s Needlework Panel - Hull Museums Collections

Needlework Panel

This needlework panel was bought by Hull Museums from Mrs K.T. Rooms, a Hull resident, in 1968. Mrs Rooms had owned the panel for some time, and its previous history is unknown. The panel may either have been made as a complete picture, or may be a panel from the top of a box. The fabric is white satin embroidered with silks, and adhering to the back of it is the paste with which it was stuck onto a hard surface in the past. The satin has a green selvedge, which is often found on fabric from the 1600s used for small pieces of embroidery such as bags, cushions and covered boxes. It isn't easy to date this piece accurately, but the motifs used and the style of the girl's dress suggest it may be c.1640-1650. Many pieces of needlework similar to this one were made using 'stump work', where figures and objects were made separately and padded to give a 3D effect. The vogue for stump work began around 1630 and continued until about 1680. However, not all embroideries of this kind used stump work, and sometimes a flat surface was preferred. This piece has some of the motifs of a typical stump work picture, but is actually worked mainly in satin stitch, as many box panels were. Embroideries of this kind were usually the work of young girls from wealthy families, who could afford to have their daughters educated by resident tutors and special needlework instructresses. Girls used the stitches first practised on a sampler to make small but ambitious works like this one. Having learned to sew different stitches and motifs by making samplers, they were anxious to show off their skill by filling every available space of their designs with the popular motifs of the day. Figures of royalty, palaces, hunting scenes, Biblical characters, animals, plants and insects crowd together in their work with complete disregard for scale or unity. The inventiveness, fine workmanship and very human qualities shown by the design (or lack of it) in these pieces is what makes them appealing. The child who made this piece obviously had considerable skill and patience. The motifs used in these embroideries were often inspired by the popular herbals of the time, or taken from books such as Richard Shorleyker's 'The Schole House of the Needle' (second edition 1632). Sometimes satin could be bought with pre-drawn patterns that could be worked separately, cut out and applied. The final arrangement of the embroidery was therefore dictated by individual taste. The daughters of well-to-do households enjoyed their task of snipping, arranging and stitching the bright and sometimes precious materials at their disposal. This needlework panel is of the plainer sort, with only one padded motif and no metal threads or pearls. Each motif has been drawn onto the silk with pencil and covered with a fine black outline in silk thread. Some of the thread has perished over time to reveal the black lead marks underneath. The circular centre of the panel shows a girl standing in a garden containing an apple tree and several plants including a tulip, a pansy and a large strawberry. A variety of birds and insects hover and perch in the background. A border of scrolls encloses the circle. The outer corners and edges of the design are filled with a hunting scene showing a talbot chasing a stag, and individual plants, interspersed with insects and birds, including caterpillars, an owl and a butterfly. The small figure in the centre of the panel is not likely to be a self portrait, but has been sewn with great care. The bodies of several of the insects have been enriched with shreds of peacock feather, and a tiny bead makes a caterpillar's eye. The identifiable plants in the border are an oak tree, borage (which was used in cool drinks), daffodil, rose, vine, marigold and hazel. These are all useful plants that were prized in the 1600s for their medicinal properties, and illustrated in contemporary herbals. It is likely that the wood block illustrations in herbals inspired the designs that were translated into embroidery. Some of the motifs used in this panel have a long tradition in English embroidery. The stag pursued in the forest, represented by an oak tree, is frequently found in hangings made in the 1500s. In this piece the spotted dog, a Talbot, seems more interested in chasing a newt at the water's edge than in chasing the stag, which is bounding off the the left. The large rose, which is in tent stitch, has been worked separately and applied. It may well have been bought as a professionally drawn pattern rather than copied freehand. It is possible, though not certain, that some of the flowers and insects are Stuart emblems. Many different stitches have been used to make this panel. Satin stitch in carefully shaded colours gives a flat effect for the circular border, most of the plants, the sky, the more distant grass, the animals and the girl's dress. Split stitch, which is even smoother, has been used for her face and hands. Contrasting with the shiny finish of these two surfaces are patches of Surrey and twisted Surrey stitch. Surrey stitch has a cut pile like velvet, and twisted Surrey stitch is composed of close twisted loops. These stitches have been used for the grass in the foreground. The tent stitch of the large rose is echoed in the needle-made wings of two butterflies, a padded ladybird and the applied needle-made flower immediately behind the girl. French knots give an appropriate texture to the acorn cups and the stamens of the rose. The colours used in the panel are naturalistic and well-distributed over its surface. Many shades of green predominate. The brilliant pinks and reds of the circular border, the girl's dress, the apples and the butterflies have faded, but the blues, browns, yellows and greens have kept their brilliance.