Charles Claude de Flahaut (1730–1809), Comte d’Angiviller

Jean-Baptiste Greuze  here

 

 

In my year off of blogging…I tried to keep a blind eye to all home and landscape improvements and focus on my love of 18th century and earlier textiles.

A much more peaceful interlude! After several years in a row of bathroom remodels and landscaping projects, my husband and I just wanted to quell the rush and bother of constant home improvement.

With my home a haven of neutrals, collecting rare textiles is a joyful way to enjoy color and shine…and the history each piece carried with it.

I am happy to fake it when I paint my walls, have no problem with reproduction pieces to carry the heavy lifting in home design..

but this is one area where I crave authenticity, handwork, inimitability.

The question I most ask myself when considering an expensive antique textile: can you copy this?

It tips the scales when the answer is no…

Common themes in my collection: fruit and flower…metallics…painstaking work by hand…sparkle and shine…

Earlier embroidery appliqued onto silk…perhaps a late 17th or early 18th century coif, late fashioned into an ecclesiastical statue robe?

A 17th century silver woven Syrian or Italian brocade…you can feel the weight of the piece from the silver threads…

An 18th century peach silk moire, resting on an 18th c Italian brocade with bright silver and gold threads…all atop a 17th or 18th century Italian velvet in a gorgeous Flemish yellow, evoking a Vermeer painting here.

A few of my most treasured pieces!

I have antique textiles on virtually every flat surface in my home now, as I try to decide which textiles I will keep for my collection or have made into pillows, and which pieces to be brought down to Santa Barbara for the French Kissed and Trouvais French Summer Market in August

I will also be bringing some Carolyn Quartermaine and vintage French flea market items, many items that you have seen on my blog…

Trouvais will be textile and French Market heavy for the next few weeks. Then I have an interesting home staging project to show you in August, and a trip to Italy in September. And though I haven’t picked up a paint brush in a year, I will probably start up again in the Fall with some of my limewash paints and give you a step by step tutorial. Finally, when it really gets cool, I can finish my husband’s wine cellar and give you a peek at that. So stay tuned as I sort it all out and toss out pretty pictures along the way!

French Summer Market here