ANNE WANNER'S Textiles in History / books
       
  Museo del Tessuto di Prato, Trenta anni di donazioni (Prato Textile Museum, Thirty Years of Donations), Texts: Marco Ciatti, Daniela Degl'Innocenti, Laura Fiesoli, Filippo Guarini, Description of exhibits by: Tamara Boccherini, Laura Ciampini, Daniela Degl'Innocenti, Laura Fiesoli, Aurora Fiorentini, Chiara Lastrucci, Roberta Orsi Landini, Arianna Sarti, Thessy Schoenholzer Nichols. Translations: Sally Titcomb Translation Services, Prato 2007, in italian and english languages, 235 pages, coloured fotografs, 29cm by 21 cm, ISBN: 978-88-95102-02-3 www.cultura.toscana.it/musei/

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  Embroidery Fragment, Italy, beginning of 17th century, embroidered linen; linen, silk, gold thread, cm 25 x 24,8.
Donated by Loriano Bertini, Inv. No. 75.01.581

Sewn on a extremely fine double linen background, the main design of the embroidery is outlined in red silk backstitch while the internal area is filled with gold thread in satin stitch. The design is composed of a thick weave of voluted vine shoots which join in the centre to form a heart and an extremely complex lovers' knot. The high quality of the embroidery and the presence ot the heart and the lovers' knot motifs suggest that the embroidery was probably made for a wedding. Similar decorative patterns can be found in the embroidery collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum, still attched to original cushion covers or items of informal ladies' clothing dating back to the first quarter of the 17th century.
     
  Embroidery Fragment, Italy, second half of 17th century, embroidered gros de Tours; silk, gold thread, cm 25 x 13.
Donated by Comune e Cariprato, Inv. No. 81.01.88

Based on a double, pale pink silk gros de Tours and linen background, the embroidery uses sain stitch and french knots in silk yarn and couching stitch in gold thread to create two thin frames decorated with horizontal tulips, carnations, daffodils and corollas. The centre of the design focuses on a long thin vine shoot bearing a tulip, a primrose and a rose while there is a peacock inside one of the volutes. The naturalistic taste of the embroidery is characteristic of 17th century European needlework which often used satin stitch to recreate pictorial decorative elements. The animal design was probably copied from a pattern book such as A Schole house for the Needle by Richard Shorleyker which was first published in 1624 and later republished in 1632.
     
 
       
   
       
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