Elizabeth II : coronation : Commonwealth emblems

A coronation sampler featuring the animal emblems of the Commonwealth.  It measures 35cm x 45cm.  This, and the details below, are example 1.

I've seen a couple of other versions of this design, shown below, including one in landscape format, rather than portrait, and thus missing the Westminster Abbey/coach detail.  Note how embroidery lets the needlewoman ring changes - blue ER on the top example, yellow or yellow/red ER on the examples below, or differences in how the elephant is embroidered.

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4, landscape format. 

It could well be that the design was published in more than one format, or this could have been the work of a needlewoman choosing to make a smaller version.

If you know any more about the source/publisher etc of this design, please do leave a comment.



Dig for Victory wartime sampler

An embroidered sampler no doubt dating from some time during World War II as it features one of the best known slogans/catchphrases of the time, Dig For Victory.  The top lettering says "Save vital shipping space" - it's an intriguing mix of the positive, bucolic and ominous.  It measures 22cm x 37cm.  Sold for nearly GBP85.00

If you know any more about this design - who designed it, how it was sold, whatever - please leave a comment to share your knowledge.

Edward VIII : coronation : tablecloth with flowers & coat of arms

A pretty floral-edged tablecloth made to celebrate the coronation of Edward VIII - floral emblems and the coat of arms.  I wonder what the stitcher thought when he abdicated?  She didn't undo her stitching and change the king's name; and she didn't finish it.  It was apparently found wrapped in newspaper in an older lady's home.  Measures approx 32inches square.  Probably sold as a pre-printed tablecloth with the edges already hemmed, just needing embroidery.

I wonder if there are almost-identical examples with George VI on them instead of Edward VIII?

If you know any more about the source/designer/publisher/producer of this design, please do leave a comment to add to the information available here.

Elizabeth II : calendar sampler

This was listed with no indication of size, provenance or any other history.  I guess the ER to be Elizabeth rather than Edward.  From this only photograph, the design appears to be calendar style, an image for each month of the year.  It did not sell for its starting price of GBP35.00

If you know any more about this design, please leave a  comment to enlighten us all!

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.

Elizabeth II : coronation : 40th anniversary sampler

I haven't seen many sampler designs celebrating the 40th anniversary of Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.  This was worked in 1993 and is, unusually, embroidery rather than cross-stitch.  The vast majority of later twentieth century examples of patriotic samplers are cross-stitch.  The majority of the ones that are embroidery originated with the Royal School of Needlework, but I have no information to make this connection beyond guesswork.

This one is 15inches x 13inches, worked on Irish linen.

The quote says:

There is no magic formula that will transform sorrow into happiness, intolerance into compassion or war into peace, but inspiration can change human behaviour.

Queen Elizabeth II

The other sampler I've seen featuring her words is this one using part of her first Christmas message as Queen.  I have seen a couple of George VI samplers quoting him.  It was, after all, radio and television that made monarchs' voices heard.

As ever, if you know more than I do, which is very likely, it would be great if you'd leave a comment to add to this entry.

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.

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.

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.

Map sampler: Kent

As with last week's Leicester and Rutland map sampler, this one uses for the map mainly a sepia range of thread colours, with brighter notes in the compass and the county coat of arms.   This adds weight to my suspicion that this was a transfer design, with the embroiderer making their own choice of threads - probably with a colour version to inspire them, but not a kit to direct their choices exactly.

By this time, with this being the third map sampler I've shown you, you'll have noted the similarity in the font chosen for surrounding counties and the Straits of Dover.  I wonder if someone, or some shop or publication or other source, designed one of these for each of the counties of England? It hardly seems likely that they would have just Leicester/Rutland and Kent in the range.  You'd have a more than fair chance of finding customers in any county interested in stitching a piece representing their home and area.

As ever, if you know more about this design or any of the other samplers and embroideries here, please leave a comment with any useful links and information you can provide, to make this blog as effective and informative a source as possible.

Map sampler: Leicester and Rutland

As with last week's map sampler of the British Isles, I'd date this as early to mid- twentieth century: the label on the back has a twenties/thirties art deco sort of feel, to me.  Rutland as a county was abolished in 1974 and reinstated in 1997, but this sampler predates those governmental choices.

Here's a map from Wikipedia to show the location of Leicester:

The font used in the sampler, especially on the surrounding county names, is very close if not identical to that from the British Isles sampler in the previous entry.  There's a sort of local patriotism in this being stitched, county loyalty.  I can understand why someone would be moved to stitch a document of their part of the world; haven't human beings been doing this forever? All sorts of drawings and artworks and human creations are maps, of one kind of another.  This one adds as pictures a compass (very mappy), a coat of arms? or is it a Celtic knot? and what looks like a ruined castle and is probably a local landmark.  As its focus is more local than the British Isles one, it shows in stitched names a goodly number of towns and villages.

