#4079 $1,450
Deco brocaded lamé shawl, 1920s
The shawl perfectly captures the exuberant mood of the roaring 1920s with rich colors and larger-than-life stylized flowers. Here is the design statement you need to create a memorable look.
You can wear the shawl with a simple slip dress or with pants. You can also drape the shawl over your couch so that you (and your friends) can appreciate the beauty of the superb textile art. The connoisseurship of fine costume art is the mark of a cultivated woman.
The square shawl is brocaded with bronzed metallic gold on a ground of black satin. I love the striking combination of rose, magenta, aqua, turquoise, cornflower blue, and beige in the printed flowers. The shawl is bordered all around with hand-knotted black silk fringe.
The talented print designer achieves marvelous sculptural effects that seem to defy the limitations of the two dimensional print medium. The virtuoso painterly technique brings to mind a comment of Francesco Squarcione, the teacher of the great Renaissance artist Andrea Mantegna (1431-1506).
Concerning his pupil's work, Squarcione said, "Mantegna's painted figures look as if they were made of marble." Squarcione meant that as criticism. To modern ears, it is the highest form of compliment.
The condition is excellent.
It measures 97" square, including the 23"-wide border of fringe.
