Karton waarop zwart lint van zijden gaas, met aan beide randen iedere twee cm een witte fluwelen bol c. 1900

This is a mounted sample of black silk gauze ribbon, embellished with symmetrical rows of white velvet spheres. The interplay of light and dark here evokes a sense of the celestial, the spheres mirroring the stars in the night sky. This motif is deeply embedded in our collective consciousness. We see it echoed in the Renaissance depictions of starry nights and the garments of mourning. Consider, for instance, the dark robes speckled with light worn in funerary processions—a visual language of grief and remembrance. This ribbon, with its rhythmic pattern, could very well be a part of such an ensemble, a marker of mourning. It is a testament to how symbols such as these recur, transformed yet recognizable, throughout the tapestry of human history. This seemingly simple ribbon, then, is a potent reminder of the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth, expressed through the language of symbols that resonate across time.