I am smitten, completely, utterly, head-over-heels in love!
I'd happily use this (at a suitable scale, of course) for wallpapering a sunny bedroom or sitting room; I'd use it for clothing or for lining; for upholstering chairs; for draperies; and I would use it for modern or antique clothing from the late 18thC, forward, and historic accuracy be hanged. If I judge solely by my feelings, by how I reacted to this the instant I laid eyes on it, then it would be impossible to understand how anyone else could fail to be in love with it, too, and wish to use it everywhere for almost anything.
What astonishing timing! I was just editing my comment to add the below, between the clusters of asterisks, but when I hit, "Edit Comment" got the message that I can't edit because it has been replied to! *chuckle*. But yes, just one other color does make a big difference.
***No doubt the one has little or nothing to do with the other, but in the 18th century in this country one of if not the most common color combinations for quilt tops was green and red figures/shapes appliqued onto a white ground
( ... )
Green was a tricky color to print in the 18th century because there was no one dyestuff that could create it. The only way to have a true green was to combine blue from indigo with a yellow. The indigo would have been hand-painted on, and then the yellow would have been hand-painted, or a mordant block-printed (which then would have needed a dye bath).
Both red and black could be created by madder, so only two separate printings and one dye bath were needed.
There are some indigo resist prints overdyed yellow in the V&A bed hangings (which is the source of basically all examples that come to my mind because I've been studying them so closely) and some madder red (resist?) prints overdyed yellow as well as at least one black print overdyed yellow. I haven't seen any that seem to have more than one color that was then overdyed yellow.
I know that the color combination would have been *possible*, but I don't know how probable it would have been. I've never seen anything quite like that, but I'm always finding unlikely color combinations (some quite ugly which make me wonder if they've changed over the years). My impression right now is that fabrics tend to be of certain color combinations used in certain ways, and this isn't one as my knowledge stands at the moment.
Then to get a print with a yellow background, or to produce a green [figure/print], the yellow was always achieved by overdyeing after the print itself had been made?
I may be thinking too much like a painter: make a yellow background, and paint on the deep blue stems and leaves and the red blossoms, right? Well, no, virginiadear, not right. Different process.
Well, I don't want to say that it was always the last step because my knowledge isn't that great, but when I've read descriptions of the steps for particular fabrics, it seems that dyed yellow is last. Plus, the colors will mingle unlike paint, and because they are chemical reactions, they don't always do what one expects. The same mordant that makes red (alum) is what's used for yellow, just different dye vats. There are so many variables (purity of dye substances, mordants, time, temperature, order of steps, even pH of the water used) that it's amazing to me anything turned out looking good at all!
I am smitten, completely, utterly, head-over-heels in love!
I'd happily use this (at a suitable scale, of course) for wallpapering a sunny bedroom or sitting room; I'd use it for clothing or for lining; for upholstering chairs; for draperies; and I would use it for modern or antique clothing from the late 18thC, forward, and historic accuracy be hanged.
If I judge solely by my feelings, by how I reacted to this the instant I laid eyes on it, then it would be impossible to understand how anyone else could fail to be in love with it, too, and wish to use it everywhere for almost anything.
Absolutely charming.
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Adding another color really makes a big difference, doesn't it?
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But yes, just one other color does make a big difference.
***No doubt the one has little or nothing to do with the other, but in the 18th century in this country one of if not the most common color combinations for quilt tops was green and red figures/shapes appliqued onto a white ground ( ... )
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Both red and black could be created by madder, so only two separate printings and one dye bath were needed.
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Well, crums, that's a wee bit disappointing but I still love this sample just as much as I did when I first cast eyes on it!
Just curious: have you tried this design on a yellow ground with indigo instead of black? Too...garish?
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I know that the color combination would have been *possible*, but I don't know how probable it would have been. I've never seen anything quite like that, but I'm always finding unlikely color combinations (some quite ugly which make me wonder if they've changed over the years). My impression right now is that fabrics tend to be of certain color combinations used in certain ways, and this isn't one as my knowledge stands at the moment.
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I may be thinking too much like a painter: make a yellow background, and paint on the deep blue stems and leaves and the red blossoms, right?
Well, no, virginiadear, not right. Different process.
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