An Elizabethan canvaswork 'pin pillow'

Why a "pin pillow" and not "pincushion"? Because I can't yet document the word 'pincushion' any early than the 1630s, but I can document "pin pillow." For example, the 1582 will of Elizabeth Gorson includes a bequest of “a purse and a pin pillow of crimson velvet embroidered with gold and purl.”[1] This bequest is also significant because surviving sets of purses with pincushions are generally dated to the early 17 th century.

 

Materials & Technique. Pillow Front : 20 count linen canvas, embroidered in long-arm cross, cross, and tent stitch with 2 ply spun silk dyed in period colors (by Aurora Silk). Pillow Back : Silk satin, dyed by me (alum/cochineal/iron). Interior : Sewn with silk thread, and stuffed with wool. Design Source: I do not like floral deigns much, so I chose a period geometric by Johann Siebmacher (1597) as found in the New Carolingian Model Book , slightly altered the design, & chose what colors & stitches to use. Long arm cross and cross stitches are used for the gold ‘framing' and the white interlace motif. I purposely varied the direction on the slant of the tent stitches to add visual interest.

Above (l): Design as found in the New Carolingian Model Book	Above (r): I chose not to follow Siebmacher's checky patterning within the framing bands as the results would look too busy for my taste. I also altered the central interlacing motifs to make them less blocky in appearance.

Comparison to Period Pieces: Two varieties of pincushions appear in museum collections: small square ones (approx 2.5” square) attached to matching sweet bags, and larger rectangular ones undoubtedly meant to sit on a dressing table. Rectangular Elizabethan pincushions at the V&A range in size from 8.5” x 6.25” to 13” x 8”. Some have tassels. I suspect the cushion in the Untermeyer collection [2] may in fact be a pin pillow, due to its similarity in design & materials to V&A examples and its size (7.5” x 11.5”). My cushion is a bit small at 6.5” x 4.5”.

Extant pieces are embroidered in silk and metal in tent, cross, plaited braid, and other stitches on linen canvas and backed with silk. I do not have estimates of stitch counts, but I assume they match the high counts seen on ‘sweet bags' (30+ per inch). Floral motifs are most common on surviving pincushions and associated purses, but these are few in number and all date from the turn of the 17 th century. Designs such as I used are seen on clothing, book covers and embroidered book covers as well as found in pattern books.

Not many pincushions survive, and most do show no sign of use. The assumption is that these were meant as display pieces; most examples have backgrounds embroidered in silver and silver gilt. As mine is not intended as a show piece but will be regularly used, I chose to work at a lower stitch count and with less valuable materials (no silver or gilt). A pincushion can be seen on the dressing table in a portrait of the Countess of Southampton (circa 1600).

 

[1] Emmison. [2] Hackenbroch, plate 5.

References

Beck, Thomasina (1995). The Embroiderer's Story: Needlework from the Renaissance to the Present Day . Newton Abbott, Devon , England .

Digby, George Winfield (1963). Elizabethan Embroidery . London : Faber & Faber.

Emmison, F.G. (1978). Elizabethan Life: Wills of Essex Gentry and Merchants, Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury . Chelmsford , UK : Essex County Council.

Hackenbroch, Yvonne (1960). English and Other Needlework, Tapestries and Textiles in the Irwin Untermyer Collection . Cambridge , MA : Harvard University Press for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Nevinson, J.L. (1938). Catalogue of English Domestic Embroidery of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. London : Victoria & Albert Museum .

Parry, Linda (1987). A Practical Guide to Canvas Work from the Victoria and Albert Museum . Pittstown: Main Street Press. Introduction by Santina Levey.

Privat-Savigny, Maria-Anne (2003). Quand les princesses d'Europe brodaient : broderie au petit point, 1570-1610. Paris : Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux.

Rhodes, Mary (1983). The Batsford Book of Canvas Work. London : BT Batsford LTD.

Online resources

Historic Needlework Resources , http://medieval.webcon.net.au/ . Collection of links to period items online.

Manchester Art Gallery ( UK ), http://www.manchestergalleries.org/ . Online images include an interesting collection of 16 th -17 th century embroideries, including an embroidered red satin sweet bag with attached pincushion and knife sheath.

Museum of Fine Arts ( Boston ), http://www.mfa.org . Online database of images includes elaborately embroidered sweet bags and other 16 th -17 th century embroideries, but no period pincushions.

Oxford English Dictionary online , http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl

Victoria & Albert Museum , http://www.vam.ac.uk . Online database of images includes sweet bags with and without attached pincushions as well as early 17 th century embroidered and tapestry pincushions.