Originally available as a physical slide presentation, this collection of photos has been digitized to make it accessible to EGA chapters and members everywhere. Click each photo for a closer look. While descriptions for each slide can be seen below each photo, longer descriptions are available for some of the photos. You can download a PDF of the slide descriptions by clicking here to see the full descriptions and to assist you when presenting to a chapter. To request this presentation in a different format, please contact us! Visit our Slideshows & Presentations page to see what else is available!
This selection of slides is a look at some of the best embroideries in our Permanent Collection. It was put together by Gunnel Teitel and Ann Hottelet before the move of EGA’s Headquarters to Louisville, KY. Some revisions were made in 1992. Click here to download a document with more information about this slideshow.
These are the cabinets and wall storage systems which contain the embroideries. Flat items are laid in the cabinet drawers interleaved with acid free paper; the larger textiles are on hollow rollers, encased in muslin sleeves made especially to fit; the rollers are hung on wall brackets with large dowels; the vertical bins have dividers to store framed pieces upright with muslin dust covers on the front.
Now we have the Collection itself… First, some of our samplers.
A Spanish sampler, worked by another child, 7-year old Dona Maria de las Angeles; she included the date of its completion July 2 , 1817
Another American sampler, also from the early 19th century.
Here is a group of motifs for mourning pictures, very popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
This is one of several stitch samplers in the Collection. It contains pulled and counted thread stitches for decorating linens, and pattern darning buttonhole, and detached buttonhole edgings.
Another 20th century sampler of puled work stitches.
And now a decorative sewing samplers, turn of the century and probably German.
Now we have some of our Whitework embroidery examples.
Another piece of Ayrshire, a handkerchief, in a different design.
This closeup shows the closely packed satin stitch areas with punched overcast holes like Broderie Anglaise.
Here is an exquisite example perhaps intended for insertion or applique for clothing.
Here is an exquisite example perhaps intended for insertion or applique for clothing.
A sheetband done in the style of Dresden work, which originated in Dresden, Germany at the beginning of the 18th century, as a substitute for lace.
In this detail you can see the fine backstitch along the cording channels, 48 stitches to the inch!
Another kind of whitework, Broderie Anglaise. This term applies to all kinds of openwork embroidery where a pattern of holes is either cut holes overcast with embroidery thread.
Casalguidi work is a type of ethnic whitework from northern Italy.
This slide was made during one of our Chapter Viewings
programs in New York.
The whitework is mostly in satin stitch, stem and Chinese knots.
This closeup shows you how complicated and exquisite
the embroidery is.
A small doily in pulled work with needleweaving. The
holes are cutwork with only a few of the verticals removed.
You can appreciate the fineness of the stitching in this closeup.
Now for some counted Thread pieces. This sampler was done in the 1960’s by a student of Edith John, a well-known English embroiderer and teacher.
This stylized flower shows a good balance of dark and light achieved by using stitches of varying density.
Assisi work is another counted thread style. Here we have a pair of napkin cases in contemporary Assisi, native to that city of St. Francis, halfway between Florence and Rome.
Beadwork is essentially a counted thread technique, too. This is a 19th century purse fragment from Bologna, Italy.
The Collection has some fine canvas This first example is a pair of fragments from 17th century Italy, a gift of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.
This petit point floral motif worked in soft cotton is an insertion for a purse. The shading is particularly good.
A chair seat is worked in oblique obelin in muted colored wools.
These are embroidered slips, or individually worked embroidery motifs, probably 18th century.
Now for some crewel embroideries. These two 18th century crewel fragments are part of the Cooper-Hewitt gift.
Here is a twentieth century Jacobean crewelwork motif of the 17th century.
See the contrast. The slide shows part of a bedhanging worked in the 18th century in the Connecticut River Valley.
Muriel Baker gave us this mermaid, which she herself worked on antique linen; the design is the adaptation of a motif from an early New England bedhanging.
The collection contains very little quilting, mainly because of storage.
Now comes Lace. The Collection has a variety of different laces, and the medallion on the screen now is one of our finest examples.
Here is a sample of the mezzo punto or half lace.
A combination of needle and bobbin ace is shown in this slide of pieced lace. From the 18th or Early 19th century
These are typical bobbin lace edgings, over- embroidered in silk. They probably came from Eastern Europe.
A piece of a pillow cover border in the style of 16th century Sicilian punto tirato, which means lace with withdrawn threads.
This is an Irish crochet lace collar from the late 19th or early 20th century.
Another fine Irish lace is called Carrickmacross, from the town of that name north of Dublin. Lacemaking began there about 1820 and was also a cottage industry. The
design was drawn on a backing cloth, which was overlaid by machine-made net when it became available and then topped by transparent muslin.
You can see the working in detail in this close-up.
A gorgeous handkerchief is made of hand-knotted net,
often called lacis (lasseese’) or filet lace. It is surely for show, and not for blow! The design is darned onto the knotted net background. Note that the border is knotted in a different pattern.
Here is a third kind of lace – tape lace. In this case, Battenberg. Tape lace goes back to the 16th century, with the early laces from Milan, Italy.
The Collection has a variety of interesting Silkwork pieces. I have chosen two antique examples first. The one on the screen is a piece of tambour work, done with a crochethook-like instrument on fabric stretched tightly over a frame.
