Mystery Embroidery
As you may have gathered, I am enjoying doing some work at the local museum. Where this embroidery now has my attention.
A very large size is HERE.
What has me, is that this appears to be a very early embroidery of a colony, possibly with icebergs in the background.
I'm not sure if it is Australian. There is a rough Union Jack on one flag, and this one with stripes and three stars on the right:
The very large one of that is HERE.
The whole thing is mainly long stitch, and has me fascinated. Does anyone know the flag, or have any suggestions as to what I should be looking for???? Nothing is known about where it came from. These photographs are through glass in low light, so don't show just how complex and detailed this work actually is.
You can get some idea of the size from Joan's hand under the photo - it is quite large, and in an old frame.
posted by Linda at 7:49 pm
4 Comments:
Could the flag be from the American Colonies? Could the icebergs (snow capped mountains?) be Canada or South Island, NZ ?
Y'know... the flag could be from the "Colonies" :0), when there were only 13 stars way back in 1780 or so. The 13 stars were arranged in a circle on a blue field and that looks like it could be the edge of a circle.
The large ship in the center might be a clue... you could do some (major) research and try and find out approximately when this type of ship was built.
But you could also carefully ease off the paper backing (if there is any) and see if anything is written on the back. Oh... I hope something is written on the back cuz this really looks like an original design!!
Do you have a close up of the Union Jack? The major change to that was in about 1801 with the addition of the St Patricks cross to the Cross of St George and St Andrew.
So if it's missing the red "x" then it's depicting a pre-1801 flag.
The detail on the house with the "stars and stripes" flag, has an American colonial feel. Could this possibly be depicting one of the towns on the Great Lakes, where you would have British and American towns very close to one another?
Cheers,
Laren
Hi, I don't know anything about this embroidery, but it did make me think of a needleworky thing I saw at Warnambool Art Gallery last year. I think it usually lives at the historical society...the image is colonial, probably brought over from England. It is an embroidery made with beads of a clipper ship on the water, it is very niave and extremely great.
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