Material:  Metallic Lace, Ribbon, Silk Velvet

Size:  Overall Velvet Panel ~ apx. 15 & ½ inches square

        Basket ~ Height, apx. 8 & 1/2 inches, Width, apx. 7 inches
Quantity:  1

Divine, heavenly, fabulous!  If you love antique Victorian and Edwardian ribbonwork, rosettes and passementerie trims you will probably love this piece as much as I do.

This lovely large basket of flowers is stitched to a black silk velvet panel, that was further embellished with embroidered foliage and French knots and may have been a pillow cover, or similar, at one time.

Overflowing out of the basket are a number of large ribbon roses, several accented with more metallic work.  Additionally, there are apx. 14 individual ombre ribbon rosettes sprinkled among the larger flowers.

The body of the basket is metallic and lacy, with a woven affect that gives a very three dimensional feel.  It is accented with a similar woven lacy band of lighter color trim.

The basket handle is also very three dimensional.  A rounded tube like base has been covered with metallic material and then further accented with the lighter color trim used on basket body.

While I am happy to report that the basket and flowers are in very nice antique estate condition, sadly the silk velvet has a number of small defects, most not detectable unless held up to the light, but there nonetheless.  It appears that some of the French knots may have have pulled loose, which has left small pin holes in the velvet, with five or so somewhat larger.

The panel is presently backed with a white loosely woven fabric, which also has some defects to one corner and edge.  See last image.
The Basket is centered in the middle of the panel, with apx. 3 - 4 inches of velvet on each side of basket.

I believe that the panel could be used as it is to make another pillow or framed, etc, if it was first backed with a dark fabric.  This would stabilize the velvet, as well as make the holes virtually invisible.

My initial thought, however, was to deconstruct and re-purpose the wonderful basket,  passementerie trims and flowers, which after carefully examining the back of panel I believe would be easy to do.  It appears that the basket, as well as the large flowers and all of the smaller rosettes have each been applied individually, by hand, so it is just a matter of snipping the threads to free each design element.

Another bonus of deconstructing is that the ribbon rosettes could probably be reversed for reuse.  All are in nice overall condition, but the fronts are somewhat faded, while the opposite sides of the ones I was able to lift slightly and peek behind remain quite bright, showing colorful ombre purple and lavender.  All could use some fluffing to re-plump.

Two of the larger flowers are in exceptionally nice condition.  The other two are not so perfect, with one appearing a little flattened and the other a little frayed, but both useable with some attention.

I would summarize by adding that except for the aforementioned issues with the velvet, all other elements are in very strong, stable condition.

As a final note; it was very hard to capture the overall dimensionality of this piece in our images;  for example, the large pale pink rose shown on the right in our top two images is very fat and puffy, raising up off of the panel by more than 3/4 of an inch.  The other large flowers, as well as the basket and handle are also raised, puffy and dimensional.

Really a wonderful old textile, full of interesting design elements and hard to find antique passementerie trims.

$ 199.00

Divine Antique Huge Metallic Lace Basket Filled With Silk Ribbon Roses, Rosettes, Ribbonwork, Passementerie Trims, On Silk Velvet Panel