The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Rectangular strip of textile featuring circular yellow fruit among winding green vines. Half of each fruit is speckled with black dots while some have a star-shaped cluster of leaves, like that of a tomato. Some vines are thick and rope-like, patterned with black dots and with thick, serrated leaves while others are fine lines, breaking off into strands of small leaves. Leafless, thorny vines cut their way diagonally across the textile.

Antscha - Yellow and Green

c. 1925–30
designer

Josef Frank

(Swedish, born Austria, 1885–1967)
manufacturer

Haus & Garten

(Austrian, est. 1925)
Cotton: paired plain weave warp; linen: unbleached weft; loom width, block printed
Overall: 72.4 x 128.9 cm (28 1/2 x 50 3/4 in.)
Educational Purchase Fund 1937.180
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

This textile was produced in at least two different colorways.

Description

With a title derived from a feminine Hungarian name, the Antscha pattern shows Josef Frank’s early use of long sinuous vines. Another example of the same textile (1937.181) exists in pink and blue, suggesting that pattern colors were customizable to fit the customer’s décor. These examples are likely the only surviving versions in an institutional collection.
  • This textile is from Josef Frank’s interior furnishing company, HAUS & GARTEN. It is plain weave and features a paired warp which is not seen in any other Josef Frank textiles. Under magnification there is a noticeable color difference between the warp and the weft. A polarized light microscope can be used to identify fibers; each fiber type has a unique structure that is visible under magnification. This technique requires a very small sample to be removed from the object. Through polarized light microscopy (PLM), the warp was identified as cotton with its helical structure, and the weft was identified as a bast fiber, likely linen, because it has striations perpendicular to the length of the fiber.
  • 1937
    Likely purchased by Mrs. Ruth F. Ruggles in Vienna, Austria from "Haus & Garten"
  • See "December, 1937." Education Department Annual Report, 1937, CMA Archives.
  • Color and Comfort: Swedish Modern Design. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 11, 2019-February 10, 2020).
  • {{cite web|title=Antscha - Yellow and Green|url=false|author=Josef Frank, Haus & Garten|year=c. 1925–30|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1937.180