Manufacturing
Manufacturing: Very little is known about the manufacturing of S74 Silks. By using ornate fabrics and promoting silks for sewing pillows and quilts American Tobacco was aiming their marketing towards women. Cigarettes were considered unsophisticated in 1910 and few women smoked. American Tobacco saw that women were an untapped market. For this reason, the tobacco companies anxious to expand their market promoted silks as being “Useful in making pillow covers and other fancy articles of home decoration" in a direct attempt to attract more women smokers
While the initial assumption would be an item referred to as silk would be made of silk yarns this is not necessarly the case. Referred to as "Satin" on the ad backs of the S74-1 silks this was a reference to the shiny smooth finish. In the early 1900’s, weaves referred to as satin often were made of silk or a combination of silk and a cheaper yarn, most likely cotton. Under magnification a single yarn from an s74 appears to be twisted, which could mean a silk/cotton blend, 100% satin silk, or 100% satin cotton. Theses were the predominant fabrics available in 1911. Without forensic testing there is no way to know for sure, but we believe that the silks were woven from either pure silk or a combination of silk and cotton.
It is likely that American Tobacco had the silks printed with the brand advertising and factory designation and then distributed to the various factories to be folded and inserted into the cigarette packs.
Historical data suggests that the inspiration for tobacco silks was Victorian cigar ribbons which were very ornate and produced of silk. The items below are examples of these ribbons
Tobacco silks like the ribbons were narrow woven to the exact width giving the two of the four sides a finished edge. Like most fabrics S74 silks were woven with strands that ran vertical and horizontal
The vertical yarns are called the warp and the horizontal yarns the fill. The fill yarns are the strands you see unweaving then pulling away at top of the McConnel silk. The warp yarns are what your see that look like tiny hairs at the top of the Stone silk after fill yarns have pulled away. This is commonly referred to as fraying. Rarely if ever do you see fraying on the vertical edge of S74 Silks due to the narrow weaving that creates a stitched finished edge
In black and white we have a picture of a period fabric loom running narrow woven fabric which likely was silk or cotton. A man running his hands through the material looks like he is about to make an adjustment to the run or doing a quality control check
We believe this is similar to how S74 silks were made, which were either machine or hand cut . A hot knife or hot cutter would have been used on the Colored Silks as the sealed edge resulted from melting the fibers with heat sealing the edges top and bottom. This was done to try to prevent unraveling and fraying.
We believe this is similar to how S74 silks were made, which were either machine or hand cut . A hot knife or hot cutter would have been used on the Colored Silks as the sealed edge resulted from melting the fibers with heat sealing the edges top and bottom. This was done to try to prevent unraveling and fraying.
With the white silks a hot cut may not have been necessary. We believe the paper back was attached before the printing which helped prevent fraying.
The example of the J.D. Miller white silk provides visual proof of this hypothesis. While some of the silk is missing the player image is printed partially on the silk and partially on the under side of the attached paper back . To us this confirms that the paper back was attached prior to printing.
A telling error
Newly Discovered Uncut Sheet
It has come to our attention that a large uncut “proof” sheet has become available for auction . It has an unprinted cardboard back attached according to the description. It is likely the white silks were printed in this larger format which was a bout 23 ¼ x 38 ¾ with the back attached. As noted above the JD Miller silk strongly suggests the actual production printing method had the paper ad back attached before the printing. It is an interesting development that a large sheet has surfaced providing us information that the white silks were likely printed in multiples of 156 which is how many images are on the sheet up for auction .We are still of the belief that the colored silks were narrow woven to the exact width of each silk due to the finished edge on the sides and the hot cut that sealed the top and the bottom.
Uncut sheet
As a final commentary of the manufacturing is the factory fold present on almost all S74 Silks. Below are examples of both series of silks showing the obvious factory folds . The folds are more apparent in the white silks with paper backs, but are also apparent on most colored silks as well. With the Colored Silks some appear with faint creasing, or no visual creasing at all. It is clear that the colored silks could be steamed or ironed to eliminate the factory crease but over time a colored silk could lose its fold line naturally. There are examples of white silks without the folds which may have been given to merchants selling cigarettes and never folded into cigarette packs. It is also possible the folds were eliminated in some manner we are not familiar with.
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Colored Silk with fold
White Silk with fold
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White Silk Back with fold
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Unfolded front
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Unfolded back