Museum number
F238
Object
Embroidered casket, English, silk on canvas, wood, tortoiseshell, silver mounts, about 1660
Description
A sewing casket, fitted with 10 embroidered panels, showing country scenes, bound by strips of tortoiseshell with original silber handles but having lost it's original feet. The interior had been repaperd in purple and gold in c. 1870.The panel ion the lid of this casket shows a contemporarly couple in a landscape with a deer hunting scene taking place to their right, enclosed in a cartouche and surrounded by outsize flowers. The two front panels contain ladies, one with a monkey, the other with a dog, each carrying a flower. Some underdrawing is visible in the panel on the left. Above them a small panel contains charming scenes, a shepherd piping to his sheep, a man milking a cow and a shepherd leaning on his staff but the strip is much degraded. The main right side panel contains a woman with a bird sitting by a padded fountain in a pool. Above a smaller panel shows another shepherd piping to his sheep and a sheperdess. The reverse panel shows a woman playing a lute, and a man. The panel is badly stained. Above is a panel containing birds, insects and flowers. The main left side panel contains a woman looking at her reflection in a mirror, and a courting couple. Above in the smaller panel is a charming boating scene.The embroidered panels have all been worked on white satin ground fabric. The hunting scene of the lid differs from the remainderof the casket in that it is worked predominently in tent stitch with some cross and goblin stitch. Stitches ussd on the remainder inlcuded plit stitch, satin stitch, long and short stitch, French knots, laid and couched silk twist. some of the faces are padded, as is the fountain on the right side panel. Detached work is also used on the front panels for the oars in the boating scene., womens' dresses on the front area and the leaves of the flowers.
Materials
Silk
On display?
No

Further description

Simple name
Embroidery
Dimensions
framed: 26.7000cm (d) x 25.5000cm (h) x 35.5000cm (w)
Casket English Silk worked on canvas, set in wood and tortoiseshell with silver handles, about 1660 F238 Gift of Miss I.A.C. Springfield, 1964 The twelve embroidered panels that make up this casket were probably the work of a young girl of no more than fourteen who would have completed her needlework education making such a project. The Holburne Museum has a remarkable collection of embroidered pictures. Most were made by young, highly skilled amateur needlewomen in wealthy households although a few may be the work of professional embroiderers, who were usually men. Many of the embroideries incorporate raised work (or stumpwork), the technique of embroidering over padding in high relief. Their enduring appeal comes from the combination of exceptional craftsmanship with the naive charm of designs which often include outsized animals, birds and insects.

Please help us improve our records. Let us know if there are any errors by writing to curators@holburne.org