Rare Early Needlework & Art Deco Fashion

Rare and early textiles are set to go under the hammer in the Fashion, Costume and Textiles Sale at Tennants Auctioneers on 21^st November, hailing from private collections and family archives. Amongst the oldest lots in the sale will be five good 17^th and 18^th century framed needlework panels from a private collection, such as an intricately wrought Late Elizabethan/Early Jacobean Fine Needlework depicting an aerial view of a formal garden (estimate: £800-1,200 all figures exclude buyer’s premium), and a Pair of Mid-17^th Century Needlework Panels depicting King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria (estimate: £1,000-1,500).

Coinciding with the centenary of the 1925 Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, which saw the Art Deco style reach peak fruition, the sale will also offer an extensive private collection of 1920s and 1930s costume, textiles, accessories and millinery. Highlights of the collection include an Early 20^th Century Blue Silk Velvet Evening Coat made by Steins Gowns and Millinery of New York (estimate: £400-500), and an Early 20^th Century Black Evening Coat made by Frank and Seder of Pittsburgh (estimate: £200-300). Much of the collection will be sold in carefully curated lots, including Circa 1920s Egyptian Revival Costume Accessories including shoes, gloves, a purse (estimate: £200-300) and a group of Circa 1920s and Later Costume Accessories with a red silk velvet cloche hat, red leather shoes, an evening bag and a silk scarf (estimate: £200-300).

It is rare to know the origins of antique textiles, but a good Circa 1800 Chintz and Patchwork Quilt is embroidered with the maker’s name – Sally Filkes of Warminster, Wiltshire (estimate: £1,200-1,800). Filkes (née Wilton) was born in 1756 and lived in Warminster her whole life. Born into a wealthy family, in 1787 she married James Filkes, a wool merchant. From further afield is an early American Virginia Reel Pattern Quilt dated 1775; this pattern of quilt was inspired by a 17^th century folk dance popular with colonial Virginians, the red cotton appliques represent the movement of the dance (estimate: £1,200-1,500). Of interest, too, is an Early 19^th Century American Patchwork and Quilted Four Poster Bed Cover from Maine, New England, which has a handwritten stitched label to the reverse reading ‘Mrs John A Paine, 47 Broad Street’ (estimate: £1,000-1,500).

One of the top lots in the sale is a pair of Early 19^th Century French Toile de Jouy Bed Hangings, in the rare ‘Amorini et Medallions’ Pattern designed by Jean Baptiste Huet and manufactured by Christophe-Philippe Oberkampf; examples of textiles made with this rare fabric are held in the collections of the Art Institute in Chicago and the Met in New York. The hangings, which are offered with an estimate of £4,000-6,000, were purchased from a property in the Medoc, France, where they had been found in the attic. One of the more unusual lots in the sale is a Puppet Theatre designed by John Galliano and modelled as a Greek stage with two puppets, which was purchased by the Hon. Nathaniel Rothschild from the Naked Heart Foundation charity auction in New York in 2007 (estimate: £300-500).

The bumper 320-lot sale will also offer a private collection of buckles, buttons and hatpins, a variety of antique sewing accessories, good lace, costume from around the world including Ottoman and Central Asian pieces, ladies costume from the 19^th and early 20^th century, and good gent’s clothing including a variety of mid-20^th century tweed keeper’s suits from an Estate in Scotland.

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