Old Company Documents

Vintage Wednesday- 

Old Company Documents

Over the last few years, we here at Martin - Hudson & Gibson Ltd. have been compiling a little archive, detailing the history of the companys work since its establishment in 1958. 

These documents have come from all kinds of nooks & crannies, from all kinds of locations- including, most glamourously, being found in a skip & returned to John by a thoughtful customer.

As a company newcomer, it was interesting for me to study these old letters, invoices & photographs & appreciate the hard work that has been done over the last 55 years in order to build & maintain the good name of Martin - Hudson & Gibson Ltd.

Four locations later, in 1996, John Gibson moved to our current location beside the sea in Sandycove Road. With him came his extensive collection of fabrics, wallcoverings, antique furniture & most importantly his expertise in the field of interior design.

Here we have some documents taken from John’s nifty little archive. Note the varied paper sizes & the hand-typing. We came across one which even had a sewing pin in place of a staple. 

In so far as contact details, things sure have changed. An unfadeable telegram code & four-digit phone number sit nicely in the top right-hand corner.

Who knows, maybe in another 55 years this blog entry might make the company archive?!

-Louise Dockery-

Batiques

The company Martin Hudson & Gibson is full of wonders like these fabulous batiques.

 It is a method of decorating fabrics practiced for centuries by the natives of Indonesia. It consists of applying a design to the surface of the cloth by using melted wax. The material is then dipped in cool vegetable dye; the portions protected by the wax do not receive the dye, and when the wax is removed in hot water the previously covered areas display a light pattern on the colored ground. Remains of clothing found in Java indicate that the same or similar patterns have been in use for about 1,000 years and are handed down in families. Certain designs were traditionally reserved for royalty and high officials. Motifs are geometric or are based on conventionalized natural objects. Cotton cloth is generally used, and some silk. Batik was first brought into Europe by Dutch traders. In the 19th cent., Western artisans adopted the art.

 Although the word's origin is Javanese, its etymology may be either from the Javanese amba ('to write') and titik ('dot' or 'point'), or constructed from a hypothetical Proto-Austronesian root *beCík, meaning 'to tattoo' from the use of a needle in the process. The word is first recorded in English in the Encyclopædia Britannica of 1880, in which it is spelled battik. It is attested in the Indonesian Archipelago during the Dutch colonial period in various forms: mbatek, mbatik, batek and batik.

 Bernadette Madden works mainly in batik (wax resist on linen) and also makes screenprints on paper. She is born in Dublin, Ireland, Bernadette Madden studied  in the School of Painting at the National College of Art and Design , graduating in 1970. You'll can see on her website some batiks very beautiful like the following batique:
http://bernadettemadden.ie/ 

 Others artists have got websites with their batiks same as this one: http://www.batikartbybeth.com/