Images(4)

Framed Silk Cutwork Picture by Catherine Deshler

Date1769

Maker Catherine Deshler Roberts (1752 - 1837)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

MediumInk, metal, paper, and silk on a silk ground Frame: wood, gilding, and glass

DimensionsFramed (H x W x D): 16 1/2 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/2in. (41.9 x 47 x 6.4cm)

Credit LineGift of Beatrix T. Rumford

Object number2007-118

DescriptionThis nearly square cutwork picture shows a blue, two-handled vase holding a large bouquet of flowers and flanked by two smaller sprigs of flowers. The bouquet includes carnations, tulips, and large flowers with turned back petals. Pink, three shades of yellow, dark gold, two blacks, two greens, five blues, four reds, and a yellow with black float patterning are used.

The vase and bouquet are made using tiny silk pieces cut into circles and diamonds and placed slightly overlapping. Most of the pieces are about the same size, but some larger round pieces adorn the outer edges of the handles. To the left of the vase is a stem of five-petaled flowers, the petals of which are made of velvet. To the right of the vase is a stem of three pansies. The pansies are the only portion of the work where the silk was cut in a single piece in the shape of the motif. Black threads were also glued on the petals for detailing.

The whole is glued and pinned to a cream piece of moiré silk. The watering effect is symmetrical across the center crease. The picture is assembled using small pieces of silk—in velvet, satin, and plain weaves—glued onto paper or cardboard. Eighteen different fabrics and black string were utilized to make the picture, not including the ground fabric.

The picture is framed in a wooden shadow box with simple molding. A thin liner of gilded wood sits directly above the picture around the edge. The side walls are covered in paper. A piece of paper is attached to the back of the frame with the inscription, “Catherine Deshler/1769.”

Label TextThis rare and intricately worked silk cutwork picture by Catherin Deshler was treasured and handed down from family member to family member until it was generously given to Colonial Williamsburg where it joins other donated objects in the collection that descended through Catherine’s family. A paper label on the reverse of the picture reads, “Catherine Deshler fecit 1769.” The daughter of David Deshler, a prosperous Philadelphia merchant, Catherine probably attended one of the foremost Philadelphia schools for young ladies. Although the picture represents a technique of eighteenth-century ladylike art rarely seen, the composition of a centrally placed large blue S-handled vase brimming with carnations and tulips is a design often seen in American needlework. The picture was probably created in Philadelphia, a center for exquisitely worked colonial needlework. During the eighteenth century, flowers worked with shimmering silks on silk moiré taffetas appear to have been Philadelphia’s most popular form of pictorial needlework. Although most of these pictures were worked in silk embroidery threads, Catherine Deshler’s unique picture was created from minute bits of silk glued to paper and attached to a ground fabric of silk moiré with straight pins and glue.
Markings“Catherine Deshler/1769” on paper on back of frame
ProvenanceMade by Catherine Deshler (Roberts) (1752-1837);
By descent to her daughter, Elizabeth Roberts Canby (1781-1868);
By descent to her son, Samuel Canby (1811-1815);
By descent to his daughter, Elizabeth Canby Rumford (1848-1933);
By descent to her son, Lewis Rumford (1877-1961);
By descent to his daughter, Beatrix T. Rumford (b. 1939).

HISTORY OF MAKER:
Catharine Deshler was born to David and Mary Le Fevre Deshler on December 31, 1752. Though she was one of seven children born to the couple, she was one of only three to survive childhood. On June 6, 1775, she married Robert Roberts, a Welsh Quaker, in Arch Street Meeting, Philadelphia. After his and her father’s deaths in 1791 and 1792 (respectively), Catharine ran the private banking business they left behind. She had four children, two of whom (Esther and Elizabeth) survived childhood. She retired to Elizabeth’s husband’s home, Brandywine, in Wilmington, DE, along with Esther, who remained unmarried. Catharine died on July 8, 1837.