Rare and gorgeous, entire crouching figure, a putti, in c.1600s woven French tapestry, Gobelin, repurposed with a rich velvet backing and side framing which is trimmed out in antique French metallic rope and 2 antique metallic fringed wood tassels. Trim traversing the form is also antique. Only the fill pillow and the velvet are 20th century, likely made up in 1970s, the velvet is perfect and yet vintage and rich. I didn't want to remove any nap to test but I do think it is silk velvet. It is a single pillow.
Very good to excellent for age and type. As noted, the woven panel is very old, c.1600s, perhaps early 1700s at latest. Superb quality wool and silk yarns, a very delicate hand in any old restorations that might have been necessary. You can see how beautiful the panel is, how elegantly the figure fills the space, the composition and colors in the yarns. There are no holes, no tears, the velvet is supple, super-soft. The pillow fill is firm, I do not think it is down-filled, which it would have been if I'd sewn it myself. The cover is sewn on, so I can't check for certain. One might wish to open up one end and change the pillow form to a down one, but I will say, it's just so beautiful with some firmness to the panel, as you see it. Large, it is 21.5" tall, 16" wide and without poofing it up, it is 7" thick as shown. Museum quality panel, no odors at all, and clean and ready to display and love. I bought this one in Paris, have had it quite a few years, but somehow it's remained in protective cover in our warehouse. Time to part with a lot of these, I suppose.
