Search This Blog
I am a quilter living in Woodbridge, Suffolk who has made quilts since I was a teenager. I also ring bells! Both are great British traditions....I will try to feature some of my antique Welsh and Durham quilts, the quilts I make myself, my quilting activities and also some of my bellringing achievements. Plus as many photos as I can manage. NB: Double click on the photos to see greater detail, then use back button to return to the main page.













Wednesday, 23 August 2017

Small Quilt from a stately home

This quilt is not hand made, but was bought for very little and has an interesting provenance.
 

The reverse is satin, nicely sewn..


Here is the front, you can see the net with embroidery. The MR apparently stands for the Mary Duchess of Roxburghe.


A detail of the embroidery. I am not sure if this is hand or machine, it rather looks like machine work or hand guided machine work...


Doing a bit of web based research, the Duchess, was born in 1915 and married the Duke of Roxburghe in 1935. She was a close friend of the Queen Mother and by all accounts had an eventful social life. She was rather unexpectedly served divorce papers in 1953 and was the subject of eviction from Flores Castle, near Kelso, Scotland, the marital home. She later inherited West Horsley House, near Leatherhead, from her mother and lived there for many years. The house was stuffed with family effects and latterly, only five rooms were inhabited. Upon her death in 2014, her estate was unexpectedly inherited by Bamber Gascoine, her Godson. A sale of effects from the house was held by Sothebys in 2015 to provide much needed funds for the House's restoration. The sale exceeded expectations and realised £8.8 million. I assume that this little quilt came onto the market during this time.

The seller estimated the date to be 1930's. The monogram dates from after her marriage in 1935. As the the Duchess had no children, I am guessing that it is not a cot quilt, but must be a gift or serve some other purpose. Mary was the partron of the National Union of Townswomens Guilds, so it may be that this was a gift with her monogram upon it. The RIB catalogue at that time offers lap quilts and car throws, it may be one of these. What do you think?

Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. Penny23 October 2017 at 02:17

    Phipps, Just wondering if you ever come across any military Quilts. There's a great show on in NYC's American Folk Art Museum showing a collection of quilts from Australia. The quilts are made from British soldiers' uniforms. All wool with intense reds, yellows, blues and black. Most likely made by tailors. I haven't seen it, but there's a great interview with the collector on The Quilt Show program.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)