Description
in the mid-17th century style, depicting a potted fruiting tree with flowers and hanging tassels, with later silk border
Dimensions
260 x 65cm, including border 320 x 95cm
Footnote
Literature: Watt, Melinda, 'Textile Production in Europe: Silk, 1600–1800', in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000
Note: Patterned silk velvet was the most expensive and prestigious of all woven textiles. Under Louis XIV the superintendent of finance Jean-Baptiste Colbert launched an ambitious scheme to organize and promote the textile industries in France, both at home and abroad. Lyon, which had previously been an important trade centre for merchants importing Italian textiles, emerged as the centre of the reorganized industry, and subsequently overtook Tours as the largest French producer of luxurious silk textiles. It has been estimated that more than one-third of the population of Lyon, almost 15,000 workers, was involved in the silk industry either directly or indirectly by the late eighteenth century.