de Le Cuona | Engraved Mortar with Beaten Top and Stained Bands No.39 – Brown

This is one of the more tactile cloths in the de Le Cuona range, and the name is a fair description of what you see. The surface looks worked rather than woven: a mortar-like ground, a beaten top, and stained bands that run across it and break up the field. Nothing about it is loud. The effect is of a wall that has been lived with, with enough irregularity to keep a large area of cloth from going flat. In a brown, it reads as earth and old plaster rather than as a colour.

We have only the product name and reference to hand for this one, so we would rather not quote a composition, width or Martindale figure that we cannot stand behind. This is reference EMT39, design No.39, in Brown. Before specifying it for a job, we would ask for the full technical sheet and a large sample, and check the width, the pattern direction of the bands and the abrasion rating against the piece you have in mind. De Le Cuona cloths vary considerably, and the figures matter here.

How we would use it depends on how much of the room it takes up. On a pair of curtains in a calm, mostly neutral room, the bands give some movement without introducing a pattern as such. On a deep armchair or a sofa in a library or snug, a worked surface like this earns its place, because you see it in changing light. We would pair it with plain linen in oatmeal or stone, a dark timber, and perhaps one flat, cooler cloth to stop the brown from feeling heavy.

Because the bands are a feature, direction becomes a decision. Ask your workroom to confirm in advance whether the bands run across the width or up the length, and agree how that is handled on each piece: horizontal on curtains, for instance, or kept consistent across seat and back on upholstery. Order a little more than the plain cloth calculation suggests, so the bands can be placed deliberately. Always cut from a single dye lot, and ask for a strike-off if the job is large.