Remarkable folio of 18th Century braids
This is an extraordinary two sided board folio, with an extra small and incomplete booklet, of 18th Century silk braids. They came from a very fine private collection of embroideries and I do trust the description, even know my knowledge of braiding is limited. The board & paper are all hand made and rather wonderful in their own right! Many styles and colourways of braid samples are present, with the board being full [no losses]. Some are quite tiny and so intricate. It must have taken hours to complete one length of braiding. I especially love the shield shape sample! The main board measures 15" wide when spread out, and is 10" in length.
Condition:
The samples are very fresh for age. A few of the samples have loops that would once have been upstanding but they are now flat from storage. I think a little brush would take them back to the original state. This is very minor. All the samples are well stitched to the board and then covered at the back with jolly hand block printed [?] paper. The paper is all good, but the board has some creasing through age. The folding centre of the folio is breaking at each end, but quite firm in the middle, with expected wear to the fold. The little booklet with it is not complete and does not have a cover. So not decorative, but offers a few more samples. The paper is watermarked with no date found.