textile HERITAGE The Brereton hangings

Carolyn Ferguson reviews some

significant pieces on display in ‘Frayed’ ervi c e S

‘Frayed: Textiles on the Edge’ is an important exhibition, showcasing

a number of interesting textiles by those seeking solace in stitch. As r c haeolo g y quilters we know that sewing is good occupational therapy and that A and when the hands are busy the mind is often stilled. We are also aware that stitch is beneficial for those who are confined or who perhaps have mental health issues. useums M

Designer and maker The bed hangings orfolk © N A maker who was brought to the No one has counted the numbers

edge by family circumstances was of different fabrics and individual ima g es

Anna Margaretta Brereton (née patchwork pieces, but we do know Lloyd) (1756–1819) of Brinton Hall, that the bed set has nineteen ulwer B near Melton Constable, Norfolk. separate pieces that come together orina

Family history says that Anna to furnish a four-poster bed. There L

Margaretta sewed the set of are bed curtains, top and bottom and

and patchwork hangings and inner and outer valances, known as the Brereton bed swags and tails, a head cloth and han g in s hangings to regain her sanity a magnificent coverlet, all made b ed following the death of her son out of and of the John at the age of 14 in 1800. In period. Anna Margaretta used

the period 1781–96, Anna a variety of geometric shapes rereton B Margaretta and her husband John including hexagons and long had ten children, four of whom hexagons (sometimes called Top: different fabrics of both furnishing

died in infancy.1 John was her fifth ‘coffin’ hexagons), pieced blocks Brereton bed hangings and dress weights, this seems akley - O child to die, an event that was said and appliqué in her design. unlikely unless such people were to change her life. A tribute Perhaps most remarkable are the Above: part of the textile trade. It’s more a g nall

published by William Upjohn after broderie perse baskets of flowers Brereton bed hangings: probable that her husband John B

her death in 1819 revealed that that are enclosed within frames coverlet, detail used his contacts within the textile sme E during the depression following of hexagons. The technique was trade to access offcuts and samples and

John’s death she retreated from much used by ladies of the late and even books of samples, for

public life and turned to the church 18th century to create patchwork in 1792 he is variously described eremy J of

for solace. This act of designing and tree-of-life designs in imitation as trader, draper, grocer, tallow making patchwork between 1801 of the popular Indian palampores Below: chandler, soap boiler and feed and 1805 must have been therapeutic, of the 1600s. Had Anna seen such Picture of Anna Margaretta factor. Quilt historian Bridget Long permission for by 1813 Anna Margaretta was items? Maybe her inspirations by an unknown artist suggests that the numbers on some

well enough to go to London and were provided by floral designs fabrics refer to print work samples with

have her silhouette made. on quilted petticoats – or had she and that marks on certain patches these hangings are without admired Indian embroideries of indicate the use of fents or ends 2 3

doubt the most valued set of items the 18th century? How too did of rolls of material. Such fabrics reprodu c ed

in the Norfolk Museums Costume she collect such a large assortment were often supplied by travelling and and Textile Collection. Their display of different flowered fabrics and packmen and would be a further in ‘Frayed’ reinforces the poignant different qualities and weights? source of fabrics for patchwork. er g uson

history of a Norfolk family Family history suggests that visiting the coverlet has a frame layout F and gives the public a further friends and family provided fabrics with a centre of hexagon rosettes

opportunity to see a superb set of for her to work with. However, framing the broderie perse flower arolyn

early patchworks. considering the vast number of baskets (or urns). The flowers are © C

