Copyright status of Toile de Jouy patterns?

May 14, 2013 2:11 PM

I'm interested in using a Toile de Jouy pattern like this or this as a background for a piece of stationery – this is a commercial usage, not a personal one. Does anyone know what the copyright status of this kind of pattern is? It seems some are very old and traditional and some are not, but I'm finding no info about their status as public domain material.
posted by zadcat to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (2 answers total)

My advice would be that Google Books has a search option available for limiting your searches to before specific dates. Here's an example that might help you.

Lots of these early works have been scanned in their entirety, and are freely available for whoever needs them, so if you are looking for patterns and designs that are clearly public domain, that would be a good way to go.
posted by markkraft at 3:06 PM on May 14, 2013 [1 favorite]

I'd pick a scene that's not currently used by a fabric company, like Waverly, for example.
posted by Ideefixe at 3:34 PM on May 14, 2013