Missing cloth. Visible repair.
Fifteen darning crosses. Two corner mends.
A sampler makes the repair itself the subject. Here, differently worked crosses record ways of rebuilding a woven surface.
The collection record identifies this piece as a Dutch darning sampler from 1711. Silk and linen threads are worked over a linen foundation in pattern darning, running stitch and cross stitch. In the centre, cloth has been cut away and replaced. The initials GD and the date sit beneath a crown.
A historical practice sampler from the Netherlands, dated 1711. The collection records no maker’s name.
Read the structure.
The linen establishes the grid. The repair has to negotiate the cloth’s existing directions.
Colour separates the thread paths. The geometry makes the reconstructed surface easier to read.
Different darns share one ground. The work preserves comparison as well as technique.
A close reading of the photograph. Materials and named techniques follow the collection record.
Maker & source.
- Maker
- Maker unrecorded
- Place / date
- Netherlands / 1711
- Materials
- Silk and linen embroidery on linen foundationCollection record
- Technique
- Pattern darning, running stitch and cross stitchCollection record
- Collection
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Gift of Mrs. Montgomery Hare
- Accession
- 1937-75-1
- Publication
- Public-domain image, released under CC0 by the Smithsonian. Detail views crop the original photograph.