Textile Design
1760-65 (Made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This design is a preparatory technical drawing for a patterned silk. It acted as instructions for the weaver about how to tie up the threads on the loom and then weave in the pattern. It is similar to a group of designs commissioned by a silk manufacturing partnership active in Lyon — the most prestigious centre of the silk industry in Europe from the 1660s onwards — and corresponds in style to the 1760s when patterns were curvaceous. The partnership was called L. Galy, Gallien et cie from 1761 until the beginning of 1771 when the senior partner Louis Galy retired. This company was one of Lyon’s 400 manufacturing concerns mid century and it kept good records, noting on the back of the designs the number of the design and minimal instructions on how it should be woven.
Decisions about the way it was to be woven were obviously altered during the design process or at some later date; the first set of instructions has been scored out and replaced by new instructions. The first set aimed at making this into a cannelé, a silk with a ribbed effect in its background whereas the second set were for a smooth plain weave, a taffeta. The width of the fabric was approximately 54 centimetres. In Lyon, manufacturing regulations dictated the widths in which such silks might be woven.
Decisions about the way it was to be woven were obviously altered during the design process or at some later date; the first set of instructions has been scored out and replaced by new instructions. The first set aimed at making this into a cannelé, a silk with a ribbed effect in its background whereas the second set were for a smooth plain weave, a taffeta. The width of the fabric was approximately 54 centimetres. In Lyon, manufacturing regulations dictated the widths in which such silks might be woven.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Gouache on point paper |
| Brief description | Design for woven silk, 1760-1770, French; blue meander, ribbed ground, branch |
| Physical description | The design is painted in gouache on to point paper (a kind of graph paper). The pattern consists of a serpentine meander with a spotted centre in three shades of blue and to its right a bunch of mixed flowers in shades of pink and green. Other smaller flowers adorn the meander. They are red, black and blue. The whole ground is covered with brown horizontal bands, each with the width of four squares. On the back is inscribed in handwriting in ink the type of the fabric and some instructions for weaving. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Design |
| Marks and inscriptions | On the back:
P[atron] 73 Dessein Cannellé 11/24
Le papier
Le noir
Le bleuf mignon
Le chair, le violet et le vert clair
Le paille et le rouge
Le lila, le porcelaine et le violet brun
Le pourpre le marron et le vert brun
Le vert second le soucy
L'olive ne se lit pas
All of the above is scored out and below is written:
Le noir
Le rouge et le paille
Le chair le bleu et le violet clair
Le lila, le porcelaine et le violet brun
Le pourpre, le marron, et le vert brun
Le vert second
Le canellé n'est pas lu
Also on the back, stamped in purple: Robert Ruepp, 7 rue Bergère, Paris. |
| Object history | The paper on which this design is painted reveals its origins in Lyon, centre of the French silk industry in the 18th century. It belongs to a group of thirty-one designs with similar motifs acquired by the V&A in 1972; they all date to the decade between 1761 and 1771. The manufacturer who commissioned this particular design is not known, but may have been L. Galy, Gallien et cie., active in Lyons from 1759-1771 when the firm became L. Galy et cie. At a later date, the designs belonged to the designer Robert Ruepp (b. 1854) whose address was 7 rue Bergère in Paris and who exhibited silks of extreme Art Nouveau design at the International Exhibition there in 1900 and other rather less original designs in 1925. They passed into the hands of Sir Frank Warner, head of the famed English silk manufacturing firm, from the archive of which, part being sold at auction, the V&A acquired them in 1972. |
| Production | The attribution of date and place is made on the basis of comparison with similar designs in the V&A collection, commissioned by L.Galy, Gallien et cie. of Lyon. Attribution note: This represents the second stage of silk design, the technical drawing that allowed the loom to be mounted. |
| Summary | This design is a preparatory technical drawing for a patterned silk. It acted as instructions for the weaver about how to tie up the threads on the loom and then weave in the pattern. It is similar to a group of designs commissioned by a silk manufacturing partnership active in Lyon — the most prestigious centre of the silk industry in Europe from the 1660s onwards — and corresponds in style to the 1760s when patterns were curvaceous. The partnership was called L. Galy, Gallien et cie from 1761 until the beginning of 1771 when the senior partner Louis Galy retired. This company was one of Lyon’s 400 manufacturing concerns mid century and it kept good records, noting on the back of the designs the number of the design and minimal instructions on how it should be woven. Decisions about the way it was to be woven were obviously altered during the design process or at some later date; the first set of instructions has been scored out and replaced by new instructions. The first set aimed at making this into a cannelé, a silk with a ribbed effect in its background whereas the second set were for a smooth plain weave, a taffeta. The width of the fabric was approximately 54 centimetres. In Lyon, manufacturing regulations dictated the widths in which such silks might be woven. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | T.423-1972 |
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| Record created | February 3, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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