Skip to main content
1964-454,4, Pillow
Silk Embroidered Pillow
1964-454,4, Pillow

Silk Embroidered Pillow

Artist/Maker Miss Dilkes
OriginEngland
MediumSilk embroidery threads on a cotton tabby ground with linen backing and stuffed with soft, carded cotton
Dimensions11" x 15"
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1964-454,4
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, bullion knots, and laid and couched work; the white tabby-woven cotton ground is quilted in 30 to 32 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.