she who keeps this diary


22 November 2006 - 8:49 AM

Pretty Things

Not my knitting, but the kind of historic knitting that's been getting my wheels turning lately. These are all in the MFA in Boston, all just gorgeous to my mind. There are actually quite a few of the basket-y ones in the museum's collection, but these two are good representatives.

This one is English or French, from 1800-1830:

Basket-shaped drawstring bag. Ecru cotton knit embroidered with colored glass beads in floral bands on upper half; openwork with gold-colored bead stripes on lower half; gold-colored bead star motif and inscription

This one is German, and from about the same time:

Basket-shaped drawstring bag. Ecru cotton knit embroidered with colored glass beads in design of grapevine on upper half; open work embroidered with weaving motif on lower half. Wired at center, cardboard at base. Green silk cord drawstring. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection, 1943 Accession number: 43.1135

This one is late 18th C Italian, and blew me away. All those flowers and leaves? They're knitted too, and then applied to the bag. There's another (somewhat plainer) one in the MFA too, that also has the knitted flowers.

Rose Bud drawstring bag. Green silk knit with ecru/yellow/brown band at top, light green at base; appliquéd pink, salmon roses and light green, green, ecru leaves. Green cord drawstring. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Elizabeth Day McCormick Collection, 1943 Accession number: 43.1092

The museum website doesn't give the gauges for the knitting, but I'm guessing 'tiny' is about right.

verso - recto

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