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| "Ljusöga" duvet cover (photo: Ikea) |
This design has been somewhat popular as an affordable fabric option for late 18th century style gowns, and some examples can be seen at 18th Century Notebook: Ikea Dresses. It is also used in the 1780s Italian gown featured on the cover of "The American Duchess Guide to 18th Century Dressmaking". If you've planned to pick up one of these duvet covers, do so now before they're gone!
On a more positive note, Ikea will soon launch a new 18th century print.
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| "Sprängört" duvet cover (photo: Ikea) |
Prints around the mid-18th century were often fairly large and closely spaced, like this one. But cotton printing wasn't allowed in France until 1759, so I'm thinking it might date to the 1760s or thereabout. If you think otherwise, please weigh in!
Thank you for posting, I've seen quite a few examples of a 'Ljusögadress' the last years, the design works well for Anglaises and francaises though. I like the Ikea designs though it is allways printed on a white background. The Sprängö desgn however seems to lack a lot of color, its mostly red, grey and a kind of pink. A print like this was often printed with a darker outline and the other colors were blockprinted afterwards or painted, here there are no blues, greens or yellows wich makes the designs somewhat pale. I don't say it isn't accurate but it doesn't have that 18thcentury feel to it. I quess I should be designing something like the Ljusöga soon.
ReplyDeleteGood points! A black outline was standard but here it's a dark brown or wine color like in the flowers, which is odd. And I do wish that Ikea would do period prints with colored grounds as well...
ReplyDeleteI've noticed in "Sits - katoen in bloei" that 18th century chintz in Dutch collections is of a very high quality, using many colors and shades. With that in mind, this print definitely looks pale! In contrast, the Swedish book "Kattuntryck - svenskt tygtryck 1720-1850" has much more white grounds, and the colors are usually restricted to the black/red/brown/purple that can be achieved with madder print. Grey was occasionally used too. There are a few examples that are pencilled (painted) with blue or yellow, but the 18th century prints in the book are nowhere near the splendour of the Dutch prints. The circa 150 mid-18th century print samples in the Berch collection in Sweden are also dominated by madder-only colorways, with red+black on a white ground being the most common combination. So the colors can differ from country to country, perhaps because of economy - madder-only would make the end product cheaper.
In a Dutch context, "Sprängört" might be a low-end fabric, while I think it would be plausible for middle-class wearers in a Swedish context (even though the shades of the colors aren't ideal!).
(BTW, it seems that I misspelled the name - it should be "Sprängört", and I've corrected my post now.)
What is the identity of the flowers depicted on Sprängört? They look a bit like garden roses...or perhaps chrysanthemums?
ReplyDeleteI'm no good at identifying flowers, but I think I've read that stylized chrysanthemums were a recurring motif in Indian chintz.
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