millefleurs

British  

/ ˈmiːlˌflɜː /

noun

1. a design of stylized floral patterns, used in textiles, tapestries, etc

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Etymology

Origin of millefleurs

French: thousand flowers

Explanation

Millefleurs is a design style that's packed with tiny flowers and plants. Renaissance tapestries are famous for their millefleurs backgrounds. In French, millefleurs means "thousand flowers." Woven tapestries from several time periods, including the late Middle Ages, early Renaissance, and 19th-century England, commonly featured human figures in the foreground with millefleurs designs behind them. They're characterized by irregular patterns of small flowers on green backgrounds. North Indian carpets from the 17th and 18th centuries often used millefleur designs as well.

Example Sentences

These were the pieces in the series called The Hunt of The Unicorn, owned by John Davison Rockefeller Jr. Their worth was greater than $1,100,000; millefleurs tapestries, their backgrounds were filled with flowers.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Much prettier," answered Gyuri, casting an admiring glance at the two black, velvety plaits, with a lovely dark bluish tinge on them, which hung nearly down to the edge of her millefleurs skirt.

From St. Peter's Umbrella by Mikszáth, Kálmán

Talk of eau-de-cologne, and millefleurs, and jockey club!

From One Maid's Mischief by Fenn, George Manville

Sir Oswald drew from his pocket a very fine white handkerchief and diffused an agreeable odor of millefleurs around him; the gardener had been near the stables, and Sir Oswald was fastidious.

From Love Works Wonders A Novel by Brame, Charlotte M.

All the way up the staircase in the house of tapestries are dainty bits of millefleurs, that Gothic invention for transferring a block of the spring woods from under the trees into a man-made edifice.

From The Tapestry Book by Candee, Helen Churchill Hungerford, Mrs.