A brief hello

It is true that you can get almost anywhere in England by public transit.  However, you have to be prepared for constant delays, cancellations and engineering works; but it is much safer and easier than trying to negotiate bumper to bumper traffic in a car on the wrong side of the road. It is also extremely exhausting! It’s been difficult to keep each day’s research activities updated every evening, but the long weekend has brought some time to put together a short update.

The V&A, Petworth House, Norwich Castle, Warwick Castle.  These are all places that have fabulous examples of Tudor embroidery but there is no opportunity to study them in detail because they are on public display under glass or the affiliated Study Centre is currently closed.  Each one has something remarkable about them.  Here are a few images I managed to take with my phone…

The best day so far has been the day I was able to study Archbishop Parker’s embroidered book.   It is embroidered on green silk velvet with coloured silk thread, file and plate.  It is skillfully embroidered in a number of techniques.  The outer border of the embroidery is a fence of couched plate enclosing four deer and several botanical motifs.  The central motif is a large bush that grows from a small green mound.  The flowers on the right side of the bush roses seen from the front, the back and side with additional buds. On the left side is a strawberry and two white flowers.  There is a deer in each corner, one standing, one running, one grazing and one in repose.  Smaller flower sprigs are embroidered between the deer: pansies, daisies and possibly gillyflowers.  This design may represent a park like setting which could be a pun or rebus of the Archbishop’s surname Parker.

Embroidered bindings typically have the same design worked on the front and back covers, however the design on the back of Archbishop Parker’s is not.  It is similar in that there are deer and botanical motifs, but the plants are different species and much smaller, there is an additional deer, two snakes and what may be butterflies. 

I have taken many pictures of all the places I have been but they are simply lovely reminders of where I’ve been so far. Here is an eclectic mix of images for you to peruse (no embroidery)…

Next… Evesham, Nottingham, Manchester, Hardwick Hall, Hampton Court, Dunham Massey… and maybe even Londonderry…