History of Decorated Fabric continued
Round and Round We Go! Other events in European history added to the movement of these motifs from one country to another. Bear with me as I explain as human history never seems to follow a logical path, but instead diverges and converges around political or social issues. Dutch William of Orange became the King of England, because there was no heir. This event produced a number of influences on North American embroidery. the Prince of Orang landed in the West of England on the 5th of November 1688, and on the 11th April 1689 was crowned King of England, and in the year 1692 the French came to invade England, and a fleet of ships sent by King William, drove them from the English seas, and took, sunk, and burned twenty-one of their ships. Martha Wright, 26 March, 1693 her sampler William's Mary loved needlework and worked constantly on it. It is not surprising then that the Dutch motifs appeared in English embroidered samplers at this time. After the reign of the Puritans, the lighter more subdued Dutch motifs were likely viewed as being 'politically correct' since even the Queen herself was sewing them. The butterflies and the moth in Down the Garden Lane are taken from Dutch samplers, the butterflies are from the year 1771. Down the Garden Lane is one of the free designs and lessons from American Folk Arts. Please click the second link to be taken to the content page for Hardanger. But even more significant the Puritans and William and Mary left a legacy or belief that women should be educated. So an opportunity was granted to women to teach women embroidery and the alphabet, and this is the first recorded idea or thoughts on universal education that I have found. By teaching embroidery these motifs and the alphabet would be shared by the teacher with her students and no doubt the students would share them with others. The girls were known to share the stitching of the samplers on visits with each other. So again I saw these motifs moving away from their source in an ever widening circle. To continue, Queen Elizabeth had set some other events into motion that would have a lasting effect on North America, her reign saw the first sucessful North American colony and the English Embroiders' Guild lost its Guild Hall to a fire, Queen Elizabeth gave the members shares in a new trading venture called The East India Company. I admired this Queen as she fostered trade even giving her own shares in this venture to support the families of the Guild. It was said that she hated losing her friends in the endless wars and campaigns for land and that she believed trade would stop the campaigns eventually. But I digress, designs had a common source in Europe. Any number of design portfolios or books were produced and some were used extensively. As we have already seen the designs came from the Orient in the beginning, but often the imports did not sell. The trade directors of the East India Company felt the goods would sell if only the designs were more to English taste. So the English design books were sent to India and the English designs that had orignally come to England from the Orient were used on the trade items and then they did sell well. The designs had come from the Orient but the European societies had adpated them to suit their tastes. As an example, items like saltware pottery had been exported to the colonies and motifs or designs from some of this pottery had an amazing resemblance to the Blue and White embroidery of Deerfield as can be seen in this design taken from a Colonial North American pitcher circa 1760.
Another interesting fact about the pottery was that the glazes were introduced into Europe by medieval Persian potters. The blue glaze was painted on using blue cobalt oxide that produced a good result during firing of the pottery. The earliest I have found the blue glaze is tenth century Persia. Next Page ©2000 Linda Fontenot, You may not copy this article in any form. All Rights Reserved. www.American Folk Arts.com
A design from a Colonial North American pitcher.
