Handkerchief thumbnail 1
Not on display

Handkerchief

1864 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Naturalism in design was a particular characteristic of English bobbin lace made at Honiton in Devon and the surrounding area in the 1860s. This handkerchief is typical, exhibited at the Bath and West of England's Agricultural Show show of 1864 in the category of lace 'worked either in flowers, fruit, leaves or insects, strictly designed from nature'.

Lady Paulina Trevelyan was one of the notable figures in the industry, working to improve the standard of lace design. The handkerchief was purchased by the Museum for 16 guineas (£16.80).

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Bobbin lace
Brief description
Handkerchief trimmed with bobbin lace in a pattern of ferns, English, 1864
Physical description
Centre of lawn, in an eight-lobed shape, surrounded with bobbin lace worked in a design of ferns, repeated in the four corners.
Dimensions
  • Length: 45cm
  • Width: 45cm
Credit line
Purchase.
Object history
The handkerchief was made by Miss S. Sanson after the design of Lady Trevelyan.

In October of 2016 the ferns on the handkerchief were examined by an expert from the Royal Horticultural Society, who felt that ferns were all likely to be English and were depicted reasonably accurately. There was one fern which they were not able to identify with confidence from the depiction (the pair of fronds at each of the cardinal points). The others were identified as:

Hart’s tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium)
Rusty back fern (Asplenium ceterach)
Male fern (Dryopteris felix-mas)
Hard fern (Blechnum spicant)
Subject depicted
Summary
Naturalism in design was a particular characteristic of English bobbin lace made at Honiton in Devon and the surrounding area in the 1860s. This handkerchief is typical, exhibited at the Bath and West of England's Agricultural Show show of 1864 in the category of lace 'worked either in flowers, fruit, leaves or insects, strictly designed from nature'.

Lady Paulina Trevelyan was one of the notable figures in the industry, working to improve the standard of lace design. The handkerchief was purchased by the Museum for 16 guineas (£16.80).
Bibliographic reference
Levey, Santina M., Victoria, and Albert Museum (London). Lace: a history. London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1983.
Collection
Accession number
785-1864

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdJanuary 12, 2004
Record URL
Download as: JSONIIIF Manifest