DESIGNED BY GERTRUDE JEKYLL 1874-75, WORKED BY THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF ART NEEDLEWORK, 1875-82

Details

A VICTORIAN EMBROIDERED SILK PANEL
DESIGNED BY GERTRUDE JEKYLL 1874-75, WORKED BY THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF ART NEEDLEWORK, 1875-82
Executed in longstitch and running stitch, depicting a wheatsheaf above a ribbon-tied spray of profusely scrolling acanthus and flowers including cornflowers, irises, convolvulus and carnations, on a gold ground, with the VR/RSAN monogram beneath a crown to the lower centre, minor repairs, in a later moulded giltwood frame by Mallett, the back of the stretchers inscribed in pencil 'North End of Room, Right Hand Side of Arch' and 'Right of Entrance No. 1 / 107'
95 x 76 1/4 in. (242.5 x 193.5 cm.) including frame

Provenance

The Dukes of Westminster, The Ebury Rooms, Eaton Hall, Cheshire.
Sold as a set of thirteen panels, Christie's, London, 13 September 2007, lot 1100.
Acquired from Mallett London, 2012.

Special notice

Specified lots (sold and unsold) marked with a filled square not collected from Christie’s, 8 King Street, London SW1Y 6QT by 5.00pm on the day of the sale will, at our option, be removed to Crozier Park Royal (details below). Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. If the lot is transferred to Crozier Park Royal, it will be available for collection on the third business day after the sale. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Crozier Park Royal. All collections from Crozier Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s, 8 King Street, it will be available for collection on any working day (not weekends) from 9.00am to 5.00pm

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

This panel, one of a set of thirteen panels in total, formed the dado to the Great drawing room commissioned by the Duke of Westminster at Eaton Hall, Cheshire; the rest of the walls and the ceiling were painted. A detailed description of the room can be found in Rupert H. Morris, The Guide to Eaton Hall ([1885]), pp. 29-30. Incorporating the emblem of the Grosvenor Family - the wheat sheaf - with foliate floss silk arabesques on a formal grand scale, the panel also incorporates a monogram which comprises the initials VR and RSAN entwined. Queen Victoria became patron of the Royal School of Art Needlework in 1875.

It is known that the Eaton Hall needlework hangings were designed by Gertrude Jekyll, commissioned by the Duke of Westminster and made by the Royal School of Needlework between 1875 and 1882. The hangings feature in the Eaton Hall inventory made for the Duke of Westminster in 1885. There is no record of them after 1910 at Eaton Hall and no further records of them elsewhere are known. They were not taken to Grosvenor House in London (demolished 1926).

We are very grateful to Dr Lynn Hulse, independent scholar and former Archivist at the Royal School of Needlework, for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry. The Eaton Hall panels are discussed in detail in her forthcoming book Reviving the Art of Embroidery: Lady Victoria Welby and the Founding of the Royal School of Needlework, 1872-1881.

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