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Embroidered picture from the mid-nineteenth century, showing Judith and her servant; The Netherlands (?) (TRC 2020.3320).The TRC Leiden has recently been given a number of embroidered pictures by the Bijbels Museum, Amsterdam. We wrote a separate blog about this donation. One panel is especially large (135 x 105 cm) and depicts a lady in a low cut, ornate dress with an elderly woman carrying a white bag (TRC 2020.3320). The woman is pointing to a city on a hill top and a series of tents just below the city walls.

Mid-17th century ciselé velvet sample with huinting dogs, from Italy (TRC 2011.0385).In 2011 the TRC Leiden was given a collection of early European velvets by Ms. Van Gerwen. They came from her father's private museum of medieval art. These pieces have intrigued me ever since. Although I specialise in hand embroidery, I have long wanted to go deeper into the history of velvets and to gain a better understanding of the various different types. Not so much as how exactly each form was made and the (many) technical and mechanical intricacies that were involved, but in more general terms to try and follow the history of the designs associated with them as well as the function of these luxury textiles.

The Van Gerwen collection includes thirty examples of early velvets that probably date back to at least the fourteenth century with most of the pieces dating to the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries (with a few nineteenth century copies of earlier forms). There are also examples of plain, chiselé (cut and uncut), and voided textiles, and some that include silver and gold threads in the main designs and in the backgrounds.

Modern example of tissu Provencal (TRC 2020.3198).There has been considerable attention over the years for a typical type of Indian cloth generally called chintz (sitz in Dutch), its  European copies, and the popularity of these textiles in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Museums such as the Victoria and Albert (London), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), as well as various smaller institutions have all had exhibitions that highlight the economic, social, technical and artistic role of these textiles.

Worteldoek from The Netherlands, mid-20th century (TRC 2019.2237).Often the TRC Blog looks at textiles or clothing from ‘exotic’ countries, but we have been receiving various messages about how good it is to know about European textiles, such as the Romanian dress and the British sampler from the mid-eighteenth century. So over the next few weeks some of the TRC blogs (appropriately called 'Textile Moments') are going to be about various European textiles and the stories behind them. And yes, there will be an ‘exotic’ element to many of them!

We want to celebrate adoption and adaption, and the creative nature of humans, rather than taking a narrow view of the world by saying ‘it’s from my culture, hands off’ (something that would have been regarded as very strange and unnatural by many in the past). Sadly, the opposition against cultural appropriation does at times take extreme forms.

Photograph of Martha Ann Ricks, July 1892, National Gallery, London.What are the links between an ex-slave called Martha Ricks, the British Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and an unsolved mystery? The answer is a hand-stitched white satin quilt that was personally presented by the quilter to the Queen at Windsor Castle, in July 1892.

This is a fascinating story that provides extra background to the ongoing American Quilts exhibition at the TRC in Leiden. The same story featured prominently in a 2017 BBC World Service documentary called “Looking for Aunt Martha’s Quilt”, which described the attempt by the family of the quilter, Martha Ricks, to trace the quilt that has long been lost. Here is the story:

Martha Ann Erskine Ricks (d. 1901) was born into slavery in the USA, around 1817. Her father worked to buy his, his wife’s and their seven children’s freedom. When Martha was 13 the family sailed to Liberia. Within a year only Martha and her two brothers remained alive. Martha married and helped manage a farm where she grew coffee, cacao, sugar cane and ginger.

In her 40s, she won a national prize for a pair of cotton silk socks she made from her own cotton and the fibre of the cotton silk tree. Throughout all this time she nourished a dream—to meet a woman she admired for her help to end slavery. Martha was mocked by neighbours and her husband alike, because the woman she wanted to meet was none other than the British monarch, Queen Victoria.

