Tuesday, June 25, 2013

A fabric for Clémentine d'Orléans at the Grand Trianon



Marie-Clémentine d'Orleans Princesse de Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha 
in a painting by Winterhalter
The last king of France, Louis-Philippe had a particularly intelligent daughter, Clémentine d'Orleans 1817-1907, who became the princess de Saxe-Cobourg. This youngest daughter was so well-known for her ambition and intelligence in political  matters that she received the nickname of 'the Medici of the Cobourgs.' French history is filled with intelligent, influential women and we are reminded of many through the objects they left behind. Before her marriage and installation in the Cobourg palace in Vienna, the young woman naturally she lived with her family in the Palais Royal, the château des Tuileries, and the Grand Trianon. 


source:stylirex
The curator of the Grand Trianon recently found a chair in storage that has been traced to Cléméntine. The bare bones of the chair, similar to the above reproduction, were in need of adequate upholstery and a fine silk to attest to the memory of this most accomplished princess. Tassinari & Chatel has agreed to share some of what goes on behind the scenes in the case of  such a recreation. Those interested in European textile history will recognize the names of Pernon and of Grand Frères, encompassed now by Tassinari & Chatel. The silk weaver's rich past is attested to by 100,000 textile archives.

photo Tassinari & Chatel
Research was first conducted in the Livre de Commandes (order book) of the period . Many a decorative project can be traced there, including those for Malmaison, Fontainebleau, the Elysée, Versailles, the White House, the Ritz... to name but a  few. To make research more of a challenge, certain orders are written in an ancient and obscure stenographic text to assure the extreme discretion demanded by clients concerning their projects.
This particular chair was not found in the records, but the project was not to stop there.


photo St Tyl
 Silk weaver and curator reviewed many designs of the period, until one stood out, a floral by the artist, Grandbarbe. Grandbarbe was very much appreciated for both the original designs of his early career and the re-interpretations of earlier designs for this period that was just beginning to become eclectic and historicizing. It may be that the spirit of Clémentine was guiding their choice because the design fit the proportions of her dainty chaise gondole perfectly!

photo Tassinari & Chatel
The woven document from the archives is of great finesse. Here, the record clearly states that the fabric, a brocaded lampas was designed by Grandbarbe in Louis XVI style and provides a sketch of the design.







photos St Tyl

As we have seen before, here, the back of a fabric is just as eloquent as the front. To the left, the back of the original mid 19th century archival document. The lampas technique is used for the grisaille patterns of foliage pearls and vases on a satin ground;  the brocaded effect is as if embroidered  is seen in the 'extra' blue, pink and green threads. This is a sure sign of hand woven fabric. The cloth such as this would have been woven face down as the weaver brocaded the colorful flowers with tiny espolins or brocading shuttles. A corner of the document is stamped Grand Frères, the name of the entreprise during most of the 19th century.

photo St Tyl
If the woven document still exists, 
the mise en carte or technical drawing had been lost to the sands of time.
It was necessary to reconstruct this essential element 
that serves to command the loom before the weaving could begin. 

photo St Tyl

Even with today's computer technology the mise en carte is a long painstaking process 
for a design as rich as this one.
 It took approximately 100 hours to complete the drawing. 

photo St Tyl
then and now

Here we have the original document on the left woven in a width of 54 cm. The weaving for the restoration was reproduced in the same proportions by inserting the design onto an expanded field of satin 
within the space provided by modern loom widths. In fact, two full panels were woven side by side between the selvedges in the 130cm width; the fabric here has been cut down the middle.

photo St Tyl
then and now

The modern version is made entirely in the lampas technique where decorative wefts are 
completely attached to the back of the fabric by a second warp. 
While the fabric loses the extreme lightness of handle of the original, it gains strength - 
an excellent idea for upholstery.

photo: Grand Trianon
Louis-Philippe, the so-called roi bourgeois, did not wish to occupy the château of Versailles, but installed his family next to it in the Grand Trianon. There he found it necessary to make some changes to accommodate a different lifestyle - and his 8 children.
Clémentine occupied apartments that had first belonged to
Mesdames de Maintenon and de Pompadour, then to Napoleon I.
Her freshly upholstered chair can be found there today.

8 comments:

  1. what a gorgeous post! thanks for this! so incredible this entire process - then and now. and the colors of that fabric.....dreamy!

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    1. You are most welcome, Mlle P. These are truly the stuffs that dreams are made of!

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  2. Stunning.

    My Mother taught me from early childhood to appreciate fine things. That fabric rates right at the top. Thank you for such and interesting post.

    Ann

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    1. Hello, Ann. Thank you for your comment. It's true that our appreciation of these things often stems from childhood experiences - and for that we should be grateful. That has also been my case. I just hope that mothers today are able to transmit some knowledge and love of fabrics still !

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  3. They are, my mother did. She bought fabrics into the house here, they were not something reckoned with until she arrived.

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    1. Excuse me for no answering sooner - I'll blame it on jet lag!
      There is a visceral side to fabrics and it seems to be coming out here in this post about a supremely sophisticated example of textile art. Fabrics are so close to us, so essential that many people often forget them. Your mother must have given you a strong awareness. I don't think anyone is indifferent to textiles - they are too much a part of us, but many will forego their true beauty in exchange for color and a general look in clothing or in the home. I'm all for including even one very fine fabric in an interior or a wardrobe, like you might do with a beautiful jewel, a very good watch, or an exceptional painting - to highlight more ordinary days and ways.

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  4. Fantastic! I was so glad to see an as-close-as-possible reproduction rather than a new interpretation based on a document (usually with disappointing results).

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    1. It's just a difficult exercise to make a reproduction such as this. Tassinari is one of the few companies in the world capable of doing it because it is part of their continued tradition. But whether or not historical accuracy is the aim, it is always satisfying to know you are dealing with authentic materials.

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