Description:
English beadwork picture decorated with brightly-colored, opaque and translucent, glass bugle beads. It is an important example of 17th-century English embroidery in the collection that was perhaps sold as a kit and embroidered by an amatuer girl or woman as a gender-appropriate pastime and educational tool. Now framed, its original creation may have been for a pillow or casket (box). The design, made using beads from possibly Venice or Amsterdam imported into England, was first drawn in ink on the satin ground. The scene is probably from a print source. It likely depicts the biblical story of Esther and Ahaseurus; a crowned Ahaseurus under a tent points his scepter to the approaching Esther, who wears a vertically striped blue gown and yellow petticoat. The man, with hat removed and standing to the left of Ahaseurus, may represent a soldier. In the background and filling up the rest of the ground is a castle, a lion, stag, dog, various birds including a parrot, the sun and flowers. Many of these motifs, especially the flora and fauna, are conventional 17th-century designs, and not part of the Esther and Ahaseurus story.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+1352 |
