The Reeling of Silk, Plate 6 from "The Introduction of the Silkworm" [Vermis Sericus]

The Reeling of Silk, Plate 6 from "The Introduction of the Silkworm" [Vermis Sericus]

Karel van Mallery

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sixth plate from the series Vermis Sericus, engraved by Karel van Mallery, after Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, and published by Philips Galle around 1595. Illustration of a factory where silk-reeling takes place. In the background on the left, women outside of the factory gather up cocoons of silk from the ground to be transported inside. In the factory women reel threads of silk from the cocoons. In the foreground on the right a women adds logs to the fire below the silk-reeler.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Reeling of Silk, Plate 6 from "The Introduction of the Silkworm" [Vermis Sericus]The Reeling of Silk, Plate 6 from "The Introduction of the Silkworm" [Vermis Sericus]The Reeling of Silk, Plate 6 from "The Introduction of the Silkworm" [Vermis Sericus]The Reeling of Silk, Plate 6 from "The Introduction of the Silkworm" [Vermis Sericus]The Reeling of Silk, Plate 6 from "The Introduction of the Silkworm" [Vermis Sericus]

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.