22 April 2010

a Stitch in Time III

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One of 24 Bargello, the Florentine flamestitch, French chairs stitched by the 7th Earl Beauchamp, Madresfield Court. The Earl fled England in 1931-exiled for his homosexuality. He sent the work back to Madresfield- hoping to keep his ancestral home and his beloved children (by now adults) he left behind close. In the book MADRESFIELD: 'Every day I manage some embroidery but now cannot get on for want of the deeper yellow silk. However, I do hope it is on its way here by now.'(Earl Beauchamp).




Suggested reading MADRESFIELD The Real Brideshead, by Jane Mulvagh

 reading here in the Telegraph

see Architect Design post here
& Emily Evans Eerdmans here
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12 comments:

  1. Oh my...things are looking quite glorious over here! I do love a good flamestitch too!

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  2. I so need to get my hands on this book...ugh -is it totally delicious?
    That chair is really beautiful -love that embroidery!

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  3. What a sad story it is, the way that man was treated but yet he had the humanity to teach his children "Tolerance. Always tolerance."

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  4. A dear woman I knew did the most wonderful needlepoint bargello wing-backs, rugs and a sundry of other incredible tapestries. She was always stitching away so happily. She worked for a local needlepoint shop. Seeing that made me think of Anne.
    pve

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  5. Zhush, I do love some stitching, always something great zhushing over at the Zhush too.

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  6. Stefan, You must. Got it from amazon and I say as good in some ways better than Waugh. The truth of their fascinating history is better.

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  7. Blue, absolutely and admirable. In his children loved him so and did accept him. They were pressured and his brother in law Westminster and his clueless vapid wife were horrible
    I love that he connected with this amazing needlework his love for his ancestral home. A wonderful book.pgt

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  8. pve- I did do some bargello-tucked away somewhere, to unearth at some point. pgt

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  9. What a beautiful pattern - and an interesting story. I haven't heard of many earls who embroider!

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  10. He was obviously pretty good at embroidery. The late Christopher Lloyd, the gardener of Great Dixter fame, seems to have taken to embroidery as well when he was young. Was it a particularly gay passtime, between the wars, I wonder?

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  11. SF, I bet there are pretty many embroidering Earls!

    Emile-I am going to look into Christopher Lloyd's stitchery. an interesting question.

    Mrs B.-yes, pretty impressive, This is one place I would love to see

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