Textile Fragment
French, ca. 1730s

White silk taffeta costume fabric brocaded with polychrome silk, gilt filé and frisé, and silver frisé thread. At one point, this textile was pieced together in an attempt to recreate the original pattern.

Filé describes a smooth thread in which a silver or gold strip has been wound around a silk or linen core. Frisé describes a crinkled thread in which a silver or gold strip has been wound around a spiral core (CIETA).

Transferred from the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio,
R.T. Miller Jr. Fund, 1948 (KSUM 2006.11.20)

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Included in the Exhibition

In Bloom: Patterned Silk Design Innovations in Eighteenth Century France
Alumni Gallery, March 6, 2008, to February 8, 2009
Elizabeth St-George, Guest Curator