Le Jeu de Bagues
- Object:
- Place of origin:
- Date:
- Artist/Maker:
Favre Petitpierre et Cie (manufacturer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Plate-printed cotton, quilted with cotton threads, lined with hand-woven linen
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
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This scene of idealised rural pursuits in a rustic setting is typical of the pastoral scenes printed on cotton textiles in the late 18th century in various centres of cotton printing across northern Europe, including Nantes.
The design is known as the Jeu de Bagues or Game of Rings, although it consists of three scenes, including the one showing this game in which people try to life a ring with a narrow stick while seated on a roundabout turned by hand. Several such roundabouts to play this game were set up in Parisian public parks from the 1770s onwards. The fashions worn by the players reveal that this piece dates to the early 19th century, as the women are wearing the high-waisted gowns associated with Napoleon's Imperial Court (hence, the common name Empire styles).The other scenes show Blind Man's Buff at the top and coffee-drinking below, while the main scene is flanked by a couple - a soldier and his lady - strolling in the park
Physical description
Curtain of cotton plate-printed in red, quilted with rough diagonally placed cotton threads and lined with coarse hand-woven linen. A narrow linen braid has been applied at the top in a scalloped shape to suggest a valance. The scenes are arranged in three rows, one above the other. The plate was 37 inches (94 cms) long and over 36 inches (91.5 cms) wide. The plate was wider than the cloth.
Place of Origin
Nantes, France (made)
Date
about 1805 (made)
Artist/maker
Favre Petitpierre et Cie (manufacturer)
Materials and Techniques
Plate-printed cotton, quilted with cotton threads, lined with hand-woven linen
Dimensions
Height: 61.75 in, Height: 157.5 cm, Width: 51.5 in, Width: 131 cm
Object history note
Purchased. Registered File number 1986/31.
There are other pieces of this design in Mulhouse, Musée de L'Impression sur Etoffes, Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. The ROM piece has the chef de pièce giving the manufacturer's name. There is an early 19th century design which could be the source for the textile in the Metropolitan Museum. The example from Mulhouse was shown in the exhibition Toiles de Nantes, 1978.
Descriptive line
Curtain of plate-printed cotton 'Le Jeu de Bagnes', made by Favre Petitpierre et Cie, Nantes, ca. 1805
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Sarah Grant, Toiles de Jouy. French Printed Cottons, V&A Publishing, 2010, p. 53, Catalogue 17.
Materials
Cotton (textile); Linen; Cotton thread
Techniques
Lined; Hand weaving; Quilted; Plate printing
Subjects depicted
Men; Landscape; Women; Furniture; Game
Categories
Textiles; Interiors
Collection code
T&F
