Wartime sampler : Keep your hearts proud...

A counted cross stitch sampler likely to date from World War II or soon after.  The quote is from an Empire Day speech by George VI, broadcast in May 1940.  In the speech he refers to "our fighting men and those who love them; mothers, wives and sweethearts at home".  It's interesting to see on this sampler that all the figures are women - caring for children, land girls, nurses, women in uniform - representing the many roles women played in wartime and for the war effort.

This is one of the few patriotic samplers to quote the monarch (use the tag quotes to find others I've done blog entries about). The quote says:

Keep you hearts proud
and your resolve unshaken,
and with God's helpWe shall not fail

I wonder if this was a published design, intended to raise morale, or the work of a single needlewoman?  Counted cross stitch is more unusual at this time than transfer designs, but with wartime shortages a printed chart in a magazine or newspaper would not require postage, transfers etc.

If you know any more about this design or its source, please do leave a comment.

Post-war sampler, 1947 : Freedom, Justice, Peace

An embroidered postwar patriotic sampler, dated 1947, with guardsmen and symbols of Britain including cottage, castle and church and the Union Jack, celebrating the victories of 1945 and the war's end.

The frame measures 10 1/2inches by 12 1/2inches, so this image gives you a sense of the design size.  I would guess this design to be based on a transfer.

If you know any more about this design, please do leave a comment.

George VI : coronation : Vera Hooper's sampler

It's more unusual to find a coronation sampler that comes with a maker's name.  The description given with this example:

Sampler made at school to celebrate the coronation of George V1 the father of our present Queen who unexpectedly succeeded to the throne on the abdication of Edward V111. The emblems embroidered represented the British Empire at that time.

Size 15x10 ins

I wonder where the school/teacher found the design, and how many pupils completed it.  The blue background is less common than a pale one.  The lettering could have been altered from ER to GR, Edward to George, as was done with other designs.  There are other designs for both George VI and Elizabeth II that feature the animals representing Empire/Commonwealth nations.

If you know any more about this design, please do leave a comment.

George VI : coronation: sampler with roses, coat of arms & buildings

A delicately stitched embroidery/cross stitch celebrating the coronation of George VI. 

Unlike some of the 1937 samplers, where Edward became George, I've not seen any Edward examples of this one; perhaps it was designed after the abdication.  My guess would be that it was based on a transfer.  It's a delicate-looking design, in every example I've seen: mostly embroidery with a little cross-stitch (but it looks embroidered, not counted thread work - eg. the red crown in the coat of arms).  The framed size of this example is 13inches x 15.5inches: it sold for just over GBP42.

Design-wise, it has interesting connections to two other types of designs shown in other blog posts here.  The buildings are reminiscent of the impressionistic sketch buildings embroideries such as the Windsor Castle one in the previous blog (use the tag buildings to find more).  The lettering of the bordered inscription is like that used in the map samplers (such as the county map samplers) in other blog entries here (use the tag maps to find more).

If you know any more about this design, please do leave a comment.

George VI : coronation : flags and shamrocks

A small sampler, a satin-stitch embroidered confection of Union Jacks and red, white and blue shamrocks, not all quite stitched so you can see it was a transfer.  I find these sorts of waving-in-the-wind crossed flags rather jolly.

As with all George VI coronation embroideries, the question arises of Edward VIII.  My best guess would be that this design postdates the abdication.  Some of the coronation designs lent themselves to an easy substitution of George for Edward, but others, like this, don't lend themselves so well.  Thus I think it was designed after the abdication, as the design fits the wording of the king and queen's names so precisely.

I know nothing more about this piece - source or designer or anything else, so if you do know more, please leave a comment and share your wisdom and/or links.

Map sampler: Festival of Britain 1951 (I)

In 1951, the Festival of Britain was staged.  To quote Wikipedia: " The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote the British contribution to science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts." (source, also for the progam below).

And if you look at all the prewar patriotic embroideries, it's hardly suprising that there was an embroider sampler design relating to the Festival of Britain.  The first three pictures here show one example.  The colours are I think a trifle faded, perhaps through exposure to light.

Below are pictures of a second example.  Much brighter colours.  As the festival celebrated aspects of British life and culture, so do the images on the sampler.  From the top down: a deer/stag, and a bagpipe-playing Scotsman; a lute or harp; coming in from Ireland, an aeroplane; a ?dancer on a stage, and what looks like a circus tent; a Welsh lady playing a harp, the bust of William Shakespeare, a Beefeater and kettle drums with a music book; a roundabout/merry-go-round; a ?Cornishman with ?a squeezebox/small accordion; a sailor on a boat or barge; and a mermaid (or else a topless lady drowning and waving her knickers in the air to get the sailor's attention, which seems both unlikely and indecorous).  Also, of course, flags and around the Festival of Britain logo on the top right, the floral emblems of the British Isles; and bunting, echoing the design on the program pictured below.

