Guicciardini Quilt

An Italian lady from Bologna has just told me some exciting news. The Guicciardini Trapunto Quilt is finished being restored and is on display from April 26th to July 4th at the Palazzo Davanzati Museum in Florence.

The quilt returns "home" for a few weeks to the Palazzo Davanzati as it was displayed there between 1956 and 1991 in the Peacock Room (Sala dei Pavoni) which is the bedroom display.

The bed in the Sala dei Pavoni where I presume the Guicciardini Quilt will rest during the show:


One of the Peacocks on the wall of the Sala dei Pavoni:


This may be the only chance to see the real thing for a while as it will be returned to storage at the Bargello Museum (in Florence) after the exhibit. A replica stitched by the Club del Punto in Croce (Cross Stitch Club) of Florence will be displayed permanently in its place at the Palazzo Davanzati.

The Club del Punto in Croce (which practices all kinds of needlework, not just Cross Stitch) sponsored the International Exhibition of Textile Art inspired by the Guicciardini Quilt in Florence in October of 2006. All techniques of embroidery and lace were invited to participate. The result was a spectacular collection of needlework. Check out the slideshow of pieces (make sure you set aside 5 minutes or so to view them all): click on "Exhibitions", then "The Guicciardini Quilt" on the left-hand side of the page. Not all the photos are of good quality but you can get a pretty good idea of the amount of work involved in the show.

Some history of the quilt and it's brother (called the Tristan Quilt) at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the story of the restoration of the quilt in Florence plus other technical information can be found here but only in Italian. I have written them to ask permission to translate it for you, hopefully they grant it and I'll be able to write a post in the future about it. If not, then I'll sum it up for you in another post. In any case, go through the pages for the pictures!

In the meantime, you can also go to Tuttoricamo and look under the "History" heading for an article and links to more pictures!

Thank you Armida for your pics from the Palazzo Davanzati!
Grazie mille Bianca Rosa!