Fragment

Silk velvets, such as those shown here, are often referred to as jardinière velvets, alluding to the textiles' bold, symmetrical floral patterns, found in French gardens of the period. These polychrome velvet designs required as many extra sets of warps as colors in the pile. In the fragments displayed here, probably from clothing or upholstery, each design has three colors of velvet pile on a cream satin background. Jardinière velvets usually combined both cut and uncut loops, a technique known as alto basso in Italian, which added texture to the design. In these examples, the combination of cut and uncut velvet on a smooth satin background gives them an especially rich appearance as light plays across the surfaces.