I'm guessing it was a transfer design.

If you can provide any clues about the origin of this design or any other information about it, please leave a comment with any useful links.

Map sampler : British Isles with coat of arms

Map samplers have a long history, and antique ones are often highly sought after.  There are some twentieth century examples around.  I'd place this one early to mid-twentieth century in date.  In coming blog entries I will show you several others: at least three of which share stylistic similarities with this one, in the figures and the font.  Being fairly small, it just has room for a representative national figure for each of the countries of the UK, a Scotsman in his kilt, an Englishman in his hunting kit, a Welshwoman and an Irish woman in their national dress (curious, isn't it, this gender split? Easiest gender with which to distinctively represent each country - what's an Englishwoman's national costume? An Irish man's?).  Top left, the coat of arms; top right, a compass; bottom left, a scale in miles.

If you can shed any light on the origin of this design, where it was published/printed/sold, please do leave a comment with any useful links.

Elizabeth II : Diamond Jubilee (VIII) : Mollie Makes roundup

Mollie Makes magazine has this roundup of designs called the Best of Jubilee Stitching on their website.  Here's their information:

Anyway, here are our fave bits of British stitching inspiration. Long live the Queen and long live crafting!
1. We heart this cute and very British birdie! Designed by Catherine Young, and the embroidery pattern is available from Bumpkin on etsy.
2. It's not quite Buckingham Palace, but this felt jubilee mushroom is fit for a fairy queen. It's designed by Hippywitch, and it's the cutest!
3. What a lovely way to get a touch of the Cath Kidston look through your own fair hands. This set of London embroidery motifs, designed by Catherine Young, of Moda Fabrics fame, would be just right for the Jubilee weekend, and it's available as a pdf download from Comfort Stitching on etsy.

Lovely magazine, Mollie Makes, if you don't know it.  Definitely worth a look if you're even vaguely interested in crafting and making.

I particularly like the London embroidery motifs.  Embroidery, when so many jubilee designs are cross stitch.

All these blog posts documenting jubilee designs are tagged with 'jubilee', so you can use that to find the others if you'd like to see more.

Elizabeth II : Diamond Jubilee (VII) : roundup

The Cross Stitcher magazine Making Spot blog has this roundup of Diamond Jubilee designs.

From top left, to bottom right:
Embroidery pattern, Bustle & Sew
Crown hoop design, What Delilah Did
Diamond Jubilee sampler, Nia Cross Stitch
Crown sachet, CrossStitcher 250
Celebration cupcakes, Bothy Threads
Emma Bridgewater, CrossStitcher 250
Crown in frame, Diane Machin
Stamp design, Jacqui Pearce
Corgi Union Jack, Miso Funky

As I suspected, there are more and more designs available as the Jubilee celebrations get closer.

Elizabeth II: coronation: Radio Times embroidered cover

How could any patriotic Briton, obtaining the Radio Times weekly to know what was on the radio (and television, if you were among the privileged few) who wouldn't want to make a special embroidered cover for your weekly magazine?

What is the Radio Times? "Radio Times is the BBC's weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. It also provides on-line listings. Radio Times was founded on 28 September 1923, and originally carried details of BBC radio programmes in response to a newspaper boycott of radio listings. It was at one time the magazine with the largest circulation in Europe."

Isn't this fabulous? I'm guessing it was either a transfer or transfer and fabric kit (or fabric with the transfer already applied).  Maybe from the Radio Times?  Hmmm, I wonder if their back issues are archived online?

Gives proper gravitas to the TV guide, doesn't it?

Here's an image from an eBay auction (from which I sourced the above quote) of the Coronation issue of the Radio Times.  Don't know if it was the one which included this embroidered design (mightn't you want to make it ahead of time?)

I can't quite imagine anyone now making a royal commemorative embroidered cover for their TV guide, or book, or any magazine.  It's like the George VI embroidered chairback from this blog entry last December.  Of its time, and eloquent of it, and pointing out how times and houses and social history change.

If you have any clues as to the source of this design, please leave a comment with any links you can provide.

Elizabeth II: coronation: floral emblem tablecloth

According to the seller, this was done in 1952 to celebrate the Queen's coronation (in 1953) on linen.  It features the floral emblems of the British Isles, and measures 40in x 42in.

If you know where this design was published, or any more information about it, please do get in touch by commenting.