I purchased this small silk crazy quilt block to use for textile art. As it felt soiled and was a bit smelly I decided to hand wash the piece, although I suspected it contained weighted silk.
Weighted silks originated in the 19th century, when the fabric was sold by weight. During processing manufacturers would remove the sericin left by silk worms on the fibers -- known as degumming -- and then use a filler solution of metallic salts to replace the lost weight. The problem was that the weighting process damaged the silk, which would quickly wear out or become brittle and shatter while in storage (which we now see happening with so many of the 19th century-early 20th century crazy quilts.)
A soak in cool water made it clear that the piece was not colorfast, another problem with some types of weighted silk. From the shade of the bleed I'll guess some of the patches were treated with tannin and/or iron salts.
I'm not sorry I washed the block, even though I made the shattering a little worse. Because I often work with vintage textiles now I've learned that it's better to clean than ignore. Via hand-washing I'm able to remove unpleasant smells, most types of soiling, and even dead insects from vintage textiles (fleas are the most prevalent, I've found.) In this situation I'm glad I gave it a soak as the dye bleed might have transferred onto my hands while I worked with it.
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