Rare & Unusual Vintage Black Silk Fabric

This very unusual vintage pure black fabric was found in a church, it is possibly for making clerical garb. We have had this piece in our collection for many years and some while back sent a piece over to Joan Kiplinger (as we did with all our mysterious fabrics) to see if she knew what it was. Joan replied that it was indeed very unsual, she told us she had it 'scoped' and believed it to be silk. She said that early silk could sometimes burn like rayon depending on what processes had been used in the manufacturing of it. So we are selling it as silk. It's a fantastic fabric for costuming, possibly for evening bags.

The fabric is like a thick grossgrain ribbon on one side with the ridges, on the other side it appears like satin ribbon. There is a thin white like down both the sides. The fabric has a beautiful lusture on the satin side but either side is usable. We are selling this fabric by the half yard/metre by the original width of 61cm.