Tracing, Flower Children

c.1916

Item

Dimensions 340mm X 410mm (max)

Royal School of Art Needlework: Created by the royal school of needlework as miniature versions of designs and kept with the design cards collection which were miniature versions sent out to clients for next day approval.

Tracing of a design showing flowers with faces (possibly fairies. The flowers are poppies, sunflowers and hollyhocks. A young girl is shown picking flowers, a teddy bear and doll on the grass beside her.

Words on the the design are 'HOURS FLY FLOWERS DIE, NEW WAYS NEW DAYS, PASS BY LOVE STAYS, JOAN KY[...]ON MAINWARING' The quote comes from a poem by Henry Jackson van Dyke an American author, educator, and clergyman. Who wrote 'For Katrina's Sun-Dial' for the writer Katrina Trask, who along with her husband Spencer Trask, rebuilt their house and garden in Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, in 1893 after a fire. The house and gardens are open to the public and it is now a famous artist's colony.

The poem in full is:

IN HER GARDEN OF YADDO

Hours fly,
Flowers die
New days,
New ways,
Pass by.
Love stays.

* * *

Time is
Too Slow for those who Wait,
Too Swift for those who Fear,
Too Long for those who Grieve,
Too Short for those who Rejoice;
But for those who Love,
Time is not.

Joan Kynaston Mainwaring (1916 - 2005) or more probably her parents or a family connection may have been the client for this piece. Joan was was born in Shropshire in 1916 and daughter of Charles Francis Kynaston Mainwaring and Mary Sybil Rankin. The design suggests a silk panel for some sort of christening gift.

'Panel Only Size of Satin 13 1/2 x 9 1/2'

Words on the the design are 'HOURS FLY FLOWERS DIE, NEW WAYS NEW DAYS, PASS BY LOVE STAYS, JOAN KY- MAINWARING' Possibly this is Joan Kynaston Mainwaring (1916 - 2005) born in Shropshire, Father Charles Francis Kynaston Mainwaring, Mother Mary Sybil Rankin 'Panel Only Size of Satin 13 1/2 x 9 1/2

D1/539