Edlin, Martha (1660-1725)

Purse, embroidered by Martha Edlin (1660-1725). Purse, embroidered by Martha Edlin (1660-1725). Copyright Victoria and Albert Museum, London, acc. no. T.435-1990.

Martha Edlin was an English embroideress who was born in 1660. She is known for a series of extant samplers and other embroidered items, the earliest of which she made when she was eight years old. This is a polychrome band sampler (with multi-coloured rows of different stitches) stitched on linen with silk thread. It is dated to 1668. As in the case of many band samplers from that period, the embroidery is reversible.

In 1669, she completed another sampler, in whitework and cutwork, with silk thread on a linen ground. When she was eleven years old, she made an embroidered casket, followed two years later by another box, decorated with beadwork.

Martha Edlin is known to have married a man called Richard Richmond, and after his death she lived in Pinner, near London. She had daughters and grandchildren.

The embroideries by Martha Edlin housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum are:

V&A online catalogue (retrieved 22 June 2016).

WV

 

 

Source (retrieved 22 June 2016).

Last modified on Monday, 03 October 2016 18:13