Seidengewebe des 18. Jahrhunderts I
Bizarre Seiden
Hans Christoph Ackermann
Textile analyses: Vendulka Otavská

The Abegg Foundation owns one of the largest and richest collections of what are known as «Bizarre silks». These fabrics are products of the most important European silk factories in Lyons, Venice or Spitalfields. They were made between around 1680 and 1720. The exotic patterns were inspired by the flood of goods such as porcelain, lacquered work and also textiles, imported by the East Indian companies.
The catalogue, which is published in German, illustrates 227 of these precious fabrics, generally brocaded with gold and silver thread. The stylistic development is described in twelve chapters, including, for the first time, revivals and newly created versions of bizarre patterns made when historicism was popular in the late 19th and early 20th century.

German edition only

Excerpt