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Object Timeline

1903

  • Work on this object began.

2004

2005

2014

2021

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Sample Book, Pailles Été

This is a Sample book. It was company: Claude Frères. We acquired it in 2004. Its medium is paper, cardboard, silk, straw, and mixed media samples and its technique is samples of machine-made braids and embroidery, mounted on paper and bound. It is a part of the Textiles department.

Sample books, originally created for commercial, educational, or scientific purposes, have become valuable guides to understanding the products, technological processes, materials, aesthetic, provenance, and use of objects manufactured in the past. Both the museum and library have extensive collections of sample books containing diverse groups of samples ranging from paint chips to lace.
This 1903 sample book contains examples of braided straw “tapes,” which would have been used by milliners to make and trim hats. They were also used with sheer dress fabrics, applied in a machine embroidery technique in lace-like patterns. These unusual materials complement several of the museum’s holdings, including ribbons and braided trimmings used in the millinery trade; fashion accessories such as hats, fans, and reticules; fashion fabrics of the period; and sample books of late 19th-century machine embroidery and machine-made laces. The collection also includes other African and European objects that use straw as an embroidery “thread.”
This highly unusual book supports other artifacts in the collection and adds depth through its use of an unexpected and common material for the ornamentation of high-end, fashionable French textiles.

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Cite this object as

Sample Book, Pailles Été; Company: Claude Frères (France); France; paper, cardboard, silk, straw, and mixed media samples; 2004-7-1

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18699761/ |title=Sample Book, Pailles Été |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=1 March 2021 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>