Ismaelia reproduces a canvas printed around 1830, entitled La Girafe, kept at the Musee de l'Impression sur Etoffes in Mulhouse. The animal in question, a gift intended for Charles X, was unloaded at Marseille in 1826 and walked across France to the menagerie in Paris, an extraordinary event that set off a 'giraffomania' in the decorative arts. The fabric carries that story with it: a genuine document of a moment when all of France looked up.
