La Reine des Fleurs: from bedroom to ballroom and onward

photo St Tyl

La Reine des Fleurs woven document from 1895 Tassinari et Chatel.
There is something classic and modern about the unusual design disposition of this
beautiful brocade on a ground of cannetillé. 

Cannetillé is a weave that is similar to cannelé or a more sophisticated reps with horizontal ribs that have been worked into little pavés or alternating squares or lozenges. (My own black and cream design used on the sides of this blog shows a close up of a modern cannetillé technique.) The pattern is still hand woven today in 100% silk for those privileged enough to acquire it. The brocading technique requires very attentive weaving wrong side up; mirrors are installed underneath the loom to survey the progress on the right-side.

photo Marc Walter
from La Soie en Occident by Jacques Anquetil

The same looping garlands of roses in a different coloration are found
in this ball gown by Worth taken from a truly marvelous book with sublime photography. The book is entitled Silk in English. Worth used plainer fabrics such as taffeta and satin earlier in his career but used pronounced, large-scale designs such as this toward the end of the 19th century.

( You may recognize some of Marc Walter's more recent photography in 
Un Certain Goût Pour L'orient / Exotic Taste: Orientalist Interiors and 
Versailles just out this month) 

photo Versailles

In the apartments of the Duchesse du Barry at Versailles, we see the brocade draped
à la reine and with coordinated passementrie.

photo Anthony Denney

This seems to be a 1950s interior with a 18th century bed à la Polonaise and comfortable armchairs 

decoration by Antoinette Bernstein.

photo: Delprat

 Here, several fabric designs served as inspiration for this spectacular rug designed by Patrick Norguet  made by Tai Ping in 2010. In the foreground, La Reine des Fleurs which blends into other florals from the Tassinari archives, Courson, Compiègne, Choisy. More on this rug project here.

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth...
Keats

La Reine des Fleurs is still produced on special order at Tassinari & Chatel.

Franck Sorbier's Silken Voyage in Time

© all photos Piero Biasion

Rubelli's Jacquard Tricorno

There has been a lot of talk about the historicizing designs of the19th century due to the Folie Textile exhibit,

but we've been repeating that trait ever since - just not exclusively. Franck Sorbier has taken historic period silks from the collections of Rubelli and Tassinari et Chatel to create a modern-romantic, 21st century Haute Couture collection Winter 2013-14.

Tassinari et Chatel fabric, Les Chimères 

Tassinari et Chatel, Argentan 

the back

Who made this damask?

Tassinari et Chatel, Cernushi 

Giotto coat et longue bustier gown Duccio in Rubelli's Tricorno 

© Photos Piero Biasion

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.

The other side of fabrics: brocade vs. lampas

Esther by John Everett Millais

"The painting depicts Esther, the Jewish wife of the Persian king Ahasuerus, as she prepares to enter the presence of her husband. As she is uninvited, she risks death, but does so to inform him of a plot against the Jews.
Millais borrowed the Yellow Jacket, a gown given to General Gordon by the Chinese emperor after his defeat of the Taiping rebellion. In order to create a culturally unspecific effect, he turned it inside out, producing the abstract patterns visible in the painting."

Wikipedia explains this intriguing detail. The source of information is
Millais, J.G.,The Life and Letters of John Everett Millais

photo Gésbi-St Tyl

A wealth of silk on the back of some Tassinari & Chatel  fabrics.

Esther's gown is brocaded, which accounts for the great expanse of yellow ground. Tiny shuttles have been worked over certain zones on the loom to form the decoration. Like embroidery, the threads appear only where there is pattern, but as this is a brocade, they are woven in.

The lampas fabrics in my photo have supplementary decorative wefts that are mostly floating on the reverse side of the cloth where they are not worked into the pattern of flowers on the front -  the reason for an entire hairy cushion of silk across the back of the fabric.

