Design for Textile (?) with Trophy, "La corderie"
Anonymous, French, 18th century French
Not on view
Design for textile (?) that is part of a group of ten designs, all containing trophies and pasted on sheets of blue paper with frames hand-drawn with black and pasted and rendered with metallic pigment. The type trophies in the designs, which are inspired on gardening and other outdoor activities, were common in the eighteenth century and could be used in wallpapers, tapestries and even as textiles for furniture.
This design, titled "La corderie" (ropery), contains a trophy made up of a wooden bucket and a wooden rake on the back, and a group of tied ropes layered in front of them. Together with the finished ropes can be seen the materials to make them: some (possibly) hemp fibres, which would have been formed into yarn, which can also be seen in the drawing. The ropes and hemp fibres and yarn are surrounded by thin garlands with green branches and leaves, and small flowers and flower buds with pink, brown, orange and bluish-white petals.