Beadwork and Raised Picture of Woman and Servant by Unknown Maker

Date1660-1680

MediumCotton, glass, ink, linen, paint, silk, silver, wire, and wood

DimensionsFramed (H x W): 19 x 18 1/4in. (48.3 x 46.4cm) Overall (H x W): 14 1/4 x 14in. (36.2 x 35.6cm)

Credit LinePartial gift of Betty Kramer Brown and Stuart H. Brown

Object number2000-333

DescriptionThis framed square, raised beadwork picture features a large woman in the center of the composition with a smaller-scale black man to her right. The pair is surrounded by disconnected beaded motifs including flowers, animals, and buildings. The whole is surrounded by a floral border separated from the center section by silver woven tape.

The woman is placed in the center of the composition and is scaled much larger than any of the other motifs. She is shown wearing a blue gown with yellow, white and green at her torso. Her petticoat is white and spotted with daisies, and she is draped with a yellow shawl. The beadwork was completed on a separate canvas to accommodate stuffing, but the batting is now gone. Her face is stuffed satin in the same color as the ground fabric, with embroidered features. Her hair is unspun silk, and she wears a large green crown and pearlized-bead necklace. Her hands are made of wood glued underneath the loose, woven bead sleeves.

To her right is a black man wearing a blue tunic with matching breeches and hose. He has large yellow cuffs on each sleeve and is wearing black shoes with red soles. His head and hands are made of carved wood, and his hair is portrayed with French knots. While his hands are glued to the ground fabric beneath the cuffs of his sleeves, his head is attached by securing a long neck with thread underneath his clothing.

Both upper corners feature buildings beaded in a red brick pattern. The left building has two round towers, the left of which has a blue dome roof. A small structure sits in front of the right towers with a yellow roof. The buildings in the right corner start with a round tower at the left with a short, yellow-roofed structure in front of it. In the center is a taller structure with a peaked roof, then an even taller building with a stepped roofline. At the right of the cluster is a tall tower with a yellow roof and a chimney. Both sections are stuffed.

The lower half of the picture is occupied by various flowers and animals and dotted with several small bugs. To the left of the woman is a green parrot with an orange bead sewn sideways as its eye. Ink lines at the parrot’s head suggest that it was originally meant to be crested. At the bottom left corner, a leopard lays facing left with its head turned to face back and its tail raised. The leopard is beaded in brown and red with black spots and a large, faceted black bead for its eye. In the lower right corner, a stag lays facing left. It is beaded in brown, black, and white, with antlers beaded with white beads that have blue and red stripes. Its eye is a large, black bead surrounded by a small section of gold embroidery. The lower center is filled with a small pond surrounded by rocks. A fish can be seen on the water.

The center portion of the picture is separated from the border by woven silver tape. On the top, right and bottom borders, turquoise glass and metal spangles are stitched onto the tape with heavy linen thread. The spangles on the left border are attached in the same manner, but are blue. The ground fabric of the center portion and the border are not attached beneath the silver tape, and there is no indication of the silver tape being sewn to the ground fabric: it is attached only with nails at each corner.

The floral border consists of an undulating vine and large, stylistic flowers at the corners and the centers of each side. The flowers in the corner use silk-wrapped metal coils as stamens.

Twenty nine different types of beads are used in this picture.

STITCHES: Back, couching, and satin

Label TextThis seventeenth-century raised bead work picture is remarkable in part because of its portrayal of a black man. Very few seventeenth-century, English needlework pictures portray people of color, and those that do often only show them as allegorical representations of foreign continents. The hands of both figures and the head of the man are made of carved wood. The arm “stumps” gave rise to the popular modern name for this technique: stumpwork. The picture was given dimension by sewing some of the beaded motifs onto separate pieces of linen canvas, then stitching those pieces onto the silk ground and stuffing with cotton batting.
MarkingsNo marks or inscriptions
ProvenanceOwned by Betty Kramer and Stuart H. Brown, textile collectors.
Given to CWF, 2000.