Chair Cover thumbnail 1
Chair Cover thumbnail 2
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Not currently on display at the V&A

Chair Cover

1879 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Embroidered mat, unbleached tussar silk, embroidered with a floral design in coloured floss silks, borders of scrolling plants divided by thin borders of gold-wrapped thread, coloured silk fringes, the back is lined with a printed design on ochre tussar silk, probably 'Multan Mayblossom' design by Thomas Wardle.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Woven tussar silk, embroidered with floss silks and gold-wrapped thread
Brief description
Tasar silk chair cover embroidered with tasar silk floss, silk ground woven in India, embroidery worked by the Leek Embroidery Society, Leek, Staffordshire, 1879.
Physical description
Embroidered mat, unbleached tussar silk, embroidered with a floral design in coloured floss silks, borders of scrolling plants divided by thin borders of gold-wrapped thread, coloured silk fringes, the back is lined with a printed design on ochre tussar silk, probably 'Multan Mayblossom' design by Thomas Wardle.
Dimensions
  • Length: 63.5cm
  • Width: 51cm
Marks and inscriptions
Design No.32. / Animal Products Collection 20-12-80 (Sewn on labels referencing Thomas Wardle's catalogue number (No.32) and the date on which this piece was transferred from the India Section to the Animal Products section (20 December 1880))
Object history
The preface to Thomas Wardle's Handbook of the Collection Illustrative of the Wild Silks of India (1881) states that "The Lords of the Committee of the Council on Education think it desirable to direct public attention to the Collection illustrative of the Wild Silks of India which forms part of the Indian Section added to the South Kensington Museum in December 1879." This piece and two others attributed to the Leek School of Embroidery appear in Wardle's catalogue of this collection his Handbook, and all three pieces have India Museum catalogue numbers, indicating that they were indeed part of the collection of Indian material transferred from the India Museum to the South Kensington Museum in December 1879. As the Leek School of Embroidery was itself established in 1879, the embroideries must have been made sometime in that same year. On 20 December 1880, all three pieces were transferred to the South Kensington Museum's Animal Products section, as indicated by the labels affixed to their backs. At some point they were transferred back to the Indian section, likely when the Animal Products section was dissolved in the 1920s.
Subject depicted
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Ashmore, Sonia: Arts of Asia, vol. 45, no. 5, September - October 2015, "The Parasol Foundation Trust Programme: digitising and cataloguing the V&A's South Asian collection.", p.109, pls. 32 and 33.
  • Handbook of the Collection Illustrative of the Wild Silks of India: In the Indian Section of the South Kensington Museum, with a Catalogue of the Collection and Numerous Illustrations. United Kingdom: G. E. Eyre and W. Spottiswoode, 1881. p.84 52. Chair cover, No.2, "Tussur on Tussur." Embroidered from Indian designs with Tussur floss on native woven Tussur silk cloth. Floss dyed with Indian dyestuffs by T. Wardle. Executed by the Leek School of Embroidery; the colouring by Mrs Wardle, Honorary Superintendent.
Other number
AP.45-1880 - Previous number
Collection
Accession number
4560(IS)

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Record createdJune 25, 2009
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