Provencal fabrics.(reproductions of pieces from textile art collection of Andre-Jean Cabanel)(Brief Article)

Filling antique arrmoires with eighteenth- and nineteenth- century quilts might seem an unlikely collecting passion for a French farmer and truffle hunter, yet over the last four decades Andre-Jean Cabanel has assembled an important collection of quilts that now number more than one thousand examples. He accomplished this by scouring antiques shops in the south of France including those in cities and towns such as Avignon, l'Isele-sur-Sorgue, and Montpellier.

In 1999 Cabanel loaned part of his collection to the Musee de 1 'Impression sur Etoffes in Mulhouse for an exhibition entitled Fortunes de Provence. Then last year an excellent book was published about his collection entitled Pique de Provence: Couvertures et Jupons Imprimes de la Collection Andre-Jean Cabanel, [XVIII.sup.e]-[XIX.sup.e] Siecles. It is written by a number of textile specialists and provides a thorough survey of the subject.

While Europe-an quilts have a history that goes back to the Renaissance, it was not until the end of the seventeenth century that what are known as couvertures piquees were being produced in large quantities in Marseilles. In 1688 there were between five and six thousand professional embroiderers working in local workshops stitching articles that were exported all over Europe, mating Provence a center of production.

As the quilts in Cabanel's collection were being readied for the exhibition in Mulhouse, Ross J. Francis, vice president of development at Brunschwig et Fils in New York City had the opportunity to examine them. This autumn, with the collector's cooperation, Brunschwig has reproduced fourteen fabrics based on those used to make quilts in Cabanel's ...