Online The Met Store Lyon Floral Tea Towel

Art-inspired gifts for the home.

The sumptuous floral motif on this tea towel comes from a striking silk piece in The Met’s European Sculpture and Decorative Arts collection. Undulating vines bearing colorful blooms reach along the Museum’s woven textile, which was produced at the manufactory Bouvard, Burel et Cie in Lyon, France, around the year 1860. The pairing of golden details with a rich crimson background is evocative of Renaissance silks, though the naturalism with which the flowers are rendered exemplifies a level of detail achieved by way of modern 19th-century developments in machine weaving.