Framed embroidery
(c. 1896)

UNKNOWN

Medium: silk, wood, paint, glass, paper, metal
Measurements: 55.0 × 53.0 cm
Place/s of Execution: (Tasmania)
Accession Number: D144-1976
Department: Australian Fashion and Textiles
Credit Line: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Miss Mary Bostock in the memory of Mrs Tristam Buesst, 1976
Public domain
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
Frame: Original, by W. A. L. Rickards, Ballarat

Frame

This frame is one of a pair, thought to be contemporary with the embroideries contained within. It is characteristic of a shadow-box form, used to display items of art and craft with high relief. The frame is the only example in the collection to come from a frame maker who worked in a regional Victorian city. One of the frames retains the original backing board, held in place with forged nails, which carries the label of the frame maker.
Framemaker: W. A. L. Rickards

242 Sturt Street, Ballarat
Date: 1896
Materials: The frame consists of a composition basket-weave pattern on a thin convex base with a shallow imbricated leaf torus. It makes use of a steep velvet-covered slip. The surface of the frame appears to be gilded. The wooden structure of the slip is held into the outer frame with nails, as is the backing board on which the embroidery is mounted.
Condition: The general appearance of the frame suggests it has been re-surfaced. The texture of the surface has been exaggerated with a dark patination of the recesses.
Dimensions: 55.0 x 53.0 x 4.0 cm; sight 44.5 x 42.5 cm