Accessories

Accessories

Martha Edlin’s pin cushion is an object (7.5 x 6.3 cm) decorated with Florentine work. The pin cushion dates to around 1670/1680 and was made by an English girl called Martha Edlin (1660-1725). The front of the pin cushion is made from a piece of Florentine work in shades of blue and pink silk, using a flame stitch.

A miser's purge is a long and almost stocking-like tube of cloth, closed at both ends, with an opening in the middle, and squeezed through two (gold or silver coloured) rings (called the sliders), which were used to keep the coins in place and separate them.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, has a cushion cover in its collection that was designed and worked by the Scottish embroiderer, Jessie Newbery (1864-1948). The cushion cover is regarded by the museum as a characteristic piece of work by Newbery, which is worked in the style of the Glasgow School of Embroidery.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam houses a ribbon (originally in orange; in Holland called an Oranjelint), on which are embroidered the letters: VIVAT P.W.V. ORANJE ('Long live Prince Willem of Orange'). The sash is made of silk and measures 33.5 x 5 cm.

The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam houses a small Ottoman purse (20 x 9 cm) that appears to have belonged, according to a letter that was inside the purse, to the grand vizier [Kara Mustafa] of the Ottoman Empire during the siege of Vienna in 1683. The purse is made of red satin and decorated with floral motifs embroidered with gold and silver thread

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, houses a gold pendant with a border of half pearls surrounding an embroidery of two birds under faceted crystal. The pendant dates to c. 1700 and measures 2.7 x 2.4 cm.

Piccadill (peckadill, pickadill, picardillo, pickadaille) was the name of a type of sixteenth-century cut-work lace, characterised by its very small spear-points. The name was also applied to the lace edge of a ruff, and hence to the full ruff itself. The name reputedly derives from Spanish picado, which means punctured or pierced. A ruff was correspondingly called a picadura in Spanish.

Until the twentieth century pins and needles were very expensive and as a result they were stored in special boxes. But they were also put on display, using pin cushions (usually round) or pin pillows (usually rectangular).

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses a remarkable pair of embroidered items from the early seventeenth century. They are a purse and a pin cushion. The purse measures 12,6 x 14 cm, and the pin cushion 7 x 7 cm. Both objects are decorated in a similar manner. The two objects, together with other early embroideries, were bequeathed to the Museum in 1954 by Sir Frederick Richmond.

A podruchnik (Подручник) is a small rug or flat cushion of about 40 x 40 cm. It is used by Russian Orthodox Christians and especially Old Believer families to keep the hands and head clean while prostrating during the various prayer rituals.

In the Royal Collection (London, UK) there is a small embroidered bag or purse that was used to carry scented substances. Such bags, and the contents, were called pomanders. The English word pomander derives from the French pomme d’ambre (lit. ‘apple of amber’), and was used for a mixture of various aromatic substances usually formed into a ball.

The Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin holds an embroidered prayer stone bag from Afghanistan, probably from among the Hazaras. Such a small bag is used to protect the prayer stone of the Shi'ite muslims. Such a bag is localled known as a kiseh-ye mohre namaz. It measures 10 x 7.2 cm.

In April 2015, Bonhams in London auctioned a collection of armoury originally taken from the fortress of Seringapatam (Srirangapatna), the last refuge of Tipu Sultan of Mysore, after the British-Indian army had taken the site in AD 1799.

In April 2015, Bonhams in London auctioned a collection of armoury originally taken from the fortress of Seringapatam (Srirangapatna), the last refuge of Tipu Sultan of Mysore, after the British-Indian army had taken the site in AD 1799.

Rag rugs developed in several countries as a means of using up narrow lengths of cloth in order to make cheap floor coverings. Rag rugs come in various forms, including plaited rugs, punched needle rugs and woven rag rugs. Of particular interest to TRC Needles are the punched needle rugs.

The Textile Research Centre in Leiden houses an embroidered rank badge or panel, from late nineteenth century China. It measures 31 x 29 cm and is made of a silk ground material and silk and metal thread embroidery, with applied coral beads.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses a nineteenth century rank badge from Korea (locally known as hyungbae), measuring 21 x 19.1 cm. I ts embroidered in silk on a silk satin damask ground material. The badge is decorated with the representation of two cranes.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses an embroidered rank badge from seventeenth century Korea. It is made of silk damask worked with silk and gold threads. The embroidery shows a crane holding the Plant of Eternal Youth. The crane is surrounded by stylised waves, rocks and clouds. The badge in the Museum is one of a set of two. It measures 26.7 x 23.8 cm.

A reticule (knicknamed a ridicule in France) is the name for a small, woman's handbag, popular at the very end of the eighteenth and in the early nineteenth centuries, and Britain especially linked to the Regency period in England. The bags were mostly made of silk, and after about 1810 also of velvet. They could also be made of knitted fabrics.

Page 3 of 4