Furnishings

Furnishings

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art houses a table frontal from China, which dates to the early nineteenth century. It measures 83.2 x 95.3 cm. It is made of silk satin with silk and metal thread embroidery and bast fibre lining.

A table runner is a narrow length of cloth that hangs over the table at two ends only. It can be made from decorative woven or embroidered cloth. 

A tablecentre can be a piece of embroidery or decorated work, placed to decorate the centre of a table. It is sometimes placed over the table cloth.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York houses a quilted fragment of tent lining from eighteenth century India. It has a cotton back material and silk thread embroidery. It measures 170 x 142 cm. The embroidery shows the characteristic Mughal motif of a flowering plant in an arched niche.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art houses an embroidered ceremonial hanging (tirai) from eastern Sumatra, Indonesia, which dates to the nineteenth century. The embroidery is worked with silk and gold thread embroidery, with pieces of mica and with lace made from metallic thread, on a woollen ground material. It measures 62.8 x 89.2 cm.

The Tobit Table Carpet is a sixteenth century table carpet (table cover) apparently made in 1579 by Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury (1521-1608; also known as Bess of Hardwick). She was an accomplished needlewoman who produced many embroideries.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses a towel end that originates from Russia and dates to the nineteenth or early twentieth century. It measures 33 x 40 cm and is made of linen with bobbin lace in linen, silk and metal thread.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam houses an early eighteenth century (high) valance (Dutch: lambrekijn), made of yellow silk cloth that was probably made and embroidered in China. The motifs include flowers and butterflies.

The National Museums Scotland holds an embroidered wall hanging that allegedly used to decorate the bed of Mary Queen of Scots at Loch Leven Castle, Kinross-shire, Scotland. It is made of red wool with a napped surface (creating a felt-like surface) and decorated with black velvet appliqué and silk thread embroidery.

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