Marseille: The Cradle of White Corded Quilting, which accompanies an exhibition of the same name, traces the origins and the commercial development of broderie de Marseille needlework. During the seventeenth century these supple, all-white corded and quilted furnishings from bedcovers to quilted bodices and caps grew out of the thriving textile trade centered on France s Mediterranean port of Marseille as adaptations of popular foreign textile products. Broderie de Marseille is a form of three-dimensional textile sculpture using plain white cloth and white cotton cording,...