Peak into an 1892 antique French ribbon ledger, Saint Etienne
Another glimpse into our family silk archive room. One shelf contains rows and rows of these beautiful thick, hard backed folders. The numbers (seen here) 23 - 29 denote the order from youngest to oldest. The four digit number e.G. 4049 4177 refers to the reference of each ribbon contained within. So to know what date the ribbon 4049 was made, how it was made, and how much it cost you refer to the ledger for that period.
Open a ledger and this is what you will see, Ribbon 4440 and 4441
Here is another example from 1918
..and a ribbon from 1919