Folded beauty

This exhibition at the Holburne Museum in Bath features the linen folding work of Joan Sallas. I had never seen this before, but it is based on linen folding, which was developed in the Renaissance and used to embellish the tables of the elite. Joan Sallas came to it following his interest in origami and it has definite links with paper folding. Some of the designs like the ‘mountains’ above were used to cover food as well as look decorative.
 

 

Others like the ‘fort’ shown here were used to trap small animals and birds which were released as the feasters sat down to dine. The exhibition shows the basic folding techniques and some of the designs used throughout the Renaissance. In some cases the guests’ coats of arms were folded into the linen. We were told that the art of linen folding reached its pinnacle in the seventeenth century in Germany, but it clearly is not dead, even at suburban dinner parties napkins are still folded into fans and simple forms to embellish the table.