Pinecones-and-needles textile

Pinecones-and-needles textile

Associated Artists

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fabric exemplifies the type of high-quality, finely textured silk of complex weave designed by Associated Artists in collaboration with Cheney Brothers, a silk weaving firm in Hartford, Connecticut (1838-1955). In it twill and plain weaves are combined, creating a compound woven textile called a lampas. This type of work is primarily associated with Asian weaving; perhaps Candace Wheeler (1827-1923) and the Cheneys used a sample of Japanese fabric as a model. Fine yarns of expensive reeled silk were employed, and the resulting fabric is extremely lustrous and delicate. Although many of the patterns designed by Associated Artists were treated principally from an artistic viewpoint, with the weave of the fabric of secondary concern, textiles such as this one relied heavily on sophisticated weaving techniques.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.