THE NEEDLEWORK LATE 17TH/EARLY 18TH CENTURY

This spectacular screen retains remarkably fresh colours, with its striking design of fruit, lavishly executed in silver thread, emerging from planters. Its lush design, evocative of the formal gardens and the fascination with exotic fruit so typical of the period, is perhaps inspired by table carpets from earlier in the 17th century, for instance two in the collection of Judge Irwin Untermyer at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, illustrated in Y. Hackenbroch, English and other Needlework Tapestries and Textiles in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Cambridge, 1960, figs. 172 and 174.