Terms and conditions of use
Bed curtain
1720-1730
- Medium
- linen (twill), wool (thread)
- Measurements
- 172.5 × 134.5 cm
- Place/s of Execution
- (England)
- Accession Number
- 2922-D3
- Department
- International Fashion and Textiles
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1928
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
-
The flowering tree was the predominant design for fashionable embroidered bed hangings produced in England in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The design was adapted by English embroiderers from motifs depicted on the much coveted, brightly coloured, washable cotton chintzes being imported from India in large quantities at that time. This pattern is a stylised hybrid combining Chinese, Persian, Indian and European elements, coalesced over centuries of trade and modified for European tastes.
- Physical description
- A crewelwork bed curtain featuring two sinuous flowering trees growing out of grassy knolls in which there are a variety of flowers and small creatures. The two trees entwine to create a ‘tree of life’ motif with large leaves, some curled and others fully extended embroidered in shades of blue, green and brown, highlighted in pink, and off white. Embroidery stitches: satin stitch, long and short stitch, block stitch, seeding, split stitch, French knots, stem stitch. The embroidered motifs have been removed from their original backing and reapplied with buttonhole stitches to a later linen ground, possibly during the nineteenth century.