With Needle and Brush

SILK EMBROIDERIES continued Louisa Bellows (1792–1868), Walpole, N.H. Needlework, Hartford, Conn., circa 1810 Silk, metallic thread, and watercolor on silk; 18¾ x 25¼ inches Private collection Louisa Bellows of Walpole, New Hampshire, traveled to Hartford, Connecticut, with several of her friends to attend the Misses Pattens’ school. She stitched this beautiful rendi- tion of Charity, copied from a print, a common source for needlework projects, circa 1810. It was not unusual for young ladies to travel long distances to board at female academies and there pursue both academic subjects and the ornamental branches of education. Eliza Ely (1794–1836), Saybrook, Conn. Needlework, South Hadley, Mass., 1807 Silk, metallic thread, ink, and paint on silk; 17 x 15¼ inches Collection of Historic Deerfield John W. and Christiana G.P. Batdorf Fund. (2003.8) In 1807, when she was thirteen years old, Eliza Ely of Saybrook, Connecticut, traveled up the river to South Hadley, Massachusetts, to attend Abby Wright’s school, where she stitched two embroidered memorials, inscribing neither, attesting to the fashion for leaving them to be filled in at a later date. Typical of Miss Wright’s school, Eliza incorporated the use of heavy metallic thread on the urns, stitched a wispy willow and a tree filled with hanging leaves of French knots, and an opposing couple consisting of a weeping woman and gentleman leaning on the monument with crossed legs. Polly Jennings (1778–?) Needlework, Norwich, Conn., 1793 Silk, paint, sequins, and gold foil on black silk; 18 x 24 inches Private collection Polly Jennings embroidered this delightful rural scene in 1793 at the age of fifteen. She used gold foil for the crook and staff and metallic thread to trim the fashionable hats. According to family tradition, her father took the finished piece to Boston to have it framed. Unlike many areas where needlework pieces are copied by students and are somewhat consistent in the motifs used, those from Norwich demonstrate an unusual freedom of design and originality. It is only because the embroideries are signed or descended in the families with spe- cific notations that some of them can be attributed to the area.