... enthusiasts of textiles with, to our credit, several collections of which the most accomplished is the one of embroidered liturgical ornaments and worship paintings acquired by the French State, thanks to our donation and the sponsorship of the Zaleski Foundation, to be deposited in the Cathedral Notre-Dame of the Puy-en-Velay and exhibited  by rotation in the Treasury of the cathedral. But also, American patchworks, pre-Colombian textiles, molas and huipiles … which we wish to share with you in the pages of this site.

We wish you a pleasant and studious navigation and keep waiting for your remarks and comments.

Josiane & Daniel FRUMAN

This background *, is made with couched gold filé (joining two threads at a time) in the shape of vortices or fans and is characteristic of the German embroidery of the middle of the XVth century.

de Saint Aubin ** writes about the couched embroidery that « As the silk stitches [attaching the gold] are quite apparent, one names the couching according to the pattern [created by the placement] of the stitches. Thus one calls the embroidery: couching in two stiches (couchure de deux points); in chevron (en chevron) ; in shell form (en ecaille); in lozenge (en losange); in serpentine (en serpenteau), etc. » and adds that it is possible to make «  entire backgrounds of large spiraling circles …which are started at their centers. These round forms, by merging with one another, reflect various light rays which combine very pleasantly … »as shown very clearly in the reproduction above.

* Text adapted from COUGARD-FRUMAN ( Josiane) and FRUMAN (Daniel H.), Le trésor brodé de la cathédrale du Puy en Velay : Chefs-d'œuvre de la collection Cougard-Fruman, Albin Michel, Paris, 2011.

** SAINT-AUBIN (Charles-Germain de), L'art du brodeur, 1770, in Art of the Embroidered, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1983.