TRC work on the 25th July 2020: Middle Eastern embroidery. Photogaph: Fatima Abbadi.Fatima Abbadi from Capelle aan den IJssel attended the July 25th July TRC workshop on Middle Eastern embroidery. She sent us the following impression:

"Finally, after months of lock down and online seminars and workshops due to the coronavirus outbreak, on Saturday, July 25, I participated in the long-awaited “Identification of Middle Eastern Embroidery” workshop held by Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood at the TRC in Leiden.

Upon arrival at the TRC I was overwhelmed by the smell of coffee, tea and a delicious chocolate cake. We were surrounded by some fifteen boxes of embroideries from Arab countries, such as Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen.

Photograph dated c. 1914 of Anna Berendina Bennink (1890-1918) (TRC 2020.3535b), who made the 'pronkrol' (TRC 2020.3535a) and sadly died in the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919.A few days ago we were given a pronkstuk (also known as pronkrol; TRC 2020.3535a) that has opened up various discussions. As noted in an earlier TRC Blog, a pronkstuk is a long length of cloth, usually made up of smaller panels, that traces the needlework development of a schoolgirl. Such rolls were used as a form of diploma to show prospective employers that the girl could do a wide range of plain and decorative needlework.

This particular roll was donated to the TRC by Marjo Bennink, and it was originally made by her great-aunt, called Anna Berendina Bennink (1890-1918), who came from Brummen, near Arnhem, in the east of The Netherlands. The roll is dated to 1905 and 1906, indicating that she would have been 15-16 when she made it. It is currently 592 cm long and 26 cm wide, and unusually, part of it is double sided.

In another blog a few weeks ago we talked about the TRC’s collection of carte de visite photographs and how in these cases we had a photograph of a person, but no further details. The pronkstuk is different, because with this gift we were also given a photograph and further information about Anna Bennink, and we have added the photograph to the TRC Collection (TRC 2020.3535b). It is nice to have a face, name and an object relating to the same person.

Early 21st century quilting block with a machine embroidered depiction of a Japanese woman, The Netherlands (TRC 2020.2508).A few weeks ago we were contacted by Ms Carolien Evenhuis-Ruys, asking if we were interested in some quilt books. Sadly, this generous offer followed the death of her mother, Marieke Ruys, who was a fanatic quilter and who travelled to many countries in search of knowledge, skills and inspiration for her quilts.

A few weeks ago the first ten boxes of books were delivered at the TRC in Leiden and then a few days ago some more boxes arrived with embroidery books, as well as quilting equipment and many, many samples (mostly so-called 'fat quarters') of cloth suitable for making into quilts.

Beverley, our quilt specialist, went through the boxes and was very impressed by the quality and diversity of the books, declaring it a really good library and the basis for something bigger and even better. It turned out there are well over 350 quilt books, many of them classic forms by famous quilters.

So what should we do? We have had various discussions with specialists and other volunteers of the TRC, and we have decided to:

(a) Make a dedicated quilt library, so keeping these and other books together in one place rather than splitting the quilt and quilting technique for the historical section. Any duplicate books will be sold in the TRC shop.

(b) To make a reference collection of quilt cloth that can be used for identifying antique, vintage as well as reproductions, and to help with the dating of cloth. In many of the samples just given there are selvedge texts that identify the name and manufacturer of the cloth, and in some cases there is a date as well. These will be housed in a special ‘REF: Quilt cloth’ section.

(c) To make a reference collection of quilt and quilting tools (‘REF Quilting tools’), so that these items can be correctly identified and accurately described in both the TRC Catalogue/Database and elsewhere.

(d) Seriously consider how we can make a European quilt and quilting centre that reflects these and other quilt related donations over the last few years, as well as providing inspiration for current and future quilters and reflecting the diverse and long history of quilting with many different forms of quilting, not ‘just’ American quilts.

Of course all of this cannot be achieved in a few days or even weeks, but it opens up many possibilities and strengthens the role of the TRC Leiden as an international centre for textile and dress studies and a major port of call for anyone searching for inspiration!

Gillian Vogelsang, 24th July 2020