Woven silk

This silk was probably woven in Lyon where the most common width of patterned fabric was about 52-54 cm. Typically it would have been used for men's suiting, though there are also references to such silks being used for women's dress. It achieves a similar effect to the motifs on rich figured velvets which were used for men's court dress.

Lyon was the main centre of silk-weaving in France from the late 17th century onwards and created the most fashionable silks in Europe. The patterns on these silks changed seasonally. This silk is one of the simpler silks made, though it would still have required the skills of a draughtsman who made a freehand sketch and then a technical drawing to show the weaver how to set up his loom. It belongs to the category called <i>petite tire</i> in French. In the middle of the century a court case in Lyon argued that the skills required to design such a silk were as great as designing for elaborate brocaded silks with much larger and more magnificent patterns.