A RARE NEEDLEWORK CASKET

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Details

A RARE NEEDLEWORK CASKET
ENGLISH, MID 17TH CENTURY
opening to reveal a garden of pressed silk and featherwork magnolia, gillyflowers, pears and strawberries growing from a green featherwork lawn set with a woollen path , the whole reflected again the mirrored sides of the casket set with gilt wooden pilasters, the lid of the casket embroidered in coloured silks with the Judgement of Paris, the other panels with scenes probably from the life of David and Abigail, the back worked with a lady dining with two gentlemen, the front with a lady and gentleman with a dog, one side with an old man bidding farewell to his son, the other with a lady meeting a boy leading a mule, the frieze with raised work butterflies, snails, insects and flowers --8in. (20cm.) high, 10½in. (26.5cm.) wide x 8½in. (21.5cm.) deep

Literature

Old Furniture, VL. Pl, opp. p. 185
Wace, A.J.B., Embroidery in the Collection of Sir Frederick Richmond, Bt., part II, Apollo vol.18, July - December,1933 p.24
''...Caskets. One contains a model garden on a tray inside it, and this belongs to a very rare class of caskets of which only three examples are known.''
Therle Hughes, The English Embroiderer at Leisure, Country Life Annual, 1963 p.44

Exhibited

English Decorative Art, Lansdowne House, 1929, catalogue no.269 plate XIX.
British Art, Royal Academy 1934 catalogue no. 1487
British Embroidery, 13th - 19th century, Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1959, catalogue no. 121
Royal School of Needlework Loan Exhibition at St James's Palace, April 12th - May 15th 1951, catalogue no. 80

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

There are only two other known caskets with gardens, one from the collection of Sir William Plender, exhibited Lansdowne House, No. 267, and now in The Royal Collection, at Windsor Castle.
The other in the Victoria and Albert Museum, T.23 - 1928

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