Description:
Unfinished table mat of plain weave linen (slightly coarse weave), with printed design on the two shorter ends featuring the "Rabbits in the Pea Patch" design and the intials "EM" for Ellen Miller (1854-1929) below one of the designs. The top and bottom remain unhemmed. 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. For a similar, in- progress example, see HD 94.023.18.
Label Text:
Table Mat, “Rabbits in the Pea Patch” design, Ellen Miller (1854-1929), Deerfield, Massachusetts, c. 1905. Signed “EM.” Unbleached plain weave linen, mordant and dye stenciled and painted design. Gift of the Estate of Margaret Miller, 1994.023.17
Subjects:
Textile fabrics; Linen Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+94.023.17 |
