A Catalogue of Painted Samples   taken from great artists in the European tradition

110 pages
2 1/4" x 1 3/4"

Modeled after nineteenth century French  fabric  sample books, this beautiful volume contains not real, but idealized, textiles. These swatches of satin, lace, brocade and linen are taken from paintings by artists from  Mabuse to Klimt. Orange-tawney watered silk by Roslin (1781), crewel-worked brocade by Vishnyakov (1756), a lavish panel of beads, trapunto, and applied ribbon on pink sik satin by Bronzino (1543), and several versions of a stupendous gray silk covered with metallic embroidery and bullion worn by Queen Catherine of Russia are some of the glorys of this collection. The identification of the fabrics is my own best guess, based on my thirty years as a costumer.

The book itself is bound in  pink and gray Florentine paper with a spine of natural linen. There are two sets of cream silk ribbon ties at the edge for a closure.

This product was added to our catalog  January  9, 2012