Shades of green for spring in French homes of the 18th and 19th centuries

During the 18th and 19th centuries, rooms in the grand homes and those of the bourgeoisie were often decorated according to the season. Winter furnishings were in darker colors and sometimes in heavier fabrics. There were often more drapes and portières to hang in doorways and hallways to shut out the cold and the drapes for windows were often lined. Quilts and coverlets were part of the bedroom ensemble. Some quilts had two "faces" - one darker for winter and one lighter for summer. During the spring, the entire decor of a home was changed to lighter, paler and airier fabrics and motifs. For springtime fabrics, pistachio, spring green and pale greens were popular during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

This is a piece of woven silk created for a chair seat, done in bright spring green, mid-19th century. Note the use of symbols - the shell (symbol of the sacred path, but also used as a welcome sign for pilgrims in Medieval times) and the acanthus leaf (symbol of enduring life.)

Reddish-orange poppies and white grasses are the motif in this Art Nouveau fabric with a pale leaf-green background.

This 19th century French printed cotton features scattered flowers and leaves. The pale muted green background is a lovely canvas for the brightly-colored flowers. 

This pretty 1920s fabric, with a pale yellow-green background, was inspired by 18th century patterns.

Napoleon and the color blue

Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the first to promote "buy local."
During the 18th century, in the years before the revolution, most wealthy people imported their textiles and luxury goods despite strict laws against importing many types of textiles. The French textile industry languished and so did all the associated businesses like the dyers, the farmers who produced the raw materials, the weavers and the shopkeepers.
During the Middle Ages, the region around Toulouse had produced woad - a natural blue dye that is similar to indigo.  By the time Napoleon came to power, imported indigo was the preferred blue dye used in France. As a result, the French producers of woad were suffering and the entire Toulouse region was economically weak.
Napoleon chose the color blue for the French military uniforms in order to revive the production of woad. He decreed that the cloth for the military uniforms be produced in France with French wool, dyed blue with French woad and woven by French textile mills.  The region that produced woad thrived again under the Republic.

French antique bed sheets

Starting in the 1600s, the central government controlled the textile industry in France. Government agents decided who could produce textiles and what they could produce.
Bed sheets were manufactured in many regions and in varying styles. The most common bed sheet was woven on narrow looms, so in order to make a sheet that was wide enough to cover a two-person bed, these sheets have a hand-stitched center seam that joined two fabric widths.
Many families took their bedding to the local blanchisserie to be laundered.  In order to avoid mix-ups or loss, each person embroidered an identifying mark or initials on the sheets.  Many people simply embroidered tiny red letters or numbers on the hem, but others took the time to embroider monograms.
This 19th century sheet has a red cross-stitch letter "M" for identification. The laundry marks were always in red thread.

 

 

This image shows an example of a simple laundry identification mark on the hem (this is actually on a nightgown, but is the same mark that would have been on the bedding.)

This sheet close-up pictured below shows the center seam, which was always sewn edge-to-edge. This sheet was embroidered for decoration, rather than for simple identification, so it is done in white.