Terms and conditions of use
Embroidery (Firescreen)
1783
- Medium
- linen, silk thread
- Measurements
- 56.0 × 56.3 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- (England)
- Inscription
- stitched in beige silk thread l.l.: Mary Richardson Her Work 1783
- Accession Number
- D21-1972
- Department
- International Fashion and Textiles
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Mrs A. B. Kelly, 1972
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Professor AGL Shaw AO Bequest - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
Hand embroidery has been a significant artform since antiquity. From the seventeenth century onwards, domestic and professional needlework across Europe and England shared common themes, styles and motifs. Floral imagery became a European obsession during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Heavily embroidered, richly detailed garments first became popular in the sixteenth century and were intermittently in vogue until the nineteenth century. Costume historian Dilys Blum describes this work by Mary Richardson as ‘unusual due to the large proportion of black thread which forms a background to the image and words. The use of [complex stitches] ... is a fine display of the embroiderer’s skills’.
- Physical description
- Linen sampler with silk thread embroidery depicting an asymmetrical bunch of flowers tied with a ribbon worked in tent stitch, french knots and algerian eye stitch. "Mary Richardson, her work 1783" worked at the bottom of the sampler. The black tent stitched background appears unfinished.
