Description:
Unfinished printed and/or stencilled linen table mat with a dark and medium brown butterfly in each of the four corners connected by a decorative (printed) dark brown rope border, and the initials "EM" for Elllen Miller (1854-1929) and the number "19" just under one of the rope borders. After studying art at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League with Margaret Whiting (1860-1946) in the 1880s, Miller and Whiting moved to Deerfield with their families by 1895. In 1896, Miller and Whiting co-founded the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework. In addition to her embroidery work with the Society, Ellen Miller also experimented with resist-dyed printed, stenciled, and painted designs. Using natural dyes, she produced smaller domestic textiles such as table mats, decorative and functional accessories placed on flat furniture surfaces. Unlike needlework produced by the Society, Miller’s printed and painted designs took inspiration less from the past and more from contemporary art movements, including Art Nouveau. The design of this and other printed works by Miller closely follows the embroidery designs made by the Society's members.
Label Text:
Table Mat, “Butterfly” design, Ellen Miller (1854-1929), Deerfield, Massachusetts, c. 1919. Signed “EM 19.” Brown plain weave linen, mordant and dye block printed or stenciled design. Gift of the Estate of Margaret Miller, 1994.023.15
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Linen Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+94.023.15 |
