Panel, c. 1700-1705, 35 x 20 5/8 in. (88.9 x 52.39 cm), Silk, metallic threads; compound weave structure with discontinuous supplementary patterning, France, 17th-18th century, In an effort to prevent French producers from taking over the luxury textile market, Italian weavers, who had dominated the trade in Europe for several centuries, created a bold new style which later historians dubbed Bizarre due to their strange and exotic patterns. During the 1690s, several European weaving centers quickly began producing these popular new patterns, but by 1700 French designers and weavers reached a degree of sophistication which has enabled them to dominate the luxury cloth trade for more than two hundred years.