A Treasury of Textiles
Today is Bastille Day, and while the crowds outside are celebrating with music and fireworks, let’s slip down a cool dim hallway to lose ourselves in a treasury of French craftsmanship.
From 1732 to 1737 Marshal Richelieu (a great-great nephew of the famous Cardinal Richelieu of Three Musketeers fame), collected all the textiles he could find, that were made or sold in France, along with their prices, and contracts concerning them. Unlike many collections which limited their samples to the finest brocades and velvets, Richelieu collected everything, from samples from the royal wardrobes to rough cloth being woven by galley slaves.
AND WE HAVE IT ALL.
There are 205 pages of the Echantillons des tissus available on line at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and many of the pages have multiple samples. The website is a joy to use, the pages load quickly, and you can zoom in to your heart’s content.
And because the Bibliothèque allows them to be shared on non-commercial sites, here are just a few of them. Remember, this was the 1730s. All of these samples are handspun, hand-dyed with natural colors, and handwoven. No one had yet thrown their sabot (wooden shoe) into a new, labor-saving device, committing sabotage. The fly shuttle was 8 years in the future, the cotton gin wouldn’t be invented for 50 years, and chemical dyes wouldn’t appear for another 120 years.
Enjoy!
A close-up of the previous so you can see the colors.
From the royal wardrobe. The bottom sample is a design of bunches of celery!
I love these funky little butterflies.
And Happy Bastille Day! Vive le France!
And may all our textiles last long enough to give joy to others!
Happy Bastille Day! What beautiful textiles.
Even the very basic ones have such a classic beauty, don’t they?
Wow, the colors are amazing!
And such detailed designs. There is enough inspiration here to last years!
thank you for sharing access info for these fabrics, always a wonder to wander thru these catalogs and look at the natural dye colors!
I was thrilled to find them and I think they deserve a fresh round of attention! 🙂
That was stunning, annoying that I had to keep asking the site to translate but you FOUND IT. The dyes are amazing and I’m glad you put these in context re chemical dyes, fly shuttles and the cotton gin. Thank you.
Forgot to say: a votre sante Marshal Richelieu !!
That is a new phrase to add to my French vocabulary!
Apparently he behaved scandalously most of the time, but this saves his reputation if you ask me! 🙂
Amazing textiles! And thanks for the origin of the word sabotage!
Yes, if those early weavers knew that the word coined for their actions would now have the connotation of the chilling activities of bold super spies, I bet they would love it!
Mais oui! Cette un chose de beauté! Okay–who knows if I got that right!? But this is incredible! What a resource!
I am pretty sure that looking at those textiles gives us all help with our French vocabulary and grammar, through osmosis! 🙂
An interesting education in one page. Wish all education themes were this interesting!
I think going back to the original sources is a good way to make topics more interesting.
Interesting, helpful and worth sharing. Blessings Always, Mtetar
Wonderful informative post – love them all, but especially those woven dots!
This website is a treasure trove for fabriholics who love to look to the past for inspiration. thanks for finding it.