This is possible when the fabric will not have heavy use, such as with certain curtains or in a museum or other historic reconstruction. Otherwise, a lampas weave uses a binding warp which extends from selvedge to selvedge to better anchor the weft threads to the back. If the fabric had been for upholstery, the decorative wefts would have been firmly bound to the ground, making a heavier cloth.

New heritage at Tassinari et Chatel with Jean Boggio

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

The fabrics produced at Tassinari & Chatel are among the most sumptuous, most refined, most sought-after in the world of historic silks. In addition to exclusive made-to-order lengths for decorators and historic buildings, its Collection Patrimoine  is comprised of historic re-editions that span the centuries from the Renaissance to Art Deco, a treasure for  textile connoisseurs  the world over. Rare are the manufacturers today capable of  producing cloth of this level of technical and artistic perfection, but with a foundation that dates to 1680, this monument of textile history from Lyon has more than what it takes. Through the years, noble stones - Pernon and Grand Frères - have enriched the edifice. Today, the firm continues in the good hands of Patrick Lelièvre of the group Lelièvre.

So what is new in 2013?  The savoir-faire gained through the centuries has met with the ancient tradition of contemporary design. After all, those cherished historic designs were contemporary at some point! Following in the footsteps of Revel, Pillement, and more recently Lalique and Karbowsky, Mr. Jean Boggio has worked with the mill to create new fabrics every bit as worthy of the silkweaver as his predecessors. It's is history in the making.

photo Gésbi /St Tyl taken at the Tisserand Bronzier d'Art  stand of Maison & Objet

Majestic lampas (brocade), Ispahan

photo Gésbi /St Tyl  taken at the Tisserand Bronzier d'Art stand of Maison & Objet

Not many designs have been more fertile in textile history than the pomegranate. Ispahan places the mythical fruit among heady roses in a swirling Persian garden, at once lavish and playful.

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

Baroque spirit and bizarre style: this may be Jean Boggio's first textile collection but he is no novice to textiles. He has not only chosen the quintessential textile fruit for Ispahan, but his design calls to mind that brief but exuberant period of Bizarre silks from 1695-1820, where fruit, flower and fantasy (very strange objects sometimes) are caught in a vortex creating lively, asymmetrical, sometimes surreal designs. The 18th century fabrics typically have a juxtaposition of brocaded decor with damask vegetal or shadow elements that give a moving, 3D quality. Here, note the artistry of multiple weave patterns in the decor. Instead of a damask ground, there is finely etched foliage created by the weft.

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

The preliminary drawing of Jardin d'Eden from the hand of the artist, Jean Boggio...

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

and as interpreted on the looms of Tassinari & Chatel.

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

The effect is exotic and modern in this smooth, etched satin. Funny, I see a wink to very ancient techniques, 

just a suggestion of a Safawid incised twill here in this luscious, breathable atmosphere somewhere along the Silk Road. 

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

Soliman Border

To my way of thinking, borders are some of the most refined textile elements for --- 

the elegant underlining of the contours of the velvet settee, drawing your eye to the moldings of the ceiling, tailoring the edges of the curtains.... We don't see enough borders, so it's nice to see this one and to know that Ispahan is available as border, too.

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

Breaking with the vegetal world, but continuing the vocabulary of the designer, Petrouchka represents an acrobatic frolic with the stars, sun, and moon as props for the joyous jugglers who dance in pairs over this silk and linen brocatelle. 

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

Cushions made of Petrouchka and Soliman 

photo Gésbi /St Tyl 

The exotic baroque world of jeweler-silversmith and furnishing designer, Jean Boggio, is filled with themes of dreams, dance, and jungle flora with a style that has a certain affinity with Armand Albert Rateau.(I've written of the furnishings here.) The aesthete has an exhuberant, warm style and is clearly smitten with Tassinari & Chatel; he has an entire collection of vests fashioned with silks from the Collection Patrimoine that he wears close to his heart!