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.

Wooly desks

source lainesdespyrenees

Are you ready for a little etymology today? 

So many words and expressions relate to fabrics and weaving if you scratch the surface a little.

In French, bure refers to a rough, resistant cloth of heavy weave that is associated with hooded monks, watchful shepherds, and scruffy peasants from the Middle Ages. The name for the cloth derives from burel, a heathery quality of brown, black or ecru wool.

source Orpostal

This cloth was also used to cover tables. Henri Havard described the wool rugs that protected tables from ink and lessened the noise of clattering coins for money changers. 

source planetefacility

In the 14th century, this wooly rug became known as a bureau. 
By the 15th century, it was not only the rug but the piece of furniture - be it bench, table or chest -  together with the rug that was known as a bureau. The meaning, as we all know, went on to include a room for work at a bureau/desk and further, an administrative organization, i.e., bureau de poste, bureau de style,  bureau of investigation....

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!

How to woo

photo St Tyl

This is the continued story of "Amour x  4" from my other blog,
Le style et la matière. 

It is a tale of courtship that, though unsuccessful, undoubtably left a lasting, if amused impression on la belle -- and textile traces in the wardrobe that she brought with her to France.

photo St Tyl

Ann Coleman's father met the Mandarin, Mr Woo, on a journey to China in the 19th century. Around 1877, Mr Woo traveled to the United States to study the American postal system in view of modernising the Chinese Imperial Post. As a guest of the Coleman family in Pennsylvania and in keeping with Chinese customs of propriety, he asked for the hand of the last born daughter, Ann, who was two years old at the time. Mr Woo gave many presents to his host as proof of his intentions including his portrait and this embroidered coat.

The coat in question is at the château of Villandry which Ann Coleman later called her home with her husband Joachim Carvallo.

An army of handkerchiefs: Avec armes et bagages dans un mouchoir de poche

"Il ne fallait donc pas se moucher dedans!"
"So I oughten't have used it to blow my nose!"
photo: St Tyl

 Mouchoir: linge de poche, ou vêtement de cou. (...) Les mouchoirs de cou, autrement dit fichus, se font en matières très differentes, depuis l'indienne et la soie jusqu'a la gaze, la blonde et la dentelle. C'est une des parties essentielles de la parure.

Handkerchief: pocket linen or clothing for the neck. Kerchiefs may be made in very different materials, from cotton indiennes to silk  and gauze, 

orris and lace. 

It is one of the essential parts of attire.

Dictionnaire universel du commerce, de la banque, et des manufactures...1838-1841

 photo St Tyl

"Handkerchief" comes from the French word couvre-chief, head covering. Hand-headcovering? Let's not even consider headkerchief and neckerchief.

Pictured above: "Le medecin dans la poche." 
Very handy indeed!

Avec armes et bagages dans un mouchoir de poche 
is an exhibit about printed handkerchiefs as used in the army.

photo St Tyl

Aretes et os dans le gosier

Fish and other bones in the gullet

photo St Tyl

Coups à la tête  -  Douleurs de dents

Blows to the head  -  Tooth aches

photo St Tyl

 Mouchoir des connaissances utiles/ handkerchief of useful knowledge

detail: "How to remove old rust stains from linen and cotton fabrics"

photo St Tyl

"Sizing for cloth of wool, silk, gauze and other articles of the sort"

photo St Tyl

"How to recognize if a wool cloth contains cotton" 

The humble handkerchief as a societal phenomena. This exhibit shows just how important this ordinary little item could be in the context of soldiering and its use as means of communication before being supplanted by films for the enlisted. Of the mutiple intentions and uses - historic, commemorative, fashion accessory, first aid supply, article of hygiene-  I've chosen to show the instructive side of these little squares of cloth.  

If we were to transport them into a fuller context of society, we might speak of gesture, modesty, flirtatiousness, theatrics, affectation, romantic souvenirs.... Snif...anyone have a Kleenex?

Musée de l'armée

Sheeted

Magritte L'Invention de la vie 1928
source: abcgallery

They are on, aren't they?

Janvier  - le mois du blanc / January white sales

Magritte said his paintings were of

 des rêves qui n'ont pas pour but de vous faire dormir mais de vous réveiller.

dreams designed not to put you to sleep but rather to awaken you.

