This essay was written as a contribution to the colloquium 'Copy and imitation, creative sources in textile production from the Middle Ages to the present day' in November 2010 in Lyon, France. It is developing concepts for the second part of my extended research project 'Revolution and Progress: The Birth of New Material Cultures in Europe 1780-1850'. This second part deals with silk weaving in Lyon at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the labour revolutions of 1831 and 1834. The colloquium was organized by the French textile research association (AFET) and featured decorative art historians and textile practitioners. My contribution, which opened the event, was designed to provide a history of ideas around the period in question and combined with a detailed study of the pattern books deposited by Lyonnese silk weavers with the local chamber of commerce. This allowed the combination of a conceptual and a material approach to the question of imitation.

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