Rubelli | Luigi Xv

Bouquets of flowers and berries, tied with ribbon and set out in offset parallel lines. It is a rococo arrangement and about as literal a piece of eighteenth-century taste as a furnishing velvet gets.

What makes it worth the trouble is that none of the modelling is done with colour. The detail inside each bouquet is built from the difference between cut pile and uncut loop, one register taking light and the other holding it, so the tonal range comes out of the surface alone. Turn the cloth and the whole bouquet changes weight.

The repeat is short at 27 cm, so the bouquets tile densely and a cushion will carry several complete units. Silk pile on a silk and cotton ground at 180 g, 60 cm wide, one colourway. Hand-woven at Cucciago at a few centimetres a day, which is why it belongs on a cushion, a panel or a chair back rather than a seat in daily use. Made in Italy.