Silk Book Wrapper
China, 18th-19th century
Gallery 13, Chinese Silk exhibition (runs to 27 June)

History

For centuries China was the only place where silkworms were domesticated and silk fabric was made. In these circumstances silk gained a great sense of mystery outside China, and the methods of silk production were considered a closely guarded secret.

The use of silk in Chinese culture was widespread. It was traded, used for clothing, for decorating and protecting things, as a medium for artists and sometimes as a work of art itself. It also functioned as currency and was a method of payment for taxes; it was used to purchase large items and even, at some points, government office.

Silk was traded from the third to the ninth century along the Silk Road through western Asia to the Mediterranean, which also opened China up to goods and ideas (significantly Buddhism) from Central Asia and India. By the sixteenth century the sale of silk, along with spices and porcelain, in exchange for silver from the New World drew China for the first time into the world economy. By the eighteenth century silk was a fabric desired over most of the Western world.