1920's FORTUNY PANEL

It's always a surprise when I open any item that I have bought on-line. Unless I see and touch and smell an item before I purchase it, it's a game of chance. This time I was lucky!!! The antique Fortuny that I purchased with only photos to go by arrived on Friday and it is gorgeous.

   

And as usual, it came with a surprise: When I separated the Fortuny from it's old liner and then ripped out the hem of the panel, the seamstress had tripled the fold over for the hem and there were about 14 inches of the Fortuny that had not been exposed to the sun and retained their original color--which happens to be more of a deep forest green than the dark teal shown above. Antique Fortuny is quite pricey; so an additional 14 inches on the bottom and about 10 inches at the top is a gift.  THANK YOU!!

What's more, I do have some wonderful light weight silk faille that will coordinate perfectly with this Fortuny and I have plenty of antique silver fringe for further detailing.  Today I carefully washed the fabric by hand in a mild detergent (boy was it dirty--see photos) and laid it on the grass to dry. All of the staining came out, except for a normal patination which gives the fabric even more character. I have an appointment with Pam for tomorrow to start an order for 2 of these antique Fortuny pillows and also to start on 3 pairs of other vintage Fortuny pieces that I have collected.  We'll order the custom feather and down inserts tomorrow and discuss other details. I'll keep you posted on how the pillows progress.

Jones says "hi"--we were just visiting Cole and the two of them ran off---very bad dogs.

Hope the new week starts out on the right foot and that it is down hill from there.

Mary (and Jones)