An embroidered panel, 'Maids of Honour', designed by May Morris in 1880-92, the verse reads 'Welcome maids of honour - You do bring in the spring and wait upon her', inset into a mahogany firescreen, 62cm wide 90cm high Provenance: From a descendant of the Trevelyan Family of Wallington Hall, Northumberland. May Morris William’s youngest daughter, was an important figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement. The verse is the opening of 'To Violets' by Robert Herrick, a 17th century poet. May helped transform embroidery from a domestic pastime - undervalued because it was mostly done by women - into a serious art form. Her work was exhibited widely and pieces like this showed what could be achieved by imaginative and inventive free-hand stitching, as opposed to the more plodding woolwork dominating much amateur production. May had become the head of Morris and Co.’s embroidery department by the time she was twenty-three, but she was concerned by the lack of professional organisations open to women and tried to redress this by founding the Women’s Guild of Arts in 1907. Wallington Hall is now owned by the National Trust. The interiors were remodelled with Pre-Raphaeliate art, sculpture and decoration. The artist William Bell Scott was commissioned to paint the walls with a series of vivid Pre-Raphaelite scenes depicting great moments in the history of Northumberland. Bell carried out most of the painting and one panel was painted by John Ruskin. Another Pre-Raphaelite friend of the Trevelyan family was sculptor Thomas Woolner who created sculptures in the entrance hall. Lady Mary Terevelyan (1881-1966) was keen on the arts and there are a series of tapestries woven by her at Wallington Hall – it may be that she used the May Morris design from a pattern which was known to have been published in the ‘Day Book’.
An embroidered panel, 'Maids of Honour', designed by May Morris in 1880-92, the verse reads 'Welcome maids of honour - You do bring in the spring and wait upon her', inset into a mahogany firescreen, 62cm wide 90cm high Provenance: From a descendant of the Trevelyan Family of Wallington Hall, Northumberland. May Morris William’s youngest daughter, was an important figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement. The verse is the opening of 'To Violets' by Robert Herrick, a 17th century poet. May helped transform embroidery from a domestic pastime - undervalued because it was mostly done by women - into a serious art form. Her work was exhibited widely and pieces like this showed what could be achieved by imaginative and inventive free-hand stitching, as opposed to the more plodding woolwork dominating much amateur production. May had become the head of Morris and Co.’s embroidery department by the time she was twenty-three, but she was concerned by the lack of professional organisations open to women and tried to redress this by founding the Women’s Guild of Arts in 1907. Wallington Hall is now owned by the National Trust. The interiors were remodelled with Pre-Raphaeliate art, sculpture and decoration. The artist William Bell Scott was commissioned to paint the walls with a series of vivid Pre-Raphaelite scenes depicting great moments in the history of Northumberland. Bell carried out most of the painting and one panel was painted by John Ruskin. Another Pre-Raphaelite friend of the Trevelyan family was sculptor Thomas Woolner who created sculptures in the entrance hall. Lady Mary Terevelyan (1881-1966) was keen on the arts and there are a series of tapestries woven by her at Wallington Hall – it may be that she used the May Morris design from a pattern which was known to have been published in the ‘Day Book’.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
