Panel
Object name
Maker
Date made
Circa 1899
Place made
Description
Crewelwork embroidered panel from an 1899 design by Jessie Newbery. Matches an embroidery in the Victoria and Albert Museum (T.64-1953).
Content description
A large crewelwork embroidered panel from a design by Jessie Newbery. A matching embroidery from 1899, worked in different colours, is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (T.64-1953). The panel shows open single rose blooms and buds in rose, pale pink, and grey wool. The stamens and centres of the flowers are pale yellow wool, with shades of green wool for the stems and leaves. The pattern is symmetrical and the embroidery is worked in satin, long and short, and stem stitch with French knots on cream linen.
The V&A's matching embroidered panel uses the same stitches and materials but slightly different thread colours. The V&A iteration was worked by Edith Rowat, Jessie Newbery's aunt, in 1899. It is unclear what the relationship is between our panel and the V&A panel, though ours perhaps was also embroidered by Rowat or by someone close to Newbery. How and when this object joined the RSN Collection is unknown.
Artist and embroiderer Jessie Newbery (1864-1948) was an important figure in the world of Scottish textiles and decorative arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The daughter of a Paisley shawl manufacturer who studied at Glasgow School of Art and eventually the wife of the director of that school, Newbery created the Department of Embroidery at the Glasgow School of Art in 1894. Her work was initially inspired by William Morris and the Royal School of Art Needlework, but she soon developed a style with circular roses and lettering that matched that typical of the Glasgow School. This panel came before the development of Newbery's style that involved appliqued linen and minimal stitching.
The V&A's matching embroidered panel uses the same stitches and materials but slightly different thread colours. The V&A iteration was worked by Edith Rowat, Jessie Newbery's aunt, in 1899. It is unclear what the relationship is between our panel and the V&A panel, though ours perhaps was also embroidered by Rowat or by someone close to Newbery. How and when this object joined the RSN Collection is unknown.
Artist and embroiderer Jessie Newbery (1864-1948) was an important figure in the world of Scottish textiles and decorative arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The daughter of a Paisley shawl manufacturer who studied at Glasgow School of Art and eventually the wife of the director of that school, Newbery created the Department of Embroidery at the Glasgow School of Art in 1894. Her work was initially inspired by William Morris and the Royal School of Art Needlework, but she soon developed a style with circular roses and lettering that matched that typical of the Glasgow School. This panel came before the development of Newbery's style that involved appliqued linen and minimal stitching.
Dimensions
width: 89cm
length: 89cm
length: 89cm
Materials
Stitches
Techniques
Motifs
Catalogue number
RSN.266
© Royal School of Needlework