JOHN BOYD TEXTILES LIMITED
Weavers of Horsehair Fabrics since 1837

This page shows a selection of our range of horsehair fabrics. Although the same historical designs and colours from 1750 onwards are still produced, many new colours and contemporary designs have been added in recent years. We have an extensive range of nearly 200 horsehair fabrics and are also able to weave custom colours for a minimum of 20 meters. Please note that this is only a small selection, please complete the attached enquiry form if you would like further information on our horsehair fabrics.

The blue/black check was originally used by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in the late 1800's for covering the Argyle Street Tearoom chairs. John Boyd Textiles are delighted to have been able to exactly reproduce the horsehair fabric with blue and black hair and it has now been woven for the first time in over 100 years. The new colourways of this design have been very well received by contemporary designers and architects. The fabric is now called Dales, named after a type of horse like the other horsehair fabrics in our collection.

The Ermine black ER/601/1 horsehair fabric was originally used by Sir Edwin Lutyens for his original Napoleon chair made in 1919, the original is now in the V&A museum. We are still producing the same fabric on the same loom for reproductions of this chair made by the Lutyens family. Some of these chairs can be seen in the Theo Fennell showroom on Fulham Road.

Horsehair fabrics are woven with a cotton warp and horsehair weft across the width of the fabric. Horsehair is sourced from live horses to give the best quality fabric.

Black horsehair is overdyed to give a pure shiny black sheen to the fabrics. Mixed Grey horsehair is a mixture of brown tones and is used undyed to give a wonderful natural strae in the fabric. Both types of horsehair give a fabric width of 65cms (26").

Natural white horsehair is in the natural form to give the lovely pale ivory coloured fabrics and is also bleached and dyed giving an exceptional range of colours. These horsehair fabrics are 56cms wide (22") due to the shorter length of white horsehair.

Stock is available of most of the horsehair fabrics in the range to enable prompt delivery.

In recent years, John Boyd Textiles is able to offer the service of hand embroidered designs on horsehair fabric. We are able to reproduce any design with no minimum. Recent projects have involved reproducing crests for King Gustav III of Sweden and St Andrews Golf Course Board room chairs.