Images(12)

Raised Beadwork Basket

Date1650-1675

OriginEngland

MediumMulticolor opaque and translucent beads on a silk satin ground and wire frame

DimensionsOH: 7 1/4" x OL: 24" x OW: 20 1/4"

Credit LineGift of The Honorable Irwin Untermyer.

Object number1954-234

DescriptionThis is a basket consisting of a wire frame in the shape of a rectangular basket, covered with beadwork. The basket has four trefoil handles, one on each side, which are fully beaded with yellow, orange, white, dark blue, and light blue beads. The bottom is lined with cream satin heavily embroidered with multicolor beadwork, showing a queen in a blue dress with a yellow-green fleur-de-lis pattern and a king with a crown and ermine-lined cloak walking amid flowers, butterflies, and animals. A smiling sun sits in the middle above the pair, and four beasts rest at the basket's four corners. The four sides are paneled and filled with three-dimensional beadwork flowers and fruits, including daffodils, tulips, roses, oranges, lemons, and blackberries. The bottom of the basket also features three-dimensional flowers and fruits.
Label TextThis intricate beadwork basket depicts the betrothal of King Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. The figures are framed by three-dimensional fruits and flowers suggesting fecundity. The beadwork basket is part of a group of similar baskets from the third quarter of the seventeenth century that commemorate the 1662 marriage of King Charles II and Catherine of Braganza. It's likely that the elaborate beadwork motifs were professionally prefabricated or sold as kits for amateur bead and needleworkers to make.
InscribedNone
MarkingsNone
ProvenanceEx coll: Judge Irwin Untermeyer.

Exhibition(s)