China: The Art of Making Silk (1) - Picking and sorting mulberry leaves. Detail from a Song Dynasty (960-1279) handscroll painting, 11th century. In China, silk worm farming was originally restricted to women, and many women were employed in the silk-making industry. Even though some saw this development of a luxury product as useless, silk provoked such a craze among high society that the laws were used to regulate and limit its use to the members of the imperial family. For approximately a millennium, the right to wear silk was reserved for the emperor and the highest dignitaries.

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Size: 5515px × 3199px
Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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