Old Spitalfields hand loom with jacquard mechanism.

Spitalfields hand loom for silk weaving fitted with jacquard machine, made by Guillotte. The Jacquard loom, developed by the Frenchman Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752-1834) in 1804, enabled a loom to weave patterned cloth. This is a hand loom, the Jacquard being hand-operated to select the healds to be raised or lowered once the operator presses the treadle to form the thread. The loom to which the Jacquard mechanism is attached is circa 1840.

By 1860 Daniel Walters & Sons had 150 Jacquard machines and employed 300 hands. Messrs Warner and Sons took over in 1894, retaining William Folliott as manager until his retirement in 1914. William Folliott had owned a Harness making business which he sold in 1860. The loom was given to the Museum by Warner and Sons in 1914 when the firm was at the height of its activity at New Mills at Braintree in Essex.