Lida & Zika Ascher & the Mohair Rage, Henry Nathan: Émigré, textile manufacturer & entrepreneur

Textile designers and manufacturers Zika (1910 – 1992) and Lida (1913 – 1983) Ascher won international acclaim for their innovative collaborations with fine artists such as Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland and Henri Matisse. The couple married in 1939 and were forced to flee to England that same year on account of Zika’s Jewish heritage, when Czechoslovakia was annexed to Germany. They established their own print works in West London and collaborated with textile manufacturers in France, Italy, and Scotland. By the end of the 1940s the company was increasingly focussed on providing textiles for the haute couture trade, opening premises on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Continuing to innovate and push technical and aesthetic boundaries, the Aschers introduced a range of woollen and mohair fabrics in 1957 to great critical reception.

National Museums Scotland have recently acquired a large collection of Ascher couture fabrics, and this talk by Lisa Mason will focus on this acquisition, situating them within the wider context of high fashion and émigré textile designers practicing in post-war Britain.

Lisa Mason is Assistant Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design at National Museums Scotland, where her research interests include the contribution of émigrés from the Jewish diaspora to British visual culture, interior design and politics in the Cold War, and site-specific architectural tapestry in post-war Scotland. She has published widely on twentieth century textile design. Previous exhibitions include Archie Brennan: Tapestry Goes Pop! (co-curated with Kate Grenyer) at the Dovecot Studios in 2021 and Bernat Klein: Design in Colour at the National Museum of Scotland in 2022. She is chair of the Dress & Textile Specialists.

Lisa’s presentation will be paired with one by Dr Gina Pierce, who will introduce us to the life and career of successful but still little-known textile manufacturer Henry Nathan. Managing director of a firm manufacturing furnishing fabrics in Germany until the 1930s, he was allowed to transfer to London to escape the rise of the Nazi party, and in the postwar period to set up in business on his own.

When Gina encountered his fabrics during her research into the furniture company Parker Knoll, she determined to investigate. The research led her to Northern Ireland where he established a manufacturing centre named Tapestry Weavers (Ulster) Ltd, employing local people and where he featured regularly in the press. His promotional skills resulted in him having encounters with royalty and supplying high end residences, mainly in overseas markets. Yet there appears to be almost no evidence of any fabrics remaining and his name has disappeared from textile histories. Her research has discovered some surprising results, although the mystery surrounding his career and the whereabouts of his textiles continues.

Dr Gina Pierce is a Senior Lecturer at London Metropolitan University, and has for many years combined teaching textile design and theory with a career as a designer of furnishing fabrics. As a researcher practitioner, she leads the Tangible Archive Research Group, and currently delivers a programme of workshops connecting the public, charity and health groups to archives through creativity.

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Image: Presentation of six tapestry cushion covers, by Eileen Roberta Simpson, made by Tapestry Weavers (Ulster) Ltd, Crevillyvalley, to Queen Elizabeth II, in Ballymena, 3.7.1953. By kind permission of Mid-Antrim Museum (Mid and East Antrim Borough Council).