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.

French Art Deco lady

 

This Art Deco painting was the first thing I bought for myself in France and it still hangs on my living room wall.  I found it in an antique center in Bordeaux. The matte was water damaged, but I bought it anyway.  The local framer was able to match the matte color. He replaced the matte, but preserved the original frame and glass.

Gray backgrounds in French antique printed fabrics

The pictures below illustrate some of the gray tones that were used by French textile manufacturers during the 19th century and the early 20th century. The shades of gray included blue-gray, green-gray, charcoal and more. Gray was a popular color since it didn't show the soot from the fireplaces as did lighter colors. The first and third below are fabrics from 1870-1880 while the other three are Art Nouveau fabrics.

More colors of Provence

As mentioned in an earlier post entitled, "Color schemes in 19th C French textiles, part 9," red and gold were favorite colors in sunny Provence.  (To see that earlier post: http://french-treasures.blogspot.com/2011/03/color-schemes-in-19-c-french-fabrics.html)

Another favored color scheme from that era that we don't see very often nowadays is shades of turquoise or aqua with shades of red. Some interesting variations on this color scheme are shown below, starting with a lovely early-19th century imported fabric from India using red and aqua as the main color scheme:

Inspiration from nature

The French countryside is awash in color during spring and the early weeks of summer. There are fields covered with wild red poppies, called coquelicot and houses draped in boughs of wisteria.
It's easy to see French textile manufacturers were inspired by the beauty of the surrounding countryside to create designs for floral printed fabrics.

 

French Textiles - From 1760 to the Present - book review

I've had several email from readers asking which books I would recommend for learning about textiles or as good reference and research books.
There is a list on my website, but I'll use this opportunity to show some of those books in more detail. If you'd like to see the list, it can be found at the bottom of this page:
http://www.french-treasures.com/history1.htm

One of the best general books on French textiles is French Textiles - From 1760 to the Present  by Mary Schoeser and Kathleen Dejardin, published by Lawrence King in 1991. This book is currently out-of-print, but copies can be found on used book websites.

French Textiles - From 1760 to the Present, as the title indicates, focuses on the two hundred years since 1760, a year after France lifted the embargo on printed textiles. The embargo had been ordered a century earlier by the king in order to protect French silk producers from competition from imported chintz and other printed cottons from India and the Far East.
French Textiles gives a chronological history of the French textile industry, organized by blocks of time as indicated in some of the chapter titles:  "Enlightenment (1760-1790)"; "Upheaval (1790-1830)"; "Industrialization (1830-1870.)"
Each chapter has many pictures to illustrate the text, including images of textiles from the epoch as well as pictures of household interiors that show how the textiles were used. French Textiles - From 1760 to the Present is an excellent book, both as a general survey as well as a solid reference.
The first picture below, from page 41, shows a typical late-18th century bed that used several different toile patterns on one bed. The second below is the book open to pages 52-53 and shows typical 18th century floral prints.

Fragments of yellow toiles

Although there are many plants that produce a yellow tint for dyeing, all the natural yellows are light-sensitive and fade quickly. As a result, until color-fast yellow dyes were created in the 19th century, very few textiles were dyed in shades of yellow and only a very few of those have survived.
When looking at old French toiles, it's easy to notice that the early yellows had a wide range of shades that are not at all the color we traditionally think of as yellow. Instead, the natural dyes created tints that ranged from gold to orangish-yellow to apricot-yellow to near-brown. Below are pictures of several fragments of early yellow toiles from the late-18th and early-19th century.

French fabrics and the indienne flower

French textile designers took inspiration from the colorful printed textiles that were imported from India by traders and overseas trading companies in the 17th century. The Indian motifs and colors were re-interpreted and modified in order to more easily sell to French households. These French-designed and French-produced textiles in the East Indian style were called indiennes.
Some of the more popular motifs were of large-headed fantasy flowers and were often incorporated into wide textile borders as well as in wallpaper friezes and borders.
Here are several large indienne floral prints from three different 19th century wide cotton border prints from the Alsace region of France. These borders measured about 10-12" wide and the oversize flowers were almost the full width.

As can be seen by the printed cottons below, the same sort of indienne floral motifs were used in curtain and drapery fabrics as well, but in a much smaller scale. The third below incorporates the popular Indian tree-of-life motif in a slightly modified version.

More French tickings from Alsace

French antique tickings from the Alsace region of France are coveted for their deep red tones and seemingly endless variations in the colors, shadings and widths of the stripes. Although most collectors are familiar with the saturated red tickings, the softer tones are less well-known.
In addition to the red tickings, the region produced pastel and pale shades as well as tickings that were predominately blue. The paler colors included various shades of rose, beige, faded red, yellow, olive, blue and candy pink. The tickings in these colors were usually used for summer beddings and for bedding for children.
Below, the first five pictures are five Alsace tickings in pale tones that are predominately pink and rose. The last two pictures on the page show tickings that were produced in a classic French blue paired with yellow.

 

French red tickings from Alsace

Textile weaving, dyeing and printing was a major industry in the Alsace region of northeast France. Textile factories dotted the region and competed fiercely to produce beautiful colors and patterns on cotton fabrics. The region also produced utilitarian fabrics, including woven mattress tickings in deep saturated tones and in colors not seen elsewhere in France.
In days gone by, bedding was made at home. Homespun sheets and hand-stitched quilts were much-appreciated and highly-valued wedding gifts that were used for decades.
Mattresses were utilitarian items, usually constructed in one of two ways. In the most common type of mattress, the ticking fabric was stitched into a large pillowcase-like covering and then stuffed with straw or other filler. A more simple mattress was made by tacking a single layer of ticking to a board, allowing enough 'give' to be able to stuff straw between the fabric and the board.
Since northeastern France has cold winters, the bedding of the region included cozy feather beds and all sizes of feather-filled pillows. The mattress tickings from this region are well-known for their deep cherry reds and the combinations of reds and rose shades. The broad-striped patterns were generally intended for the large featherbeds, while more intricate stripe patterns were milled for use in pillows, bolsters and various sizes of duvet.
If you'd like to have an Alsace red ticking fabric for your home or for a project, please visit my flagship website by clicking here: www.french-treasures.com. 

The first picture below shows a stack of tickings from last fall's shipment (all sold.) Below that are several examples of red ticking fabrics from the Alsace region.

Color schemes in 19th C French textiles, part 11

To add examples of the use of the color gray in antique French fabrics, this post follows and expands on "Color schemes in 19th century French textiles, part 7."
Gray was very much favored in delicate or romantic foreground motifs in combination with one or two other colors. Pink and burgundy tones were commonly paired with gray, but other colors were occasionally also used. The five pieces shown below are all from the second half of the 19th century and were printed on a fine cotton. Note the fine quality of the engraving and printing on the first three. These three are prints are exceptional quality.

 

In the next fabric, a three-dimensional look is created by repeating parts of the foreground motif in shades of gray. This printing trick was used extensively in many styles of printed patterns.

One of the more unusual uses for gray was to print a background pattern on cotton - printed so as to look like a moiré silk - thus creating a faux moiré. Faux moiré patterns were printed in other colors also, but gray seems to have been the preferred color. Here are two examples from the mid-19th century. Both these were printed on fine Egyptian cotton, so were expensive fabrics when first sold.