Pillow cover

Unknown

1590–1610 · Linen worked with silk and metal thread, spangles; stem, back, plaited braid, knots, and buttonhole stitches, with buttonhole filling, raised and semi-detached · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Small pillows were favored by gentlewomen as book supports when reading and as ways to display an owner’s taste and dexterity with a sewing needle. Rich with glittering spangles and cleverly worked in multiple types of stitches, this pillow is a teeming mass of minutelyobserved vegetation. The pomegranate, a non-native species, was initially a popular motif in Tudor England as the heraldic badge of Henry VIII’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Artist

Unknown

Date

1590–1610

Medium

Linen worked with silk and metal thread, spangles; stem, back, plaited braid, knots, and buttonhole stitches, with buttonhole filling, raised and semi-detached

Culture

British

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964