins, neckcloths and fustians were exempted. It was this exemption that the Lancashire manufactures exploited. The use of coloured cotton weft with linen warp was permitted by the 1736 Manchester Act. There now was an artificial demand for woven cloth. In 1764, 3,870,392 pounds (1,755,580 kg) of cotton-wool was imported.^[4]

Calico printing[link]

Early Indian chintzes, that is a glazed calico with large floral pattern, were primarily produced by painting techniques.^[5] Later, the hues were applied by means of wooden blocks, and it was the wooden block printing that was used in London. Confusingly, linen and silk that was printed by this method was known as linen calicoes and silk calicoes. The early European calicoes (1680) would thus be a cheap equal weft and warp plain weave cotton fabric in white, cream or unbleached cotton, with a block printed design using a single alizarin dye, fixed with two mordants giving a red and black pattern. Polychromatic prints could be done, with two sets of blocks and an additional blue dye. The Indian taste was for dark printed backgrounds while the European market preferred a pattern on a cream base. As the century progressed the European preference moved from the large chintz patterns to a smaller, tighter patterns.^[6]

Thomas Bell patented the technique of printing by copper rollers in 1783, and the first machine was set up by Livesey, Hargreaves & Co near Preston in 1785. Production of printed cloth in Lancashire in 1750 was estimated to be 50,000 pieces of 30 yards (27 m), but in 1850 it was 20,000,000 pieces.^[5] From 1888, block printing was limited to short run specialist jobs. After 1880, profits from printing became smaller, there was over capacity and the firms started to form combines. The first was when 3 Scottish firms formed the United Turkey Red Co. Ltd in 1897, and the second, in 1899, was the much larger Calico Printers' Association. 46 printing concerns and 13 merchants combined, representing 85% of the British printing capacity. Some of this capacity was removed and in 1901 they had 48% of the trade. In 1916, they and the other printers joined and formed a trade association. This then set minimum prices for each 'price section' of the industry. This held until 1954 when it was challenged by the government Monopolies Commission. Over the intervening period much trade had been lost overseas.^[7]

Terminology[link]

In the US:

• Calico—cotton fabric with a small, all-over floral print ^[8]
• Muslin—simple, cheap equal weft and warp plain weave fabric in white, cream or unbleached cotton and/or a very fine, light plain weave cotton fabric (sometimes called muslin gauze).
• Muslin gauze—the very lightest, most open weave of muslin.
• Gauze—any very light fabric, generally with a plain weave
• Cheesecloth—extremely soft and fine cotton fabric with a very open plain weave.

In the UK, Australia and New Zealand:

• Calico—simple, cheap equal weft and warp plain weave fabric in white, cream or unbleached cotton.
• Muslin—a very fine, light plain weave cotton fabric.
• Muslin gauze—muslin.
• Gauze—extremely soft and fine cotton fabric with a very open plain weave.
• Cheesecloth—gauze.

Printed calico was imported into the United States from Lancashire in the 1780s, and here a linguistic separation occurred, while Europe maintained the word calico for the fabric, in the States it was used to refer to the printed design.^[6]

These colorful, small-patterned printed fabrics gave rise to the use of the word calico to describe a cat coat color: "calico cat". The patterned fabric also gave its name to two species of North American crabs; see the calico crab. ^[6]

See also[link]

• Calico cat
• Calico Jack
• Calico Acts

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Encyclopædia Britannica (2008). calico
2. ^ ^{a b} Espinasse 1874, p. 296
3. ^ Espinasse 1874, p. 298
4. ^ Espinasse 1874, p. 299
5. ^ ^{a b} Turnbull, A History of Calico Printing in Great Britain, 1951.
6. ^ ^{a b c} http://thedreamstress.com/?s=calico%2C+Muslin%2C+gauze Calico, muslin, gauze- terminology
7. ^ Hughes, William (1954-04-13). Report on the Process of Calico Printing. House of Commons, London: Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission. http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/ulcc-bin/htsearch/Default.aspx?config=COMPCOM2&sort=score&matchesperpage=20&restrict=&words=Calico+printing. Retrieved 2010-12-08. 
8. ^ Kadolph, Sara J., ed.: Textiles, 10th edition, Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2007, ISBN 0-13-118769-4, p. 463

Bibliography[link]

• Espinasse, Francis (1874). Lancashire Worthies. London: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.. http://www.archive.org/stream/lancashireworthi00espi#page/322/mode/2up. Retrieved 2010-12-01. 

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Calico may refer to:

Textiles[link]

• Calico (textile), a plain-woven cotton textile

Animals[link]

• Calico butterfly, a genus of brush-footed butterflies commonly called the Crackers, Calicoes, or Clicks
• Calico cat, a domestic cat with the common three- or four-colored coat pattern calico (a.k.a. tortoiseshell-and-white)
• Calico goldfish, goldfish that have a type of metallic and transparent scales
• Calico grouper, a species of fish found in Bermuda and the United States
• Calico Pennant, a dragonfly found in North America

Business[link]

• Calico Light Weapons Systems, a small firearms manufacturing company currently based in Hillsboro, Oregon
• Calico Liberty, a brand of roller-delayed, blowback-operated, semi-automatic rifles and pistols
  • Calico M100, a rifle/carbine
  • Calico M100P, a semi-automatic pistol
  • Calico M960, a 9mm semi-automatic gun

Education[link]

• CALICO (consortium), (Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium), an international consortium devoted to the dissemination of information concerning language learning technology

History[link]

• Calico Acts, 1690–1721 laws that banned the import of textiles into England

People[link]

• Calico Cooper (born 1981), American actress and the daughter of rock and roll musician Alice Cooper
• Calico Jack Rackham (1682–1720), English pirate captain in the early 18th century
• Tyrone Calico (born 1980), American football wide receiver

Places[link]

• Calico Mountains (California), a mountain range north of Interstate 15 in the Mojave Desert, California (San Bernardino and Inyo Counties)
  • Calico Ghost Town, a ghost town in the Mojave Desert region of Southern California
    • Calico and Odessa Railroad, a heritage railway in the ghost town of Calico, California
    • Ghost Town and Calico Railway, an attraction within Knott's Berry Farm, a theme park in Buena Park, California modeled after the ghost town and its railway
  • Calico Peaks, mountains within the Calico mountain range
  • Calico Early Man Site, a possible archaeological site in the mountain range
• Calico Mountains (Nevada), a mountain range in northwestern Nevada (hundreds of miles from the California mountain range)
  • Calico Mountains Wilderness, a wilderness area within the Calico mountain range
• Calico Mills, one of Ahmedabad’s (India) earliest textile mills established in 1880
  • Calico Museum of Textiles, in the city of Ahmedabad, state of Gujarat in western India
• Calico Rock, Arkansas, a city in Izard County, United States

Music[link]

• Calico Skies, the sixth song on Paul McCartney's 1997 album, Flaming Pie
• "Calico Moon", a song on Chris Ledoux's 2002 album, The Capitol Collection (1990-2000)

Television[link]

• Calico, a research vessel in the 1978-81 Godzilla animated series.

Novels[link]

• Calico Bush (novel), a historical fiction children's novel by Rachel Field
• Calico Captive, a historical fiction children's novel by Elizabeth George Speare

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Calico"

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