Raiders of the lost patterns

Industry veteran Nick Vida, who has been involved with the wholesale textile business in Australia for more than 40 years, has put his vast collection of original textile prints and patterns up for sale.
These are mostly prints that were never put into production. More than 15,000 examples date back between 1940 and 1980. There are prints painted on paper in many colourways, prints on various woven and printed textiles, woven yarn patterns and knitted yarn patterns.
Vida said while some of the prints were able to go straight into production, re-colouration would be necessary in others.
"Some of the more complex designs may yield part motifs as starting points or incorporation into other prints."
Most of the prints and patterns come in old bound scrap books, and looking through them reinforces the truth that fashion repeats itself - although never exactly.
The textile print and pattern collection was sourced from Europe, the US and Japan, with plenty of cross fertilisation between all of them. Vida makes the point the collection represents textile trends before China became a major player, which provides more direct lines to the artistic sources, especially of the prints.
The price of the collection, or parts of it, or even single prints, is by negotiation. Since original print artwork is general around $500 per design, the Vida collection would presumably be well under that.