bolt end textile sample

One of six separate bolt-end textile samples by Ralli Brothers, Manchester. This is a white fabric with RB1 stamped in red ink. There is Ralli Brothers stamp in blue ink. There is a line of text in a non-Latin-script alphabet. A paper ticket or label is stuck to the fabric, depicting two people standing and swinging on a swing under a flower-covered wooden arch.

This piece of fabric was probably used as a textile sample to demonstrate the quality of one of the many textiles produced by the Ralli Brothers company. Textile samples are used to give customers the opportunity to see and feel a fabric before placing an order.

The paper label, or ‘shipper’s ticket’ attached to this fabric was to help the manufacturers make their products instantly recognisable to their customers. Attached to bolts of cloth or yarn, their bright distinctive designs were deliberate in order to stand out. They featured motifs that the textile merchants thought would appeal to the fabric’s destined marketplaces.

The ink stamps were used to differentiate between fabrics of different qualities and styles. In the first half of the 20th century, when this fabric was produced, trademarks such as the Ralli Brothers circular symbol of a two-headed snakelike animal meant customers could easily recognise the company.

Ralli Brothers was founded by five Greek brothers in 1818. The company mostly traded in silks, textiles, and spices. At their peak, they had offices in London, Liverpool, and across Europe, Asia, and Africa. They were active in Manchester from the late 1820s. The Ralli Building, an imposing nine-story joint office and warehouse on the banks of the river Irwell, was opened in 1919. The building consolidated up to three separate warehouses that they had been using across Manchester. By the 1950s, a decline in trading meant that only five of the nine floors were being used by the Ralli Brothers. The building was demolished in the mid-1980s.

This fabric adds to the story of Manchester’s global connections and the North-West region’s global networks. It shows the type and quality of textiles being produced for trade during the first half of the 20th century. It adds to the understanding of textile production and manufacturing processes of this time. This is one of over thirty pieces of fabric collected by an employee of Ralli Brothers in Manchester while they worked as a clerk-bookkeeper between 1949 - 1953.