Scrapbook with Textile Patterns on Transfer Paper

Scrapbook with Textile Patterns on Transfer Paper

Anonymous, French, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Album with pasted in scraps of transfer paper containing patterns and motifs for textiles. The majority of the designs are drawn in graphite, but there are also examples of patterns drawn in pen and ink, and several to which color is added by way of gouache or watercolor. The designs range from abstract geometric patterns, to floral and paisley motifs. They appear to have been collected over a period of time. Some, but not all of the patterns are numbered, and there are various inscriptions in the album, written in French.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scrapbook with Textile Patterns on Transfer PaperScrapbook with Textile Patterns on Transfer PaperScrapbook with Textile Patterns on Transfer PaperScrapbook with Textile Patterns on Transfer PaperScrapbook with Textile Patterns on Transfer Paper

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.