Papillons, Pl. 17

Seventeenth plate of album with 20 pochoir pattern plates, titled "Papillons: vingt planches en phototypie coloriées au patron donnant 81 papillons et 16 compositions décoratives" (Butterflies: twenty plates with colored phototypes with patterns with 81 butterflies and 16 decorative compositions), created by Emile-Allain Séguy and published in Paris by Tolmer Éditeur, probably in the 1920s. The plate features four abstract ornamental patterns inspired on the natural beauty of butterflies, providing what Séguy considered a successful example of the application of scientific study of insects in artistic creation, resulting in colorful designs likely intended for textiles or wallpapers. The first pattern is made up of strips of alternating butterfly wings, executed with green and shades of brown, over a bright orange ground. The second is made up of alternating butterflies, executed with orange, pink, gray and black, over a background with semi-abstract leaves (?) executed with blue and shades of brown. The third design is made up of semi-abstract overlapping, alternating butterfly wings, executed with green, blue, cream, black, and pink, between two thin, vertical, silver stripes, over a brown ground. The fourth design contains rosettes made up of semi-abstract butterfly wings, colored with yellow, silver, black and purple over a gray ground, on a background with interlacing branches with leaves, executed with gray and black over a blue ground.