Satin bed curtain decorated with applied canvas work and with silk embroidery, England, 1640-1660

Satin bed curtain decorated with applied canvas work and with silk embroidery.

Given by Margaret Simeon

Registered File number 1992/524.

Forms part of a set of bed furnishings given by Margaret Simeon, and was probably assembled in the 1660s using canvas work motifs embroidered in the 1650s or earlier.

Valance (T.322-1980) and curtains (T.54-1983, T.119&120-1992) were first sold at Philips in the late 1960s to early 1970s, when they were described as a 19th century reproduction. They were bought by Miss Margaret Simeon, who taught history of design at the Wimbledon School of Art. Simeon was bron in 1910, trained at the Chelsea School of Art and teh Royal College of Art and worked as a freelance textile designer. She and her sister were both artists and collected an extensive collection of ceramics, textiles and other decorative arts. Margaret Simeon was particularly interested in lace and wrote the following book: Simeon, Margaret. The history of lace. London: Staines and Bell, 1979.

T.119-1992