Rococo Silk, the latest pattern for the V&A range of tableware from KitchenCraft combines eighteenth century history with modern casual dining shapes.
The floral pattern is adapted from a design for woven silk from around the 1730s. The original design comes from Anna Maria Garthwaite’s expansive collection of designs in the V&A that record the Huguenot silk-weaving industry in London and capture the essence of eighteenth-century Rococo style.
Anna Maria Garthwaite was born in 1690 and became one of the leading pattern drawers in the English silk industry, despite the likelihood that she did not receive the formal technical training usually considered necessary to take up such a profession. She produced as many as 80 commissioned designs a year for master weavers and mercers. She lived and worked in Spitalfields, London from about 1730 until her death in 1763. Anna Maria’s interest in natural form–and her talent for depicting it–characterises her designs.
The Rococo Silk tableware collection was launched by KitchenCraft at Spring Fair and Ambiente earlier this year.
* For more on tableware, see Progressive Housewares March/April pages 28-34.
Top: Above: V&A Rococo Silk from KitchenCraft
