An extraordinary long band sampler, chaotically worked in coloured wools on a pieced cotton ground in shades of pink, red, brown, blue and cream addressed to Maharajah of Kelvedon Brandon Thetford..., the upper section with two raised work fighting gentlemen, the embroidered script beginning The Chatter is I Miss Lorina Bulwer Cambs Woman Drove to Thrigby Hall Norfolk E. Bulwer Married An Hemaphrodite Eunich I Miss Lorina Bulwer Was Examined By Dr Pinching of Walthamstow Essex And Found To Be A Properly Shaped Woman, the rest embroidered overall with rambling invective, much against E Bulwer and Queen Victoria and other sections more general including I Miss Lorina Bulwer Wonder the People Have Not Thrown All The Slops Of This Notorious Bug Lice And Flea Tribe Cambridgeshire Socialist Den And Pelted Him With Rotten Eggs As His Socialist And Old Faggot Wife Died.., in three sections (originally attached)--14in. (36cm.), 164in. (416cm.) and 12in. (31cm.) x 12in. (31cm.), 1860s/70s

Details

An extraordinary long band sampler, chaotically worked in coloured wools on a pieced cotton ground in shades of pink, red, brown, blue and cream addressed to Maharajah of Kelvedon Brandon Thetford..., the upper section with two raised work fighting gentlemen, the embroidered script beginning The Chatter is I Miss Lorina Bulwer Cambs Woman Drove to Thrigby Hall Norfolk E. Bulwer Married An Hemaphrodite Eunich I Miss Lorina Bulwer Was Examined By Dr Pinching of Walthamstow Essex And Found To Be A Properly Shaped Woman, the rest embroidered overall with rambling invective, much against E Bulwer and Queen Victoria and other sections more general including I Miss Lorina Bulwer Wonder the People Have Not Thrown All The Slops Of This Notorious Bug Lice And Flea Tribe Cambridgeshire Socialist Den And Pelted Him With Rotten Eggs As His Socialist And Old Faggot Wife Died.., in three sections (originally attached)--14in. (36cm.), 164in. (416cm.) and 12in. (31cm.) x 12in. (31cm.), 1860s/70s
See Illustration

Literature

See Sampler From The Victoria And Albert Museum plate 81 for a similarly desperate, though not quite as chaotic, sampler.

Sale room notice

Please note that further research suggests that this needlework may be the work of the daughter of William John Bulwer and his wife Ann Turner from Beccles. William John was descended from a younger son of the Bulwers that diverged from the direct line in the 1600s. He was the son of John Bulwer and Susanna Rook. William John married Anna from Chippenham and had five children, Lorina (also known as Louisa), Amelia, Walter Turner, Edgar Turner and Anna Maria. Lorina was born in Beccles in 1829. Her elder brother, Edgar Turner Bulwer (a woollen drpaer), is said to have decided that his sister was mentally incompetent in 1907 when it seems that he had her committed to an asylum. Edgar Turner's will of 1917 mentions that Lorina was 'incapable of running her own affairs'. Lorina died in Bellevue Workhouse, Caister Road, Yarmouth.
The sampler in fact dates from the early 20th century, not 1860s/70s as indicated in the catalogue.

Lot Essay

This sampler makes many references to E Bulwer, possibly Edward Bulwer Lytton the Victorian novelist. Bulwer Lytton's wife, Rosina, had a notoriously difficult relationship with her estranged husband and much of her own literary work contained passages relating to the ill-treatment of women by their husbands. Following a very public attack while he was canvassing for re-election as a Tory MP, Bulwer Lytton had Rosina institutionalised briefly. It is known that Rosina was fond of needlework and bore a grudge against Queen Victoria for enobling her husband (Queen Victoria is the subject of quite unorthodox criticism in this sampler). However, the rambling language of the sampler does appear to be rather crude and extreme to be the work of Rosina Bulwer. It seems more likely that it was instead worked by a member of the Bulwer family in the Norfolk area, possibly even one of Edward Bulwer Lytton's illegitimate children
Another possibility is that the E Bulwer refers to Emily who died in 1836, daughter of General Isaac Gascoyne and wife of William, Earl Bulwer Lytton of Heydon Hall, Norfolk.
The 'Maharajah of Kelvedon' presumably refers to Duleep Singh who lived at Elvedon near Thetford.

More from Asian and Fine European Costume, Textiles and Fans

View All