Mantle

This half-wheel mantle in black silk velvet printed with vine-shoot, pine-cone and tulip motifs of Turkish-Ottoman Renaissance inspiration, reaches below the knee, while the lapel on its high, gath- ered collar is cut in segments.

The decoration’s unmistakably Art Deco pattern is repeated nine times across the full width of the mantle. Maria Monaci Gallenga was one of the leading figures in Italian haute couture in the early 20th century. Her reputation owed a huge debt to her invention of a special printing technique con- sisting in daubing wooden dies with a form of glue that made a pattern onto which pure gold and silver-based metallic dust was then applied with a brush.

Anna Piaggi collection, purchased by the state prior to export, 2009