Images(2)

Silk Embroidered Pillow

Date1700-1725

Artist/Maker Miss Dilkes

OriginEngland

MediumSilk embroidery threads on a cotton tabby ground with linen backing and stuffed with soft, carded cotton

Dimensions16 1/4" x 21"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1964-454,2

DescriptionThis is a small rectangular pillow embroidered with silks in a design of flowers, leaves, and twining stems in satin, long and short, split stitches, French knots, and laid and couched work. The white tabby-woven cotton ground is quilted in 23 to 24 yellow silk back stitches per inch in a pattern of small diamonds. The colors used in the quilting and embroidery are cream, yellow, rust-orange, brown, and black. It is finished in an embroidered narrow border edging. All pieces show small rosettes alternating with oblique "SS" forms. The pillow is backed with plain-woven linen material and thinly stuffed with an insert, probably later, filled with soft cotton.
Markings2 pillows, each tagged (ink on old paper), "Pillowcover belonging to old Embroidered Quilt/Date 1700/Miss Dilkes."
ProvenanceEx. Coll. Mrs. Nellie Ionides, Buxted Park, Sussex, England. Original coverlet, reported by Mrs. Ginsburg to have come from Stoke Edith, Herefordshire. See memorandum in object file, Mildred B. Lanier to Mr. Graham, 12/9/1966.

Exhibition(s)