#2728 $600 Reserved
Fortuny cotton stenciled de Medici valence, 1950s
Stenciled with the de Medici pattern, the fabric was purchased in Italy by an American in the late 1950s and made into a window valence. The bottom is finished with a stenciled border print. The valence is backed with plain beige cotton. The Fortuny stamp, always along the selvedge, was cut off when the valence was made.
The fabric for this valence and for the 3 drapery panels, purchased at the same time, likely had the same hue when new. Sixty years later the valence is slightly more red, while the drapes are slightly more yellow. They still look fabulous together.
In Within a Budding Grove (1919), vol. 2 of Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, the painter Elstir describes the treasures of Venetian textiles.
You may be able to gaze up the marvelous stuffs they used to wear. Hitherto, one has seen them only in the works of the Venetian painters or very rarely among the treasures of old churches. I hear that a Venetian artist, Fortuny, has recovered the secret of the craft. Soon, women will be able to sit at home in brocades as sumptuous as those that Venice adorned, for her patrician daughters, with patterns brought from the Orient.
Although Fortuny stenciled patterns are still produced today, lovers of textile art appreciate the superior quality of his vintage pieces. This is the vintage advantage: you get the high quality of a vintage textile without the wear seen in a used piece.
The condition is excellent.
It measures 15" tall by 100" wide.
