Design for a Valance in with Thin Bushes and Garlands of Flowers and a Shell Motif with a Hanging Curtain

Renaissance pieces of art and design were reinterpreted in a variety of forms and motifs, and classical figures, scrolling decorations, strapwork, and grotesques and moresques, became central element in design. This Revival was characterized by the use of design motifs that alluded to Classical Antiquity, including vases and trophies with pastoral attributes, classical figures and cameos, a mixture of real and fantastic figures, and swags and festoons. These swags and festoons comprised garlands of fabric and ribbon, as well as thin bundles and garlands of flowers and husks colored with pastels. The scale of this design is clearly not true to life and it is not unlikely that this drawing was made for a sample book of an upholsterer, to be shown to the customer as one of many different styles to choose from.
The design consists of an onrnamental frame rendered with shoades of yellow to simulate a golden finish and is decorated with bundles and thin garlands of leaves and flowers over a light grayish-blue color. The leaves are colored with shades of green and light brown, and the flowers are colored with shades of pink, blue, yellow and carmine. There is a large bundle of flowers, possibly roses or camelias, in the upper center of the valance design, which also contains a couple of pipes, possibly from a musical instrument, colored with brown. The frame contains a shell motif above this bundle. The background outside the frame is colored with dark reddish-pink. A curtain of the same color, rendered like this possibly to simulate velvet, is drawn in the inner part of the valance, tied with two ropes with tassles, also of the same color, and half-hiding a simple shape of a window, showing a realistic drawing for the design, which presents the customer how it would look like when placed in the interior.