Description
Rare — perhaps once-in-a-lifetime find!
“Chinois,” a stunning, luxury hand printed silk Chinoiserie by Cohama Fabrics, likely from the 1950s or 60s (no exact date is on this piece), is luxury fabric at its finest.
This extraordinary Chinoiserie is bordered on each side and down the middle in richly detailed columns of sweetly expressive and colorful flowers.
Several different vignettes are seen through the piece: Surrounded by lushly illustrated foliage, clouds, and fauna, three females sit outside a pagoda in front of a box, perhaps holding wares or meat to be a portable musical instrument. In another, a sitting man converses with another man on a bridge. The classic man poling a boat through a fantastical landscape of nursting trees and flowers defines a third vignette.
FIBER: Gorgeously milled and woven upholstery grade, heavier silk. The weave is more like a poult de soie, or faille taffeta — there are raised ribs to the weave giving it some hand texture, though it remains smooth to the touch.
COLORS: On an ultimate gray background are deep cranberry, millennial pink, pale ultimate gray that looks sky blue in places mauve, dusty plum, mocha, taupe, illuminating yellow, sage, olive, and off white.
SIZES: Width for all: 47.5″ = 1.25″ left hand selvage and 1.5″ right hand selvage.
Piece A: 39.5″ long (or 1 yard + 3.5″)
Piece B: 49.5″ long (or 1 yard + 13.5″)
Piece C: 89″ long (or 2 yards + 17″)
ELEMENT SIZES: People: Women: 4″ wide by 5″ high. Men: 5″ wide by 7″ high. Boatman: 6″ wide by 4″ high. Pagoda 12″ high. Large tree w/ men 13″ high. Birds 4″ -4.5″. Flowers in borders roughly .5″-1″ and borders themselves are 4.75″ wide.
CONDITION: Superior!
MAKER: Cohama made textiles early in the 20th century and the fabrics were used by such design luminaries as Diane Von Furstenburg.
Read more about Cohama fabric here: https://thevintagetraveler.wordpress.com/tag/cohama/
SUSTAINABILITY: ALL my packaging except tape is 100% re-used. Your invoice is available digitally in your account. I source vintage items either as they are, or to upcycle into new products, giving them a new life. This reduces demand on energy and resources, preserves history, and keeps valuable items out of the landfill, all of which asks just a little bit less out of our ever-giving Mother Earth. Etsy buys carbon offsets for all shipping, which is a win-win for the sustainability-minded shopper.
Everything from a smoke-free and pet-free studio.