Unknown Maker, Indian

In this wall hanging, flowers real and imagined bloom from arching vines on a white ground. The blossoms are so crisply delineated that they might appear to have been printed, but close examination reveals that they were painstakingly stitched. Known for the fineness of their embroidery, professional artisans of the Mochi community in Gujarat, India, were commissioned to create this panel. The style was characteristic of English silks woven in London’s Spitalfields neighborhood by French Huguenot refugee families.

–Kate Irvin, curator of costume and textiles