Charles II Silk High-Relief Needlework Picture

17th century, worked in silk, wool, hair, and metallic thread on silk with glass bead, mica, and pearl decoration, using stumpwork and detached buttonhole stitch techniques, the scene depicting a central standing female in an intricately embroidered floral gown holding a flower in a garden with flora and fauna, including a recumbent lion with purl mane, stag, swan, bird, snail, and various insects, beneath two castles to the upper corners, complete with sun and clouds, in a carved and tortoiseshell veneered frame, the reverse retaining Sotheby's label and collection label of Nina Weil.

Frame dimensions 9 3/4 x 13 in.; sight size 6 3/8 x 9 5/8 in.

From the Collection of Josephine Chapman Borthwick, Pinehurst, North Carolina

Collection of Nina Weil

Areas of staining, dust soiling and color fading; some loss to stitches; loss to some applied decorative elements; frame with areas of veneer loss and stickiness; not examined out of the frame.