Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Fabulous 18th Century Fabric

This week I am going through linens and fabric I am selling for a friend.  It turns out the stuff is from an estate of an antique dealer who passed away about 10 years ago, or more.   There was a huge series of estate sales (all of which I missed as I was on bleachers watching high school girls play volleyball, go, um, team name now forgotten...)   However, I did manage to pick the pickers--which is where I got the Fortuny fabric for pillows I blogged about.    Apparently it was quite the sale, no one wanted the Fortuny drapes.  On my, what a problem.  Anyway, there is a bunch of interesting lace and linens I am selling for my friend who inherited it, but I am having a hard time selling the fabric.  I want to keep it all to myself.

Here's why:

18th century fabric
This is not some machine brocade that is cranked out by a fabric mill.  This design is ENTIRELY HAND EMBROIDERED!!!

18th century fabric--entirely hand embroidered!  
Notice the amazingly tiny stitches.  They are uneven, all hand-done, not machine made!

18th century fabric

Back side of 18th century fabric - note all the hand stitching.
I know people make pillow fronts out of these scraps, but I hate to do that--it seems like it would all end with me, lost to history forever.

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful pieces of material. I would just lay it out and explain the stitches to visiitors as they ask about the pieces
    I enjpyed seeing it so much, and tro know the past history of it is wonderful

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    Replies
    1. Great idea, I have a glass case, I think I'll put some of the pieces in there for display. Thanks for visiting, glad you enjoyed the beautiful piece!

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