22 THE QUILTER I NO 137 winter 2013 textile HERITAGE

which represent a full compendium asylum by her brother, a woollen of early 19th-century chintz fabrics. draper. Ruth Battersby-Tooke, the exhibition’s curator, states that Some other pieces ‘the path of Lorina’s reality is on a parallel track to our own, the two As well as these important bed will never intersect’ and certainly hangings, ‘Frayed’ also shows this is true. Through this piece, other significant historical and and a further 12 foot long sampler contemporary works. The stitched that now belongs to the Thackray texts of two women, Elizabeth Medical Museum in Leeds but Parker and Lorina Bulwer, give which is being shown alongside the a moving portrait of their lives. Norfolk piece for the first time in ‘As I cannot write I put this down this exhibition, we see the extent simply and freely as I might speak of her illness. There are also pieces to a person to whose intimacy in the exhibition by artists such as and tenderness I can fully intrust Tracy Emin and Sara Impey. myself.’ So begins Elizabeth I wish the museum success, Parker’s sampler, which was and hope that the exhibition will embroidered at some time after give a true appreciation of the 1830. The red cross-stitched words therapeutic uses of stitch both now give a heartfelt rendering of her and in the past. early life which are truly moving. © Carolyn Ferguson 2013 Happily, historians believe that easily recognisable as sunflowers, Above: Elizabeth’s later years were less I am grateful to Norfolk Museums daffodils, peonies, morning glory Embroidered letter by troubled. and Archaeology Service and Bridget and chrysanths, to list but a few. Lorina Bulwer, c.1901 the 2002 auction catalogue Long for providing access to the There are four borders or frames described a Lorina Bulwer work, documentation of the hangings carried of varying composition. The broad now in the collection of Norfolk out in October 2004. edging differs, though, from all Museums, as ‘an extraordinary the other pieces. Here we find long band sampler, c.15’ x 1’, Information on the Brereton Hangings one example of a printed panel chaotically worked in coloured was first published in 2013 in which seems to have been stitched on bands of pink, red, brown Miscellany, the journal of the Costume on later. We do know that the and blue cotton’. The sampler and Textile Association. coverlet was cut in half vertically is addressed as a letter to the and rejoined and reworked in the Maharajah of Kelvedon and other References 1930s. Family history states that notable figures; its embroidered 1 I am grateful to M. Sandford for this part Anna Margaretta’s only daughter words, sewn through many layers of the Brereton family tree. Mary helped her mother, but as of cloth, show her to be delusional, 2 See bedspread of linen and cotton , she married and moved away and provide an incoherent diatribe embroidered in India for the European in 1801 this may be family myth against her family, her life and her market c.1700, V&A collection Accession rather than fact. The diagonal inset loss of liberty. Lorina was born in Number LM.13-1930. strips through the borders include 1838 and helped her mother run a 3 Bridget Long, ‘The Blossoming of a later fabric from the late 1820s Yarmouth boarding house. After Patchwork: A Study of Cotton and Linen to 1830s, which suggests that this her mother’s death in 1893 she Patchwork at the End of the Eighteenth and was a remodelling after Anna found herself disinherited and was Beginning of the Nineteenth Centuries’, Margaretta’s death, possibly by her committed to the lunatic ward of Quilt Studies 7 (2006), 32–33. daughter or perhaps her daughter- the Great Yarmouth workhouse in-law Elizabeth who, with her husband William, revamped Brinton Hall in the 1820s. We know ‘Frayed: Textiles on the Edge’ also that Anna Margaretta’s sister Until 2 March 2014 Elizabeth married her husband’s Time and Tide, Museum of Great Yarmouth Life, Blackfriars Road, Great twin, Abel Brereton, and that they Yarmouth NR30 3BX lived nearby. So the two Elizabeths Open Mon to Fri 10–4, Sat and Sun 12 noon–4 may have been involved. Whoever Admission to the exhibition is free with general museum admission. subsequent needlewomen were, Courses, drop-in events and workshops are being run in conjunction with they reinforce the lasting vision the exhibition. For more information, visit www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk of Anna Margaretta Brereton or call 01493 743930. in providing a harmonious and You can find out more about the project on the ‘Frayed’ blog: unique set of early bed hangings frayedtextilesontheedge.wordpress.com

THE QUILTER I NO 137 winter 2013 23