Dress
1949 (made)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
The Needlework Development Scheme (NDS) was established in 1934 to encourage embroidery and to raise the standard of design in Britain. Organised by four Scottish art schools, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, its collection of foreign and British embroidery was available to domestic science and training colleges, women's institutions and schools, as well as art schools. By 1939, the Scheme had acquired some 900 embroideries but the outbreak of WWII closed the Scheme and the collection was retained by the four original art schools. Glasgow School of Art was instrumental in re-starting the scheme late in 1944 and the NDS was gradually expanded to encompass other art schools in the United Kingdom where embroidery was taught. The NDS was disbanded in 1961 when funding was withdrawn, although it was recognised that the Scheme had achieved its aims. Its collection was divided and distributed to various organisations including the Embroiderers Guild, The National Museum of Scotland and the V&A.
Mary Kessel was a painter and war artist who was asked to study embroideries in order to prepare experimental designs for hand and machine work. Her designs were considered so progressive that few arts schools were accomplished enough to use them. Marion Campbell, a teacher at Bromley Grammar School for Girls, was one of the most successful interpreters of Kessel's motifs in a variety of hand embroidery methods. The motif of camels walking in a row has been interpreted as a decoration for the yoke of a child's dress.
Mary Kessel was a painter and war artist who was asked to study embroideries in order to prepare experimental designs for hand and machine work. Her designs were considered so progressive that few arts schools were accomplished enough to use them. Marion Campbell, a teacher at Bromley Grammar School for Girls, was one of the most successful interpreters of Kessel's motifs in a variety of hand embroidery methods. The motif of camels walking in a row has been interpreted as a decoration for the yoke of a child's dress.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Materials and techniques | Hand-embroidered cotton with cotton threads |
Brief description | Child's dress of hand-embroidered cotton with cotton threads, designed by Mary Kessell, made by Marion Campbell, Great Britain, 1949 |
Physical description | Child's cotton dress with a hand-embroidered design in cotton threads of camels walking in a row on the yoke. Part of the Kessell experiment (1949) of embroidery interpretations carried out by teachers and students from colleges of art. |
Dimensions |
|
Credit line | Given by the Needlework Development Scheme |
Object history | An example of the work of the Needlework Development Scheme, designed to improve the standard of embroidery in Scotland and to provide domestic science training in colleges, women's institutes and art schools. |
Production | NDS 2355 |
Subject depicted | |
Summary | The Needlework Development Scheme (NDS) was established in 1934 to encourage embroidery and to raise the standard of design in Britain. Organised by four Scottish art schools, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, its collection of foreign and British embroidery was available to domestic science and training colleges, women's institutions and schools, as well as art schools. By 1939, the Scheme had acquired some 900 embroideries but the outbreak of WWII closed the Scheme and the collection was retained by the four original art schools. Glasgow School of Art was instrumental in re-starting the scheme late in 1944 and the NDS was gradually expanded to encompass other art schools in the United Kingdom where embroidery was taught. The NDS was disbanded in 1961 when funding was withdrawn, although it was recognised that the Scheme had achieved its aims. Its collection was divided and distributed to various organisations including the Embroiderers Guild, The National Museum of Scotland and the V&A. Mary Kessel was a painter and war artist who was asked to study embroideries in order to prepare experimental designs for hand and machine work. Her designs were considered so progressive that few arts schools were accomplished enough to use them. Marion Campbell, a teacher at Bromley Grammar School for Girls, was one of the most successful interpreters of Kessel's motifs in a variety of hand embroidery methods. The motif of camels walking in a row has been interpreted as a decoration for the yoke of a child's dress. |
Associated object | |
Collection | |
Accession number | CIRC.334B-1962 |
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Record created | September 30, 2006 |
Record URL |
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