Date: 1950s
Origin: East Germany
Arboretum is a richly detailed botanical repeat featuring flowering trees, cascading foliage, pendant blossoms, and ornamental shrubs arranged across a gridded design field. Rendered in warm gold, coral, lavender, green, and blue tones, the composition evokes the atmosphere of a cultivated ornamental garden interpreted through the decorative arts. A diverse array of plant forms and flowing organic rhythms creates a lush, tapestry-like effect, balancing botanical observation with stylised ornament.
This original point paper design (ref. D6643), created in East Germany during the 1950s, represents only half of the final pattern repeat. By drawing and plotting a half repeat, both the designer and the Jacquard card-cutting technicians significantly reduced the time required to prepare the loom. The punched cards produced from this half design could be repeated, mirrored, and joined, allowing the complete pattern to emerge automatically during weaving.
This ingenious approach effectively halved both the painting and card-cutting time, a considerable saving in a production environment where efficiency was paramount. The designer's understanding of repeat structure, combined with the technical expertise of the Jacquard specialists, ensured that once the cards were loaded and the loom set in motion, the fabric would reveal the full, richly layered Arboretum design in all its complexity. It is a wonderful example of the collaboration between artistic creativity and industrial craftsmanship that lay at the heart of mid-century textile production.
