Embroidered Casket, 1650 - 1680 (Accession Number - 1972.54)

The embroidered casket dates from between 1650 to 1680. It display an immensely rich collection of colours, materials, stitches and imagery. Unfortunately we do not know the origins of this casket. The fact that it has survived is no doubt due to a high regard for the work of an ancestor.

The fashion for small needlework pictures flowered in the Reign of Charles I, flourished during the Commonwealth and the Restoration of Charles II and withered by the end of the seventeenth century. Yet raised or embossed work, as it is called, was not a new technique; it had been practised by professional embroiderers on the continent of Europe for more than a century.


Subject Matter

The female characters in the seventeenth century costume depict the five senses, a popular subject in embroidery of this period and type. A mass of minute detail surround the figures in the form of flowers, trees, insects and animals, all closely set with the horror of empty space.

A lion and leopard, emblematic of courage and fidelity, are seated beneath an oak tree in the English country landscape. A parrot on a sprig of two cherries can be found on almost every similar piece. There is a curious absence of scale and no defined horizon. A rabbit appears equal in size to a caterpillar whilst flowers grow larger than birds.


Sources of the Designs

The design of the casket would not have been devised by the needleworker herself. The figures, animals and insects would all have been copied from woodcuts or engravings intended as book illustrations`. Print sellers like Peter Stent at the White Horse in Giltspur Street, London may have offered the service of drawing out designs onto fabric for working. Peter Stent’s trade card of 1662 in the Bodlean Library lists over five hundred titles, many found on needlework pictures, including The Five Senses.

The drawing of the design on this casket is quite crude in some places, in particular the ovals on the sides depicting four of the five senses. There is a noticeable difference in comparison with the rather more elegant figure on the lid. This may indicate that the embroideress drew them onto the satin ground herself.


Materials and Techniques

The design has been embroidered onto a ground of cream satin. The embroidery is mainly silk thread in a variety of stitches including satin stitch, buttonhole filling, laid work and French knots. Each figure has a lace-work collar. Ravelled silk like chenille has been used to depict moss and a small piece of mica is attached for the mirror. The spangles are probably silver and the necklace made up of seed pearls. The box has been lined with a reused manuscript to limit the risk of frayed or loosened stitches. Although the salmon-pink silk lining of the casket is very typical, it is rare to find an embroidered panel inside the lid. It is also an exception for the lid to be hinged on the shorter rather than longer side. There is evidence that the casket was mounted on six feet. These were usually spherical and often gilded.


Use of the Casket

Such cabinets and boxes were made up as receptacles of personal treasures. Unfortunately the casket is not furnished with any compartments that give us a clue to its use. Similar cabinets and boxes contain evidence that they were used to accommodate writing equipment, jewellery or cherished needlework. Others are equipped with pin-cushions, needlebooks, tape measures or less useful toys.


The Maker

The casket was probably worked by a young girl as the culmination of her needlework education. The practice and perfection of embroidery skills would have taken precedence over the ability to read in many households. Plain sewing was often the first skill taught to girls followed by the sampler and progressing to lace stitches and raised work using gold and silver thread combined with coloured silks. The popularity of embroidered pictures among amateurs reflected the fact that embroidery was of less importance for dress in the middle decades of the seventeenth century. A girls needlework skills had therefore to be directed towards some other end.