Exhibitions
Artistic
linen damask from Brabant 1900-1960
Designs by Chris Lebeau, André Vlaanderen, Jaap Gidding and their contemporaries
8 October 2005 to 22 January 2006
Nederlands Textielmuseum Tilburg (Dutch Textile Museum Tilburg)
In the past, shiny linen damask used to feature on many dining tables.
The table linen and napkins were a standard part of the trousseau of well-to-do,
marriageable women. Possessing an extensive linen trousseau was her pride
and represented great value.
Around the turn of the century in 1900 a number of linen weavers in Brabant
– in and near Eindhoven – took the iniative of involving artists to create
artistic linen table damask.
This exhibition presents an excellent overview of the beautifully designed
linen table damask from the first part of the 20th century. This display
is one part of a two-part exhibition of artistic linen damask. The other
part of the exhibition is called 'From Arabesk to Swan; linen damask designs
by artist Chris Lebeau'. His designs for linen damask (approx. 55) with
Art Nouveau style patterns of nature that were created for linen weaver
Van Dissel & Zonen in Eindhoven have become very famous.
Sanny de Zoete acted as guest curator for this exhibition and is co-author
of the book 'Artistiek damast van Brabantse
bodem 1900-1960' (Artistic damask from Brabant 1900-1960).
Nederlands Textielmuseum, Goirkestraat 96, 5046 GN Tilburg, The Netherlands.
www.textielmuseum.nl
Opening hours: Tuesdays to Fridays 10.00-17.00 hrs, Saturdays and Sundays
12.00-17.00 hrs.
Beautiful damask, pressed with love
From 15 July until 15 November 2002 the exhibition ‘Beautiful damask,
pressed with love’ was on display in Slot Zuylen near Utrecht. Guest curator
Sanny de Zoete carefully selected the items that were shown in this exhibition.
The dining room table is immaculately
covered with 17th century linen damask. Belle van Zuylen’s bed is made
with sheets and pillow cases embellished with 18th century bobbin lace.
The beds in the guest rooms are inviting and show beautiful hand embroidered
19th century linen sheets and pillow cases. The white linen damask towels
are neatly hanging on a towel rail waiting for guests to arrive. The linen
that is not used is lying neatly on the shelves, a joy to look at. In
short: in the entire castle linen has once been put again where it belongs.
Beautiful linen damask
Many wonderful sets of table linen damask of the Van Tuyll van Serooskerken
family have been kept. This exhibition shows the best examples of four
centuries: from naturalist tulips and grapevines to geometric patterns
such as stars. The napkins look like half sized table cloths,
but they seem tiny compared to the real table cloths that measure from
5 up to 8 metres.
Intriguing initials
Traditionally, linen used to be marked with the family’s initials. The
initials TvZ, referring to Tuyll van Zuylen, is very common. But it is
exceptional that there are still 86 of the same napkins. All these napkins
were embroidered with tiny cross stitches and the number of 86 is on each
napkin. You can tell how careful a family treated
its table linen by looking at the beautiful stitches used to repair table
cloths and napkins. You can also tell when unprofessional hands have repaired
the table linen. For the first time in the history of Slot Zuylen a family
washes its dirty linen in public!
Mangled and pressed with love
Visitors of the exhibition will find out about the meaning of the expression
‘to mangle someone’ because the massive, heavy mangle is rolling again,
pressing the linen of the castle just like it has done for centuries.
Young children would love to go for a ride on the mangle, just like in
the old days. You can hear the unique sound of linen being pressed, creating
as if by magic, the wonderful shine on linen damask. In addition, you
can actually feel how smooth linen becomes by mangling it. You will also
find out all about the meaning of words such as ‘kit napkin’ and 'sentry
box napkin'.