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.

Buildings : Windsor Castle

Another early to mid twentieth century sepia embroidery of a building with royal associations, this time Windsor Castle.  It's in the same impressionistic/sketch style as others I've seen.  Size:  17 x 12¾in (43 x 32.5cm) high x width.

I've seen enough of these, with enough different subjects but stitched in the same style, to think it most likely that they were sold as transfers.

If you know more, please do leave a comment.

Coronation portrait tapestries : Elizabeth II & Philip

This pair of portrait tapestries were apparently made to commemorate the coronation, but not finished until 1960 by a maker who only left the initials JMN on them.  The seller guessed that they might have been made for a town hall or other public building.  Unframed size: Height 41" (104cm), Width 29" (74cm).

I wonder if these were a commercial design?  They're a lot of design work to have been done by an individual, long before the time of photo-to-chart software.  The Queen's image is apparently based on the portrait on the front of the coronation programme.  The faces are stitched in petit point.

The last picture is of the back of the work, rather than Philip as vampire...!!

The seller set a starting price of GBP400.00 and a buy it now price of GBP560.00

If you know any more about these - designer, source, whatever - please leave a comment.

Map sampler : Great Britain (modern)

Designed by Angela Beazley, for the Classic Embroidery range. It is stitched on 14 count cream aida fabric and contains Stranded Cotton thread, metallic thread, gold plated needles, chart, and full instructions. Finished size: 40 x 34cm (16 x 14in).  Seen on eBay from seller atlascraft for GBP39.95 plus postage but probably available elsewhere as well.  Atlascraft noted that they can also provide 28 count evenweave as an alternative to aida.
It's in a style that has been done, with variations, for years: the map plus pictures illustrating the endeavours/features/landmarks of the countries.  This one looks to have quite a lot of detail in the individual cross-stitch pictures.  Earlier versions, like the Festival of Britain map sampler and the county samplers, are embroidery rather than cross-stitch, and so can be more variable in skill than cross-stitch.

Map sampler : Hampshire

A map sampler of Hampshire, with the same flowing style of wording as other map samplers previously featured on this blog.  Seems more and more likely that in the 1930s somewhere a series of these was published, likely using transfers for the designs.  This example has a maker's name, Dorothy Downer, and is dated 1935.

If you know more about this design or map series, please leave a comment to add this information.