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The increased use of quality designs in 19th-century manufactured goods created a steady demand during that period for collections of decorative patterns. This volume reproduces one such collection ― an extremely rare and valuable portfolio of 376 motifs assembled more than a century ago by two French Jesuit scholars. Relying on historical wall and floor tiles, textile patterns, tapestries, wall hangings, and other designs originating in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and later European and Islamic cultures, Charles Cahier (1807–1882) and Arthur Martin (1802–1856) produced a work of true artistic distinction. Included are a wealth of splendid floral, animal, bird, and geometric patterns, carefully researched and meticulously redrawn for use in a myriad of graphic and artistic projects. Many of the motifs are accompanied by complementary border designs, an often essential accessory. This edition faithfully reproduces the edition published in 1868, titled Suite aux mélanges d'archéologie. It represents an invaluable copyright-free resource embodying the finest designs from historic sources, ready for use by artists, illustrators, craftspeople, and designers working with textiles, wallpapers, interior decoration, and other projects.

"The exceptional collection published here ranges widely in region, material and technique. There are textiles and garments from North Africa, Syria, Arabia, Iran, Turkey and the Indian subcontinent linked by a shared vocabulary of ornament - evidence of the international nature of Islamic design. Materials represented are silk - the most prestigious of fibres, requiring highly respected weavers - wool, cotton and linen. Decoration is based on variations of weave and colour and embellishment through embroidery, printing and appliqué and illustrates the work of both professional and domestic workers. The strengths of the collection are concentrated in the textile production of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which, thanks to the basically conservative nature of textile technique and design, preserve and continue the traditions established in the medieval Islamic world. They are important in an assessment of Islamic textiles both for their quality and as illustrations of survival and adaptation in a major industry. Their heritage reaches back well over a thousand years, even though their very high perishability means that for the earlier part of the tradition our knowledge is reliant very largely on written sources. These, however, attest to the superb quality and quantity of textiles at the courts of the period."--From Amazon.com.

An overview of one of the oldest known methods of textile printing, from the late nineteenth century to the present day.