Burse Panel thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Burse Panel

1335-45 (made)
Artist/Maker
Unknown
Place of origin
England (made)

Embroidered panel depicting the Annunciation. Silk on red velvet, worked in split stitch, with underside couched metal thread.


Object details

Categories
Ecclesiastical Textiles
Religion
Christianity
Object type
Burse panel
Materials and techniques
Embroidered with silver-gilt and silver thread and coloured silks in underside couching and split stitch, with a little raised work, on silk velvet with an interlayer of silk in plain weave.
Silk (Textile)
Silk Thread
Metal Thread
Embroidering
Brief description
embroidered, 1335-45, English; The Annunciation
Physical description
Embroidered panel depicting the Annunciation. Silk on red velvet, worked in split stitch, with underside couched metal thread.
Dimensions
  • Maximum height: 29cm
  • Maximum width: 22.5cm
Content description
The panel depicts the Annunciation, with the Angel Gabriel holding a scroll inscribed ave maria, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descending towards the Virgin Mary. The figures
are enclosed within barbed quatrefoils.
Production typeUnique
Credit line
Bequeathed by C B O Clarke
Object history
From the collection of Lady Gibson Carmichael, Miss G. Clarke, by 1936; bequeathed to the V&A by C. B. O. Clarke, 1940.

Historical context
Because of their size and square shape and the use of a barbed quatrefoil design as a framing device for the embroidery, these two panels have usually been described as the sides of a burse. Documentary evidence in inventories confirms that burses were decorated with a variety of images, not only focusing on Eucharistic themes, but also – as in this example – showing Marian scenes and saints.
Subjects depicted
Gabriel Archangel
Virgin Mary
The Annunciation
Associated object
T.2-1940 (Set)
Bibliographic references
  • Exhibition of English Embroidery Executed prior to the Middle of the XVI Century, exhibition catalogue, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club. London, 1905, p.81, pl.29
  • Christie, Grace, English Medieval Embroidery: A Brief Survey of English Embroidery dating from the Beginning of the Tenth Century until the End of the Fourteenth. Oxford, 1938, p.175, pls 135, 136, cat. no. 93.
  • Symonds and Preece, Needlework through the Ages, 1928, pl.31
  • Exhibition of English Mediaeval Art, exhibition catalogue, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1930, cat. nos. 114a and 114b
  • Catalogue of an Exhibition of Gothic Art in Europe (c.1200–c.1500), exhibition catalogue, London, Burlington Fine Arts Club. London, 1936, cat. nos. 67, 69.
  • King, Donald, Opus Anglicanum: English Medieval Embroidery, exhibition catalogue, London, Victoria and Albert Museum. London, 1963, cat. no. 72
  • Browne, Clare; Davies, Glyn; Michael, M.A., English Medieval Embroidery: Opus Anglicanum, exhibition catalogue, London, Victoria and Albert Museum (London, 2016), p. 224, cat. no. 56
  • Monnas, Lisa, Renaissance Velvets, London, 2012, pp. 8, 14-15.
Collection
Textiles and Fashion Collection
Accession number
T.1-1940

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O318616/burse-panel-unknown/
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