An important and extremely rare needlework screen
England, circa 1730.
Worked in petit and gross point, of wool and silk threads.
Height: 5ft 10in (179cm) Width: 7ft 2in (219cm)
Provenance: Lord Harlech, Glyn Cywarch, Gwynedd.
Few needlework screens from the 18th century survive, there is a similar screen with three panels near identical, though lacking the oriental figures as in the present screen, dated 1727 and worked on by Julia, Lady Calverley, at Wallington Hall, Northumberland, which is now a National Trust property. The design is after Franz Cleyn 1582-1658), who was employed by James I to work at the Mortlake Tapestry Works.
Cleyn designed the illustrations to the editions of classics published by John Ogilby: Aesop's Fables (1697) and John Dryden's translation of Virgil's Georgics and Eclogues (1668). These Cleyn designs were engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1667) who was the most prolific artist of the time, from which the designs for the screen are taken.
The present screen has additional oriental figures and an exotic mythological figure of a flying dragon of which a similar figure is in an unfinished embroidery from the same period, now at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
Another related screen is in the John Bryan collection at Crab Tree Farm, Chicago, USA, though the needlework has a somewhat overall murky browned colouring which could be due to a type of antique wash, not so desirable, or used as a firescreen.
There is a further connection to The Wallington Hall screen, as at Glyn Cywarch a set of George III giltwood chairs have needlework with one panel in particular of a similar scene of gardening and agricultural implements to the fore and with an arch to the left.
The wood screen itself is from the workshop of Francis Lenygon, whose firm received commissions from many prominent patrons, including industrialists, aristocrats and the Royal family. They held royal warrants under four successive kings: Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII, and George VI. Lenygon served as president of the American Institute of Decorators and the Art and Antiques Dealers League of America. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the North British Academy.
Literature: Yvonne Hackenbroch, English & Other Needlework in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Harvard University Press, 1960, plate 91.
Exhibited: St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff.
Price : P.O.A.
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