Continuing on…

Long lost siblings: pieces that appear to have been separated back in the heyday of Grand European Tour collectors, with the various parts scattered among museum collections.  They are not uncommon.  I know there are fans of this series out there, so here are two more pairs I believe to have been cut apart, as opposed to two executions of the same pattern from different originals.  For the record, I know of no modelbook sources for either of these designs (if you do, please let me know!)

Why were these cut apart?  I suspect that the European dealers who sold antique lace and stitching in the latter part of the 1800s and early 1900s were more interested in maximizing profits than in preserving artifact integrity.

The sample below is quoted from a photo of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (AIC) Accession 1907.664, attributed to Italy of the 17th century:

It’s an unusual piece, combining linear stitching and satin stitching, plus a detached buttonhole insertion to attach it to whatever it originally trimmed.

And here’s it’s sibling, in from the holdings of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Accession 95.1126, cited as being Italian, but not assigned date.  I’ve  excerpted this from the MFA’s photo of its artifact, which is in slightly better, untrimmed condition:

AIC calls out the stitches used as being back stitch, hem, satin, and split.  MFA calls them line stitch (one of their names for double-running), chain stitch and laid work.  Personally, I do not put much stock in museum stitch descriptions because so many of them have not been revisited since original acquisition, and so many are idiosyncratic.  Without seeing the reverse, I’d posit double running or back stitch (back can look like split or chain on the reverse), and satin stitch.  But however these pieces were done, differences are minute (a couple of zig-zag branches in the column headers) – it’s pretty clear to me that they were once part of the same source artifact, possibly two ends of the same cloth or towel.

Here’s another pair.  We lead off the the MFA’s Accession 09.38, sadly blessed with no provenance or date.  It’s described as Punti di Milano Lace – a MFA term for works with the tightly pulled mesh background, either as foreground or (as here) background, and was a gift of James William Paige, who appears to have lived up to the last quarter of the 1800s.

And here is its companion, Border from the AIC, Accession 1969.193, dated 17th century, and attributed to Italy:

Again, two pieces I believe were once part of the same original artifact, but with so little of whatever that artifact was, it’s hard to speculate what it might have been – bed linens, valences, curtains, table spreads, towels – there’s no way of knowing.

The MFA sample came to the museum as part of the Denman Waldo Ross Collection, who collected widely in Europe and donated many artifacts to the museum in the early 1900s.  The AIC piece, was given to the museum in 1969, but it’s unknown how long it was in private hands prior to that gift.  It’s worth noting that Mr. Ross was part of “a prosperous Cincinnati family,” so it may not be so odd that the slightly less complete companion to the much better condition sample he gave to the MFA lingered in Ohio.

AIC calls out the working method as pulled thread work in silk, done in two-sided Italian cross stitch, plus back stitch.  The MFA gives no descriptions.  I’d say without seeing the reverse, back or double running, plus the tightly pulled double-sided mesh stitch are spot on.

Other things to observe in this one is the method of voiding.  In some pieces, it runs all the way up to the foreground motif, with no “halo” of unworked linen between design outlines and the mesh background.  This is an alternative treatment, and is present on many other artifacts, too.  Having done the other, I’d say this method is slightly easier because it does not perturb the outlines of the design; and many of the challenging nooks and crannies are skipped altogether.

What are the beasts pictured?  I haven’t a clue.  But because squinting at the design, I can convince myself that there are tusks and very long and curled noses, I’ll go out on a limb and dub this the Elephant and Urn pattern. The urn and branching fountain thingy in between the elephants are simplified versions of a pretty standard pair of motifs, with parallels on other pieces, too.  But that’s for another post…

UPDATE:

Going through my notes, what should surface, but another snippet of Elephant.  This bit is undoubtedly associated with the MFA’s piece, because it was given to the Harvard Art Museum/Fogg Museum in 1916 by Mr. Ross, the same individual who donated the larger fragment to the MFA.  The Harvard accession number is 1916.377, and their picture is presented below.  They include no date for their entry, but agree that it is Italian.