Textile Design with Alternating Vertical Stripes of Zig-Zagging Pearls Over Overlapping Scales and Ovals Framed By Crowns of Laurel Leaves Placed Alternately Along an Undulating Line Adorned with Pearls and Circles

Textile Design with Alternating Vertical Stripes of Zig-Zagging Pearls Over Overlapping Scales and Ovals Framed By Crowns of Laurel Leaves Placed Alternately Along an Undulating Line Adorned with Pearls and Circles

Anonymous, Alsatian, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rectangular sheet of paper with a textile design from a group, dated 1840, made in Mulhouse, Alsace, which was an important nineteenth-century center for textile production in the Haut-Rhin region of France. The design is made up of a light tan base and alternating vertical stripes of zig-zagging pearls of light tan color, over overlapping scales rendered with dark reddish-brown stipples, and ovals framed by crowns of laurel leaves and a group of five pearls of light tan color over six petals of dark reddish-brown color placed alternately along an undulating line of black color adorned with pearls and circles. The circles are of red color and outlined in black and the pearls are of white color. The ovals are purple, orange, and green, all outlined in red color and with shade in black, and the laurel leaves are of white color with black outlines.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Textile Design with Alternating Vertical Stripes of Zig-Zagging Pearls Over Overlapping Scales and Ovals Framed By Crowns of Laurel Leaves Placed Alternately Along an Undulating Line Adorned with Pearls and CirclesTextile Design with Alternating Vertical Stripes of Zig-Zagging Pearls Over Overlapping Scales and Ovals Framed By Crowns of Laurel Leaves Placed Alternately Along an Undulating Line Adorned with Pearls and CirclesTextile Design with Alternating Vertical Stripes of Zig-Zagging Pearls Over Overlapping Scales and Ovals Framed By Crowns of Laurel Leaves Placed Alternately Along an Undulating Line Adorned with Pearls and CirclesTextile Design with Alternating Vertical Stripes of Zig-Zagging Pearls Over Overlapping Scales and Ovals Framed By Crowns of Laurel Leaves Placed Alternately Along an Undulating Line Adorned with Pearls and CirclesTextile Design with Alternating Vertical Stripes of Zig-Zagging Pearls Over Overlapping Scales and Ovals Framed By Crowns of Laurel Leaves Placed Alternately Along an Undulating Line Adorned with Pearls and Circles

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.