Japonisme at la manufacture Prelle

photo St Tyl

Once again the Manufacture Prelle showroom offers an enlightening look into its archives with a thematic exhibition.  Twice a year, the venerable Lyon silk weaver opens its Paris showroom at the place des Victoires, making marvels of textile culture come to life by placing them in their historic and aesthetic context for an appreciative audience.

photo manufacture Prelle

 The atmosphere is hushed, heels click on the parquet that gives an occasional creak. This rarefied world of shimmering, elegant fabric is for a time inhabited by dragons, phoenixes, butterflies and cranes who roam the material's silken threads.These very creatures first came over with Japan's trade openings to the western world in the 1850s, then multiplied and were fertile in the imaginations of textile designers until the 1930s. On view are a sampling of original Japanese fabrics as well as the Prelle fabrics they inspired during the period. We might say that the woven archival documents here establish the paternity of a long line of descendants at Prelle. And what's more, the Japonisme of the mid-century was almost a second genesis for the world of arts in the West. 

photo St Tyl

The current showing  juxtaposes richly colored silk fabrics with Baccarat crystal and silver from Christofle in order to better communicate the rage for Japanese style in the decorative arts of the epoch.  Imposing period furniture, provided by galerie Chadelaud and galerie Marc Maison, serves to vary the sensuous surfaces and complete the picture.

photo manufacture Prelle

It was the discovery of a collection of over 150 katagami, or Japanese stencils in the archives that gave impetus for the exhibit. 

photo St Tyl

These katagami, bought by Eugène Prelle in the 1860s,  were studied for elements of flora and fauna and geomtric shapes then used to inspire the manufacture's own woven silk designs. Certain designs were created by designer Eugène Prelle himself. Throughout the exhibition we can admire the framed katagami as instructive in our understanding of the derived fabrics and as beautiful objects in their own right.

Tissot c.1860 source 

The second half of the 19^th century fell under the powerful spell of Japan. Even the Goncourt brothers succumbed; these collectors and supreme literary powers of the 19th century often expressed  their fervent and exclusive devotion to the 18^th century in matters of art and decoration and declared that they disliked any styles outside of their siècle de joli  be it Greek, Medieval, Renaissance --- with one exception,  the art of Japan.

Gustave Léonard de Jonghe L'admiratrice du Japon c. 1865 source

Japan's prints and decorative objects were to change the face of Western arts. At first, there was a rush to create rich and exotic interiors using imported screens, ceramics, and other art objects that were destined for boudoirs and fumoirs. All the shops for the home had at least a Japanese corner for furnishings and bric à brac and there was a proliferation of the style in French-made furnishings and objects. 

George Hendrik Breitner, Girl in Red Kimono, 1893–95
source

The owners of these objects found it fitting to wrap up in a kimono to be in harmony with their surroundings.  The gradual freeing up of forms and motifs is evident in these paintings whose characters pass from observers to participants to integral parts of the whole.

Pierre Bonnard source

Pierre Bonnard source

Little by little, less passively, more subtly and profoundly, artists and artisans integrated not just motifs but Japanese design concepts, with their penchants for asymmetry, important negative space, and bold, flat pattern and contrasting colors. 

 source

The world of textile design, despite the technical constraints of repeats developed
 in a similar spirit. The stage was set for Art Nouveau, Art Deco and beyond. These concepts would influence a great part of modern art whether fine or decorative.

image source: BnF

Highly instrumental in spreading the Japanese aesthetic was Siegfried Bing and his journal, Le Japon Artistique, published from 1888-1892. Naturally, Eugène Prelle was in possession of the journal. 
 Said Bing in the introduction of the first issue,

Le seul patronage auquel cet ouvrage désire se soustraire est celui de la soi-disant 'mode' des choses du Japon, qui s'est un moment abattue sur nos salons. Elle n'a rien de commun, en effet, cette mode de clinquant, avec un art délicat, tantôt aristocratique et tantôt populaire, mais dont toujours la sobriété et la distinction constituent la loi fondamentale. Loin d'être soumis aux caprices d'un engouement frivole, cet art est désormais lié au notre d'une façon impérissable. C'est une goutte de sang qui est venu se mêler à notre sang et qu'aucun pouvoir du monde ne pourra plus en éliminer.

The only patronage which this publication wants to avoid is the so-called 'fashion' for things from Japan which has recently struck our sitting rooms. This garish fashion shares nothing, in fact, with a delicate art; it is sometimes aristocratic, sometimes common, but its fundamental law is always simplicity and distinction. Far from being subject to the whims of a frivolous fad, this art is permanently bound together with ours. It is a drop of blood now mingled with our own, which no power on earth will be  able to extract.

The exhibit is on view until the 29th of March.