And, you will notice, colour and lots of it.  More and more I think the Kent and Leicester county map samplers are likely pre-war.

This one seems very likely to have been a transfer design too.  How things have changed - few designs from the first fifty years were counted cross stitch, most were embroidery and based on samplers.  Most British patriotic designs now are counted work based on charts, whether cross stitch or tapestry/needlepoint.  Are we somehow more afraid of embroidery (the early designs didn't boast many complex stitches)? Were transfers, cheap to post, the easy way to transport designs then, while now counted charts can be downloaded from the internet or printed in magazines with no need to fiddle with stamps and envelopes?  Is there a preference now, for the exactitude of counted work, and perhaps a flavour of 'getting it right' or 'making exactly the same thing, because I like that sample' ?  I wonder.  I don't know.

A few more images of the second example:

Here is an image of a Festival program, to show you that stylised Britannia-head logo:

I wonder too about the form of this sampler being a map.  It's not just about showing the country, but also I think showing the country which resisted and prevailed in the very recent war, the country that was not invaded, close though they might have come.  Maps, after all, are essential to war and a matter for secrecy during war.  I've tagged this blog entry with wartime even though it's six years after, as the shadow of World War II is undoubtedly present in the reason for the Festival.  Rationing, for example, did not finally end until 1954.

I've seen several other versions of this design, so it must have been quite popular.  Which argues that it must have been in a wide-circulation newspaper or magazine, seen by many, chosen by a number of embroiderers to make in celebration.  It could have been a transfer, but a couple of examples I've been able to look at more closely seem to be on remarkably similar fine evenweave fabric, so I'm more likely to believe it was sold as a transfer already ironed onto fabric.

But I don't know.  If you do, please leave a comment with any useful information or links.

In light of the many coronation embroidery designs from 1937, and the many more coronation designs from 1953, only two years after the Festival of Britain, I find it interesting that at the moment, this is the only Festival of Britain design I've come across.  Was it a category-killer, catching the imagination? Were there few or no competitor designs?

Whatever the story (I wish I knew more), this is a particularly delightful British patriotic sampler, in my opinion.

Cross stitch designs based on photographs: the Queen Mother

I've got longer discussions of the pros and cons of photographic cross stitch designs in the two earlier entries in this blog.  For now, two examples of designs featuring Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

A 1999 design (ref 76951) from The Craft Collection, sold with chart, thread, 14 count aida.  Design approx 22cm x 38cm.  It has been stitched, with the stitched example illustrated on the cover of the pattern.

from eBay seller designs-in-thread, sold with chart, thread, aida (doesn't specify size) and 'colour picture of the design' (ie. probably hasn't been stitched).  Design approx 8in x 18in.  Cost  £22.95.

There are some nice earlier naive designs - outline faces, for example - on earlier George VI & Elizabeth embroideries.  Sylvia at Linens and Royals (see link in sidebar) has some in her collection from the 1937 coronation, for example click here and click here.

George VI: 1937 coronation chairback & 1953 Yeoman of the Guard tunic

I can understand that this Yeoman of the Guard tunic from the 1953 coronation of Elizabeth II was a 'professional' item, so to speak: worn by a participant on the day -

Nice embroidery on it, too (it was on eBay: can't imagine parking this in a corner of my parlour!).

But here's a chairback embroidery from George VI's 1937 coronation:

...which is like a window on a world now gone.  I can't imagine this was done for use on the day at the ceremony: my guess is that it was done to adorn an armchair in someone's parlour.  The embroidered side visible on the back of the chair, the plain side to prevent Brylcreem or hair oil or pomade or whatever were the hair unguents of the time from soiling the fabric on the chair.

Instead of a bouquet of flowers, it is a patriotic statement: the king and queen's initials, the floral emblems of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with the crown over all and the coronation date.  Where many British patriotic samplers have fussy detail, this one is a simpler and strong graphic statement.

I've never seen an Edward VIII version of this (ER would be the intials, I presume, for Edward Rex).  I find the font particuarly evocative of its time, slightly olde-worlde-calligraphic in style.  It's not a small design, either - the design occupies an area of around 12 inches square.

I have seen a couple of versions of this, with slight colour variations which would imply that this was a transfer design which individual embroiderers interpreted in their own colour selections - either because they liked their choice better, or they used what thread colours they had easily to hand.

Here is another version that was found as an embroidery, not as the long rectangle of a chairback.  You can see the lighter fabric and changes in thread colour.

I wonder what else was in that patriotic parlour? And if this chairback (and any others, if the embroiderer made a pair) were used for display/special occasions, or at all?

If you know any more about this design - where it was published, who designed it, whether it was a transfer - please do leave a comment.

