Rare, unusual and interesting antique costumes and textiles; for museums and collectors looking for that extra special piece, for new and established collectors and for those with a modest budget who want to adorn their person or home.

SOLD

Leek Embroidered Panel
1880s

Thomas Wardle of Leek printed the cotton ground with a single colour outline and provided the skeins of Art Silks, which he had specially dyed, ready for the amateur embroideress. These pieces were sold in Liberty's of Regent Street, It has not yet been discovered who the designer was. The design was based on a 17th c diagonal meander silk and velvet textiles.



Liberty's 1875-1975 it states that Liberty's greatest triumph in those early days came from a co-operation with Thomas Wardle, the dyers and printers of Leek in Staffordshire, who also worked for William Morris. Between them, Liberty and Wardle introduced dyes which had until then been supposed to be a closely guarded secret of the East....delicate pastel tints which they called 'Art Colours', and that became described all over the world as 'Liberty colours.' Silks in Liberty colours were an influential element in the Aesthetic Movement. Liberty's windows became one of the sites of Regent Street...a revelation to a generation accustomed to the harsh colours of aniline dyes....


Cataloguing

the cotton ground with upright meandering branches filled with a variety of flowers including peonies, tulips, carnations and daffodils, outline embroidered in twisted silks in pastel polychrome palette, including yellow, softr mauve and magenta, beige and taupe, the edges bound in blanket stitch.



4ft 1 in x 3 ft wide



1.25m  x 90 cm wide



The pattern repeat is 27 in 69 cm drop.


Condition

There is a light yellow stain 3 x 5 cm the the lower left hand side. There is a mid brown stain to the hem again on the left hand side and a smaller one on the right hand hem. There is a watermark which is very very feint to the middle left hand side. 16 x 8 in; 40 x 20 cm.  One can hardly see this and when hung does not show. Or if used for centre of bedhanging again it would hardly show. Ask for photos.



 



 


Comments

There is a similar example of this pattern at the Nicholson Institute, Leek. Worked by Miss Ethel Vigrass, A Pupil of Lady Wardle's. School of Embroidery for Young Ladies". Cicra 1895.



Liberty's 1875-1975  Victoria & Albert Museum exhibition catalogue p 37 no C11A ;



Morris, Barbara Liberty Designs 57;



King, Brenda M Silk and Empire



King, Brenda M Dye, Print, Stitch. Textiles by Thomas and Elizabeth Wardle. p 40 for similar piece