Vintage French Curtain w/ pretty Embroidery - White 46¾" x 22½"

"So French!" — that was Patricia's verdict when she spotted this embroidered and drawn-thread curtain panel at a brocante.

Found at one of the French flea markets that Patricia and Walter have long made a ritual of exploring, this vintage curtain panel is a fine example of the domestic needlework tradition that once furnished French households from Normandy to Provence. The ground fabric is a soft, ivory-white linen, and at its centre runs a formal decorative motif worked in whitework embroidery and punto tirato — the drawn-thread technique in which individual threads are carefully withdrawn from the weave to create open, lace-like passages.

Panels like this were made to filter afternoon sun through a French window or boudoir door, their embroidery casting a shifting pattern of shadow into the room beyond.