Every stem and blossom in this pattern was originally executed stitch by hand-drawn stitch using a tiny tambour hook—pulling vibrant silk thread through cotton twill in a continuous chain. Crafted in Gujarat between 1720 and 1740, the original animated an embroidered bedspread, its swirling vines, stylized pomegranates, and serrated leaves creating an expressive, undulating lattice across the cloth.
Read More...
What survives is a fragment of it, 173 centimetres high, the width no longer recorded. It entered the Rijksmuseum collection in 1980 as accession BK-1980-773-B, a gift of the Stichting Twickel, and has been known since mostly through catalogue figures — p. 57, fig. 35.
Translating raised, tactile embroidery into a flat repeat is not a job for a camera or a trace. The work was done by a practising embroiderer, who built a Photoshop tool for this design alone in order to hold the momentum and tension of tamboereren chain work — the way the hook pulls the line, the way the stitch decides where the vine goes next.
The chain runs continuous again. Not stitched, but drawn the way a stitch draws.
The Cloth
Decor Chenille
A short, dense pile with a velvet-like surface on a firm woven ground. Fine striations catch the light as it moves across the room, deepening the colour. Substantial weight keeps a clean line on upholstery and gives tailored drapery a decisive fall.
-
Composition: 100% polyester
-
Width: 56 in printable (57 in full)
-
Weight: 400 gsm
-
For: Upholstery, cushions, headboards, heavy drapery
Cotton Linen
A fine, even linen-cotton weave. Colour prints cleanly while the woven surface remains visible, keeping solid grounds from going flat without softening fine linework. Light in the hand, it falls in narrow, supple folds and filters light rather than blocking it.
-
Composition: 55% linen, 45% cotton
-
Width: 54 in printable
-
Weight: 250 gsm
-
For: Upholstery, curtains, table linens, pillows