George VI: coronation sampler with cross-stitched background, 1937

Listed on eBay earlier this year was this George VI coronation sampler from 1937.  In comparison to some other designs - for example the George V jubilee sampler with coaches from an earlier blog entry here - this looks distinctly chunky.  It seems to be due to at least two elements: the design itself (not a lot of grace about that coach, it looks semi-motor-car-like) and the size in which it has been worked (it's on tapestry canvas rather than evenweave linen or cotton).  Interesting to note the military figures: there were rumblings in Europe at the time.  The 1953 coronation samplers were much more likely to have jolly Beefeaters than the soldier and sailor featured here.

The background is also interesting.  The brown is cross-stitches - the entire background has been filled in.  One of the advantages of cross-stitch or embroidery samplers is that generally you don't have to fill in the background (unlike pictorial cross-stitch such as some of the photo-style William and Catherine designs illustrated in an earlier entry on this blog; or unlikehand-stitched needlepoint/tapestry with continental or ten stitch where every square of the design on canvas is generally filled).  Perhaps the stitcher stitched the design, saw how the canvas looked and chose to cover it up.

If you know where this design was published, please do leave a comment.

George VI: coronation tablecloth, 1937

From a past eBay auction, all four corners of the tablecloth featured this design.  It measured about 33in x 34in and was in good condition, according to the seller, and sold for 17.78GBP.

I do wonder, with tablecloths, whether people really sat down to eat with their special coronation cloth on the table.  Was it made before the coronation, and used on the day?  Ever used after?  And always interesting, in relation to this particular coronation, is the switch from Edward VIII to George VI.  Was this design always George VI and Elizabeth (as the scrollwork names would seem to imply), or was it originally Edward Rex?  I know of one sampler design that I've seen done with elaborate initials that are ER (for Edward) in some versions and GR (for George) in others.  I don't know the lead time that manufacturers/designers/newspapers/magazines would have needed or worked to in those days.

I also wonder, with tablecloths and traycloths, whether they were more likely to be bought as preprinted linens rather than as transfers.  For a sampler, the embroiderer may well have a suitable piece of fabric, but a tablecloth sized piece, being larger - a preprinted and possible already-hemmed linen (or cotton) piece might have been the method of sale.  It would also make the placement of the transfer easier (eg. for this one, aligning all four in the corners diagonally).  Then again, a measurement of 33in x 34in is less than 36in, which has been a standard fabric size. 

If you know more about this design - where it was published, whether it was a transfer or a preprinted linen etc -  please leave a comment.

1939 George VI peace sampler

This one has been offered on eBay UK for several months at 149GBP or best offer.

Here is the seller's description:
This unique vintage sampler dates from 1939. It is unusual in that it depicts hopes for peace, but must have been completed only months before the start of the Second World War. Across the top of the sampler is sewn: 'Peace and Goodwill Toward Mankind'. On the left-hand side at the top is sewn: 'Chamberlain Munich Sept. 1938', and on the right-hand side: 'King George VI Queen Elizabeth Canada America. 1939'. I believe this sampler to be commemorative of the Munich Peace Conference of 1938 and the Commonwealth visit of the King and Queen to Canada and America in 1939.


In the centre of the sampler at the top is depicted the Coventry City crest. Beneath the wording and crest there are scenes of a 1930s American ranch, and beneath this a 1930s house and garden. Across the bottom of the sampler there are depicted various garden tools and implements. In the bottom right-hand corner the initials B.A.N. are stitched. The whole piece has a blue stylised border.

The sampler appears to have been professionally mounted onto a card backing. It is contained within its original frame (not glazed). On the back board of the frame there is the name and address of the person who we believe did the needlework - Beatrice A. Nelson, 71 Kennilworth Road, Coventry. The mounted textile and back board are loose in the frame and need re-pinning.


Condition: The sampler is well-crafted and the colours are still bright and vibrant, with only some slight fading. However, unfortunately the piece is quite heavily foxed and has some brown patches. Some of this may be due to the card that the sampler is pinned to, but the fabric itself is also badly foxed. There are no visible rips and no moth damage that I can see. The frame has some wear and light scuffing to its corners and edges, and as was mentioned above the sampler and back board are loose in the frame. The metal hanging rings have been screwed through the frame so that the ends poke through at the front. An unusual and unique piece of pre-war memorabilia.

This is the auction link from August 2011:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1938-1939-PRE-WAR-KING-GEORGE-VI-PEACE-SAMPLER-COVENTRY-/140516958608?

And this is a link to the seller:
http://shop.ebay.co.uk/sladesantiques/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

It may of course be sold/gone by the time you read this.

A curious design, which seems more likely to be the ?adapted design of an individual needlewoman than a standard published pattern.