Created By: Pictorial Embroidery
Artifact Type: Anonymous Maker
Artifact Date: Circa 1823
Origin/Region: Trenton, New Jersey
Material/Medium: Silk thread on paper, backed with newspaper
Museum Database Number: OBA 1978.001.0002
Artifact Condition: Good
Artifact Location: Old Barracks Association Collection
Ownership History: Purchased in Memory of Mrs. Alexander Oliphant
This vertical still life, created with crinkled silk thread, depicts a sprig of botanically correct roses and buds with two-color leaves and prickly thorns. It is predominantly worked with satin and stem stitches, sewn through the front paper and the newspaper backing. A handful of floral embroideries on paper are known, dating from the late 1700s to about 1830. They were made both here and abroad, although it unknown whether or not the technique of newspaper backing was used consistently. Here, the 1823 Trenton newspaper features a poem about the “Goddess of Fortune”, items for sale at Joel Gordon’s Trenton clothing store, and an ad for the sale of a mansion house in which “the situation is pleasant and healthy, near the Delaware River and above the falls”.
Description taken from Hail Specimen of Female Art! New Jersey Schoolgirl Needlework, 1726-1860, Morven Museum & Garden (2014)
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