Textile

This pair of printed satins is notable for their vivid coloration and graphic compositions, with a brilliant red ground with discharged areas of off-white, printed with turquoise and black. The designs are strongly diagonal, stylized and abstract, with some characteristic features of 1920s designs: bubble-like treatment of circles, zigzag lines and chevrons, volutes and other classical references, and abstracted flowers. The designs almost seem to reference the “bizarre silks” of the late 17th – early 18th century, which were likewise characterized by diagonal movement and curvaceous but highly abstracted designs suggesting architecture, flowers and objects.
The unusual ground fabric, a combination of silk and cotton with a satin face, is too lightweight for interiors use, but not typical of most women’s dress fabrics, which would normally be pure silk crepe de chine or satin. However, the end of the piece shows that it was cut on the bias, clearly for use in fashion.

Textile; silk, cotton; H x W: 214.6 × 57.2 cm (7 ft. 1/2 in. × 22 1/2 in.); American Textile History Museum Collection, gift of Robert Canterbury; 2016-35-96