A Pair of Crewelwork Hangings; English, c.1720

Each with an array of exotic animals and birds amid exuberantly flowering trees, worked in crewel wool in long and short stem and French knot stitches on a linen twill ground. The embroidery re-applied and with restorations and re laid areas.

A very similar hanging is shown in ‘Art of Embroidery – History of Style and Technique’, Lanto Synge, 2001, plate 161, pp.180-181; and a curtain in the V&A, accession no. T.172-1923 – and another of the same set in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no:08.186a-make use of some of the same bird and animal motifs.

Provenance: Brian Morgan (1930-2018) – dealer in oriental art and former president of BADA.