In all the years I have handled Antique bed- and table linen this is a first for me and never seen such a "Joyful bed linen and machine embroidered. And to defend "machine embroidery" there is no way this could have been "hand embroidered "vas it would have pulled both horizontally and vertically. And also it would not have been possible to hand embroider this design. It came to me as part of a small supply of bed linen from a bourgeoisie family. We have been able to obtain the provenance as the plain cotton was sent to a mill near Lyon ( the centre at the time for machine embroidery and damask linen etc.) to be embroidered by the grandparents of the lady owner who I bought it from in 1948. There is an abundance of techniques such as high relief embroidery, satin embroidery, open thread work, pulling of thread in the sunflowers etc. Floral design with open roses, as said sunflowers, wonderful compositions and covering the entire width of the bed linen. Apparently it has not been used since 1950 and prior to this date very little and it shows . It is as new. A very rare piece to be loved and cherished once more. It has been recently washed and ironed.