Description:
Pair of curtains (with textile fragment, HD 090A) made of plain weave, dark blue and white resist-printed linen with a elaborate, asymmetrical pattern of leaves, circles filled with trellis patterns and flowers, and flowers, and with the original French label: "BLANC TEINT LES DRAPS/ ET INDIENNE EN TOUTES/ SORTES DE COULEURS/ A JUSTE PRIX A SAIN BEL" (Mr. Blanc dyes cloths [linen or cotton] and indienne(s) in all sorts of colors at a fair price at Sain-Bel). According to a 1954 letter in the file from Gertrude Townsend, then the Curator of Textiles at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, this may be the mark of Mr. Blanc who was "un petit indienneur-teinturier a facon, Blanc, etabli a Sain-Bel;" Sain-Bel is close to Lyon. According to Linda Eaton, Director of collections and Senior Curator of textiles at Winterthur Museum, this late 18th century pattern is characteristic of Rouen, a major center of resist-printing like this. The indigo-resist pattern (known in the 18th century as paste work) was made by applying wax, starch, or (later) a chemical paste in the desired pattern to white fabric. When the fabric was dipped into the indigo bath, the paste "resisted" the dye, leaving the "waxed" fabric white. Then the wax was reapplied within each design to make multiple shades of blue; when the cloth dipped again, those areas not covered by the wax became an even deeper blue. A handwritten piece of paper in the data file states: "Made for Spencer H. Davis from a dress & new piece of a dress of his aunt Margarets." While the textile is 18th-century, the construction of the curtains is more recent. An identical indigo-resist pattern is found on the face of a quilt in Historic Deerfield's collection (HD F.155) and in Winterthur Museum (1967.106).
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+F.090 |
