It's a treat to go to a great antiques show to look at wonderful things chosen by dealers with excellent eyes, as was the case last weekend at the Taconic Antiques Fair, but it is always the most fun to find something unexpected on the way there or home, as was the case with this family portrait, among my very favorites of the week. The appliqué wreath (rather reminiscent of a Victorian hair wreath) encircling the photograph is a form I knew nothing about: decorated with metal springs and gold sequins, the thick, white material, which I first took for felt, is in fact silkworm cocoon. Often referred to as "cocoon embroidery" this is a traditional Cypriot folk art form, with the sliced and shaped silkworm cocoons sewn onto fabric backgrounds, especially dark velvet (as is the case here) to create delicate and also lush feeling raised floral, or sometimes or animal, motifs. And surely this family is Cypriot--perhaps recently immigrated to the United States when this was made, or soon to, with 1913 rendered in gold sequins at along the bottom of the frame, and what looks likely to be a monogram to the left of it. So many good things swirled up in this I think: a culturally specific, traditional art form combined with the "modern" and more universal media of photography; pride of family and pride of heritage and pride of craft; love and labor and care manifesting in this painstaking hand work but also in the building of a life and a family, with the hand of the wide-eyed boy here very tenderly gripping the hand of his father, and the wife's hand on her husband's shoulder. I love everything about this. Found in Massachusetts.
17 1/2" x 17 1/2" framed as found--original stained wood frame and glass. Overall very good antique condition, with a few surface scratches to the wood on the frame, which I have not touched, and a horizontal crease near the very top of the photo, as shown, and just a few small toning spots on the white cocoon; overall it reads crisp and bright white. From the reverse, one can see the original dark blue color of the velvet. Stable and sound. Wired for hanging.
You might also like
