A Goldsmith in his Shop

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Petrus Christus, active by 1444 – died 1475/76, A Goldsmith in his Shop, 1449.

100% Silk
Double-sided
Designed and Printed in Britain
90cm x 5cm

The painting used on this scarf is widely celebrated as a masterpiece of Northern Renaissance Art. It is dated 1449 and signed by Petrus Christus, the leading painter in Bruges (Flanders) after the death of Jan van Eyck. The panel is likely a vocational painting, which portrays the profession of goldsmithing and perhaps a specific goldsmith. It has been suggested that he is Willem van Vleuten, a Bruges goldsmith who worked for Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy. In 1449, the date of this painting, the duke commissioned from van Vlueten a gift for Mary of Guelders on the occasion of her marriage to James II, King of Scots. It is thought the couple may well be depicted in this painting, portrayed buying a wedding ring that is being weighed on a scale. The convex mirror, which links the pictorial space to the street outside, reflects two young men with a falcon (a symbol of pride and greed) and establishes a moral comparison between the imperfect world of the viewer and the world of virtue and balance depicted here.

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What Makes Our Silk Scarves Exceptional

The Artist - Petrus Christus

Petrus Christus (c. 1410/1420 – 1475/1476) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444, where he became the leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck. He was influenced by van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden and is noted for his innovations with linear perspective and a meticulous technique which seems derived from miniatures and manuscript illumination. Today, some 30 works are confidently attributed to him although he was almost anonymous for centuries with his work only being recognised through the work of modern art historians. His best-known pieces include 'Portrait of a Carthusian' and 'Berlin Portrait of a Young Girl', both being highly innovative for the time due to the presentation of a figure against a detailed, rather than flat, background.

Macclesfield Printed Silk

Macclesfield was once the centre of the English silk weaving industry and the world's biggest producer of finished silk. The area has been printing silk for over 300 years and at one point had over seventy mills operating in the town. The town is close to a water supply that passes through limestone, and when used in washing and dyeing it gives silk a uniquely attractive lustre.

Our silk scarves are printed at a mill that has been producing printed fabric on the same site for the past fifty years and the process uses water sourced from its own reservoir.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Located in New York City, and colloquially known as 'the Met', the museum was founded in 1870 for the purposes of opening a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. It is the largest art museum in the United States and, with over 7 million visitors in 2016, was the second most visited art museum in the world, and the fifth most visited museum of any kind.

The permanent collection contains over two million works which is divided among seventeen curatorial departments. This consists of works of art from classical antiquity and ancient Egypt, paintings and sculptures from nearly all the European masters, and an extensive collection of American and modern art. The Met maintains extensive holdings of African, Asian, Oceanian, Byzantine, Indian, and Islamic art. It is also home to encyclopedic collections of musical instruments, costumes and accessories, as well as antique weapons and armor from around the world. There are also several notable interiors installed in the galleries, ranging from first-century Rome through to modern American design.