Marking and Memory: An Embroidered Sheet in the Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum

Abstract

In 2006 the Furniture Textiles and Fashion Department of the V&A received a package. Inside the parcel were a large linen bed sheet and a photograph of a woman in nineteenth-century dress with an accompanying note, but no indication of the donor’s name or address. The sheet was late sixteenth century, comprising two widths of hand-woven linen joined by a bobbin lace insertion. Finished at the corners and at the end of the insertion with tassels, it was embroidered with six sets of initials, four of which bore dates ranging from 1786 to 1900. According to the note that accompanied the anonymous donation, these initials referred to the individuals for whose laying-out after death this sheet was used. Research has shown that the initials in fact record marriages, significantly altering the meaning of the object and the commemoration it appears to represent, associated not just with death but also, perhaps instead, with other noteworthy events in its owners’ lives. The sheet presents a unique opportunity to explore the material goods of several generations of one family and to build a picture of the role that objects can play in marking and celebrating emotional experience.

Keywords:

• commemoration
• embroidery
• bedding

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my former colleagues at the V&A for their help in the preparation of this article. In particular, thanks are due to Clare Browne, who shared with me her considerable expertise, and Angela McShane, who provided advice and encouragement. Sonnet Stanfill first explained the difficulties and satisfactions of helping the bereaved find homes for the possessions of their loved ones. More recently, Hanne Faurby supervised an appointment at the new Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion to reexamine the sheet and check my findings, and I am grateful for her time and patience. I would also like to thank the staff of the search rooms at Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire Archives who were extremely helpful to me in my quest to unearth the genealogical details that form the basis of this paper.

Notes

1. This object has neither been conserved, nor undergone a full conservation assessment, as it is in a stable condition and there are no plans to display it at present.

2. 1901 Census: Class RG13, Piece 546, Folio 147, Page 36, Household 185.

3. Will of Pyott Staffurth, 1830, proved Archdeaconry of Ely, June 19, 1830.

4. Will of Mary Staffurth, 1834, proved Archdeaconry of Ely, June 4, 1836.

5. 1841 Census: Class HO107, Piece 448, Book 14, Civil Parish Ramsey, Huntingdonshire, Enumeration District 7, Folio 25, Page 16, Line 13, GSU roll 288835.

6. 1851 Census: Class HO107, Piece 1747, Folio 134, Page 23, GSU roll 88702–3.

7. 1861 Census: Class RG 9, Piece 1045, Folio 42, Page 18, GSU roll 542742, Household 109; 1871 Census: Class RG10, Piece 1612, Folio 40, Page 11, GSU roll 829924, Household 64.

8. Will of James Blunt, 1872, proved Principal Registry of HM Court of Probate, November 10, 1874.

9. 1881 Census: Class RG 11, Piece 618, Folio 90, Page 26, GSU roll 1341142; 1891 Census: Class RG 12, Piece 1029, Folio 11, Page 16, GSU roll 6096139.

10. Herbert William Blunt, Obituary, The Times, May 28, 1940, p. 9 col.F.

11. 1911 Census: Class RG14, Piece 2854.

12. Will of Edward Johnson, 1824, proved Archdeaconry of Ely September 12, 1828.

13. 1841 Census (Wilson Johnson): Class HO107, Piece 449, Book 5, Civil Parish Warboys Huntingdonshire, Enumeration District 6, Folio 39, Page 34, Line 21, GSU roll 288836; 1841 Census (Betsey Ekins): Class HO107, Piece 449, Book 5, Civil Parish Warboys Huntingdonshire, Enumeration District 6, Folio 39, Page 34, Line 8, GSU roll 288836.

14. Will of Joseph Willson, 1791, National Archives PROB 11/1329.

15. 1851 Census: Class HO107, Piece 1749, Folio 85, Page 17, GSU roll 193646, Household 59.

16. Will of John Linton, 1749, Archdeaconry of Ely, no record of date proven; Will of Ellen Linton, 1760, proved Archdeaconry of Ely September 26, 1766.

17. See Rijksmusem BK 1969–93, Dutch linen sheet 1698 with lace insertion embroidered “AV 1698” and “MC”, and Rijksmusem BK 1963–5, Dutch linen sheet 1650–1700 with lace insertion embroidered “T”, “P” and a heart. See also the examples of embroidered sheets from Dutch baby houses discussed in Broomhall 2007: 49–68.

18. See Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s discussion of similar naming practices in relation to Hannah Barnard’s cupboard in The Age of Homespun, 131.

19. Will of Joseph Willson, 1791 National Archives PROB 11/1329. Will of Edward Johnson, 1824, proved Archdeaconry of Ely September 12, 1828.

20. Will of Mary Staffurth, 1834, proved Archdeaconry of Ely, June 4, 1836. Will of Sarah Blunt, 1896, proved Principal Registry of HM Court of Probate, May 12, 1902.

21. I have a great deal of additional genealogical information about this family, some of which is available online at www.ancestry.co.uk under the tree named “Blunt of Whittlesey.” I would be very happy to talk to anyone who has a personal interest in this object or any of the people mentioned above.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Antonia Brodie

Antonia Brodie is a curator and historian of furniture and furnishings. She has worked in museums in Britain and the US, and is currently undertaking research for a doctoral thesis on the decorative choices of seventeenth-century noblemen at Queen Mary, University of London.

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