Spring is in the air in this week’s Keepers’ Corner!
Will, our Keeper of Social History, has been looking for some seasonal inspiration in the Embroiderers’ Guild Collection (which we care for at Discover Bucks Museum). While looking through a box of Indian stitchwork, Will happened upon this beautiful tray cloth made in Vellore in the 1930s. Intriguingly, it is not typical of Indian embroidery. It depicts a daffodil design stitched onto fine net with pattern darning – a technique which combines function (darning/repair) with decoration (embroidery).
Vellore is in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. A Christian medical college and hospital was founded there in 1900 by an American woman from a family of missionaries. This cloth was made by the Vellore American Mission, which may explain why its design and style is not typical of Indian embroidery.
You can see many more amazing examples of embroidered flowers in our new exhibition, Blooming Threads, which is on now.
In next week’s Keepers’ Corner we’ll be looking at an unusual shaped ceramic.
