Provencal fabrics

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2001 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

Filling antique arrmoires with eighteenth- and nineteenth- century quilts might seem an unlikely collecting passion for a French farmer and truffle hunter, yet over the last four decades Andre-Jean Cabanel has assembled an important collection of quilts that now number more than one thousand examples. He accomplished this by scouring antiques shops in the south of France including those in cities and towns such as Avignon, l'Isele-sur-Sorgue, and Montpellier.

In 1999 Cabanel loaned part of his collection to the Musee de 1 'Impression sur Etoffes in Mulhouse for an exhibition entitled Fortunes de Provence. Then last year an excellent book was published about his collection entitled Pique de Provence: Couvertures et Jupons Imprimes de la Collection Andre-Jean Cabanel, [XVIII.sup.e]-[XIX.sup.e] Siecles. It is written by a number of textile specialists and provides a thorough survey of the subject.

While Europe-an quilts have a history that goes back to the Renaissance, it was not until the end of the seventeenth century that what are known as couvertures piquees were being produced in large quantities in Marseilles. In 1688 there were between five and six thousand professional embroiderers working in local workshops stitching articles that were exported all over Europe, mating Provence a center of production.

As the quilts in Cabanel's collection were being readied for the exhibition in Mulhouse, Ross J. Francis, vice president of development at Brunschwig et Fils in New York City had the opportunity to examine them. This autumn, with the collector's cooperation, Brunschwig has reproduced fourteen fabrics based on those used to make quilts in Cabanel's collection. Five of these have also been adapted for wallpapers.

Le Kakatoes (illustrated at bottom right) is a roller-printed toile that was originally produced in Nantes or Rouen between about 1815 and 1820. Both of these cities were important textile production centers at the time. The firm of Favre, Petitpierre et Compagine, could have been the manufactory responsible for this fabric. The scenes are bucolic pastorals of peasant and aristocratic life during the period. Two of the legends depicted in the design are Le Doux Sommeil (The Sweet Sleep) and Le Doux Reveil (The Sweet Awakening).

Cigalou (illustrated at bottom left) is a cotton print used on a quilted coverlet. It was woodblock-printed in France, possibly in Alsace or Nantes, about 1780. The original on which it is based is a coverlet of a type that was traditionally given as a wedding gift in France at the time.

Tarascon (illustrated at top) is a cotton and linen print based on an original pique coverlet that was woodblock-printed using a resist technique. It was produced in Marseilles in 1770, after a prohibition against the manufacture and sale of printed textiles was rescinded in 1759.

The ornamental designs of Jean Baptiste Pillement (1728-1808), made popular through engravings, inspired a wealth of textile designs, including Sommieres (illustrated at center). Pillement's chinoiserie designs are often whimsical, and in this case the Chinese garden is the theme with central motifs of flowers, wind chimes, and parasols enclosed in an irregular trellis of flowering vines.

Brunschwig et Fils is headquartered in New York City and has showrooms throughout the country open to the trade only