All Stitched Up.......

The idea of painting by numbers on to a pre-drawn design is far from new and is often assumed to have begun with embroidery rather than paints when printed paper panels were published in Berlin and first appeared in England in 1805. These showed a squared pattern with each representing a stitch. To begin with the cross or tent stitch was used, and the wool which came from Gotha before being dyed in Berlin came with the patterns. A complete DIY kit. The firm of Wilks of Regent Street recognised the potential of this merchandise and by 1831 were retailing the complete range of materials and accessories required. By 1840 there were some fourteen thousand different Berlin patterns available incorporating wool, silk, glass beads and cut steel buttons. However the true story is much older. During the last quarter of the 18th century in England pictures created with wool embroidery onto a prepared silk background became increasingly popular. The subject matter knew no bounds: allegorical tableaux, popular prints of the day, mourning, scenes from the classics and the Bible, pastoral - shepherds and shepherdesses were much in demand as were depictions of pretty young women in a country setting. Among the most  interesting are the narrative pictures, usually based on a fable or folklore often showing a family group with animals and a building or two. Unlike Berlin needlework the silk panel was hand drawn with watercolour paint to show the main outlines while the faces and hands of the figures were painted in the finest and most beautiful detail for the embroidery to be worked into the silk around them. Long or knotted stitches were most commonly used to create different effects to trees and fields, thatched roofs and flowers. The pictures were professionally done and could be bought in shops specialising in millinery, so pre-empting the Berlin needlework that swept the board for much of the 19th century. 

Wool on silk embroidery, with a monogram WRB and date 1794 for sale at John Bly.

Seats of the Establishment

It is easy to forget just how many items in everyday use owe their names to English nobility and men of power.  From something as mundane but universally consumed as the sandwich which is attributed to John Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792), who is said to be the inventor of this convenience food in order that  he would not have to leave his gaming table to take supper, to the Wellington boot and the Derby hat. The latter was a type of hard crown hat created by William and Thomas Bowler in 1849, popularly worn at the annual races conceived by Sir Charles Bunbury and Edward Stanley, the 12th earl of Derby. In the history of English furniture there are two that stand out. One is the Davenport; a small writing desk which following its invention, was made in all fashionable styles throughout the 19th century. It was named after a Captain Davenport who instructed Messrs Gillows of Lancaster to make such a piece during the 1790's. This should not be confused with an item of the same name more used in America to describe a combination of a bed and a sofa first made by the A.H. Davenport company of Boston, Mass., in the early 20th century. But the sofa/bed conveniently brings me to unquestionably the most popular piece of English furniture to be found in fine houses, embassies, civic offices, county halls, gentlemen's  clubs and royal palaces all over the world - the Chesterfield settee.  With its distinctive deep buttoned, quilted leather upholstery and low seat it provides supreme comfort.  Identifiable by the equal height to rolled arm and back, it has become synonymous with England. It is said the politician and writer Lord Phillip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, 1694-1773, was the one who first commissioned a  settee that would provide the sitter with ease and grace without creasing his clothes.  How delighted he would be to know that his idea would bear his name and innumerable bottoms from its inception to the present day.

Confidentially yours........

The role of the Confidant - or Confidante if feminine - has been important in any dramatic story since Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were writing their plays in the 6th century BC. Although secondary the person is relied upon to harbour the secret thoughts and desires of the main character, and so honouring that trust will save the day while betrayal of it leads to tragedy. Such characters showing both human traits became popular in French theatre during the mid-18th century, when a small sofa for two people was introduced whereon such secrets could be exchanged without fear of eavesdroppers. Now there's a strange expression. Originally eavesdrop referred to the water that dropped from the eaves of a house, then the ground on which the water fell. Soon it was used to describe a person that stood under the eaves in order to hear any conversation inside. But I digress. The new two-seat sofa was different inasmuch as the sitters were divided by an upholstered arm rest and more importantly they faced opposite directions. As it allowed a confidential conversation without the need to turn heads or appear to be whispering it too was given the name Confidante. Naturally it was soon introduced into English society and George Hepplewhite illustrated one in his Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788). In the 19th century the form was a natural one for the Victorian desire for propriety and intrigue on the one hand and love of plush upholstery on the other with lines and shape in the earlier French style. One glorious example of such furniture is a suite in Raby Castle, County Durham attributed to the company of George Morant and Son, furniture suppliers to H.M.William IV and granted Royal Appointment to her Majesty Queen Victoria as Interior Decorators and Upholsterers from 1839. The Confidante illustrated is also attributed to Morant, relying heavily on what we call the 'French Hepplewhite' style with its gently scrolling show-wood legs and frame. I wonder what secrets passed across those armrests in the last century and a half, confidentially speaking of course.