This second antique fragment is also tambour work. It is a very finely worked monochrome fragment with stitch direction giving life to the design.
On the screen now is a hunting worked in Vienna, Austria, in 1820.
It is worked in silk on a silk ground, and its creator went all out to achieve a realistic effect; the dog has a glass eye, the horse has a real horsehair mane and tail, the saddlecloth edging, stirrups, and gun are thread, the dog is laid chenille.
This is a miniature cope, traditionally made for adorning figures of saints on holy days.
Now to the other side of the world – here’s a pair of Chinese sleeve bands embroidered in silk, on a silk ground woven in the traditional cloudband pattern.
This Japanese kimono fragment is quite traditional with its clouds, plum blossoms, trees and waves, with bamboo at the bottom.
While we are in the Far East, this is a Goldwork motif from an early 19th century Chinese court robe.
The Collection has a number of examples of Traditional or Ethnic embroidery from many different countries. On the screen now is a man’s wedding tie from Sweden, dated 1827. It is made of black silk brocade ribbon, with embroidered ends.
A ceremonial towel from Russia is worked with natural linen in cross stitch, the most frequently used stitch in Russian peasant embroidery.
Fez is a 9th century city in Morocco fame for
its crafts as well as its history. The Tree of Life design this fragment is typical of the region and is worked in reversible cross stitch in silk thread.
A poukamiso is a traditional Cretan skirt which is worn under a three quarter length shit. The skirt fragment has a stylized carnation, ve y common in the eastern Mediterranean, and is worked on linen in dark red flat silk, a material also common to the whole area.
Note this interesting piece of weaving from the Balkans; it was probably a dress front. he warp is cotton and the weft is wool with floating wefts. Metallic threads highlight the geometric design.
The graceful design in this fragment of a bedspread from Bokhara, in Turkestan, is to the floral patterns of Persia.
This band or border is eastern European, probably from the Balkan area, and was used to embellish clothing.
Perhaps this fragment of embroidery from Turkey is a headscarf.
Here is a complete Turkish headscarf, of fine wool with silk embroidery.
This fragment of Turkish pattern darning is probably from a dress rather than a household linen, because it has a carefully disguised seam down the middle.
These next few slides show work from Central and South America. Repeated motifs are typical of pattern darning as seen in this piece from Mexico
The bright colors often seen in Mexican embroidery were used in this pattern darning.
Malas come from the San Blas Islands off the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. This is a distinctive form of reverse applique, sometimes five layer deep, which was taught the Cuna Indians by missionaries in the mid-19th century.
Here we have a political protest in mbroidery form. The arpillera (ar’ pi yer’a) gets its name from the Spanish for burlap, since burlap is the ground fabric.
Finally, we come to some of Collection’s Contemporary embroideries. A floor mat by Mariska Karasz is on the screen now. Mariska Karasz was a Hungarian who lived in America – she died some year ago – and was
perhaps the first “free” or “creative” stitcher of the 20th century to achieve recognition.
Mariska Karasz worked this piece for a friend who was building a house. The design represents all that was going on in that friend’s head during the building.
From Sweden, we have a work by Anna Lisa Cruse, a well-known ecclesiastical embroidery called “St. Simon and his Saw” and was made in 1961.
Another piece of experimental stitch was worked by Georgiana Brown Harbeson of Philadelphia, in 1975. The title is “Ecology”, and the design represents the interdependence of the elements, water and air and the fishes and birds inhabiting them.
Joy Clucas, an English embroiderer who specializes in machine embroidery, worked this clever wallhanging, which was bought by the Guild in 1972.
Kate Doty’s jacket, skirt, and ensemble was
worked in the 1960’s and donated to the Gild. The jacket and skirt are patchwork, the seams embellished with woven ribbons; the finished garments are further embellished with surface stitchery, shisha mirrors, and tiny gold dangles.
The workmanship is immaculate. You get an idea of how immaculate from a close-up of one of the pockets. The material is polished cotton, by the way.
Nellie Bergh calls this wall-hanging “Madder and Fustic”, the names of the two dyeing agents she used to color her wools.
This is an embroidery called “New Horizons”, by Helen Richards of California; it was the gift Long Island Chapter of New York.
This is one of a series of machine embroideries by Barbara Lee Smith of Chicago. It is called “View from Within – A Summer Place”. It was the early 1980’s.
“Progressions” is a detached buttonhole, 3-dimensional embroidery from Sheila Ashby, a Scottish embroiderer who Glasgow School of Art under Kathleen Whyte.
The Collection Committee commissioned this mixed media embroidery on canvas from Carolyn Ambute, whom I’m sure you all know as the author of The Open Canvas.
The last slide is a delightful little creation from Wilcke Smith of New Mexico, a 1984 It is called “Cloudsweepers III”, one of a series of miniatures Wilcke did based on New Mexican Indian mythology.
Join the needlework network.
Sign up for our newsletter to stay on top of things.
We use cookies to understand how you use our site and to improve your experience. To learn more, click here. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies and revised Privacy Policy.
EGA Headquarters has moved to 501 Baxter Avenue, Suite 200, Louisville, KY 40204. Please update your records accordingly. Dismiss
