Fabrique de Saint Ruf, Lyon, France - Design for an Embroidered Horizontal Border of the Fabrique de St. Ruf, - 1795–1815 - T-Shirt

A horizontal border of radiating dotted flowers and sweeping scrolls, painted in blue, violet and teal on a warm ochre ground, designed for the silk workshop of the Fabrique de Saint Ruf in Lyon.

Visual Elements & Composition

Large flower heads rise from the upper field, each a ring of dotted petals around a blue centre, with a burst of cream rays beneath. Small violet and blue star-shaped blossoms and pale green fern-like sprigs fill the spaces between them. Along the lower edge, scalloped bands in teal and violet sweep diagonally across the sheet, edged with tiny dots, and a row of oval beads and pointed leaves forms the base. The ochre ground dominates, and the composition runs the full length of the strip.

Meaning & Symbolism

The design was built for function. Repeated radiating flowers and sweeping scrolls give a long textile edge a sense of movement, and the scrolls draw the eye along the cloth. The dotted petals and beaded edgings reflect the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century taste for stippled, jewel-like ornament, in which flowers appear set with small gems. The sheet is dated 1795 to 1815 and shows the shift from the loosely drawn garlands of the 1790s toward the more ordered, sculptural ornament that became fashionable around 1810.

Wearing a Horizontal Border

A border is meant to be read across a long span, and this tee gives it that span. The scrolls travel across the chest and the flower heads sit at eye level, so the pattern reads the way the original cloth was meant to be seen, as a band of movement rather than a single motif. Each element of the sheet, from the dotted petals to the beaded base, stays visible in a single glance.