Embroidered Mirror Frame

Embroidering a mirror frame was a common domestic needlework project in England in the second half of the seventeenth century. This was perhaps because, in the 1660s, mirrors became more readily available and affordable to consumers, a result of English mirror makers improving their techniques [1]. Up until this point, mirror glass was a luxury item that needed to be imported [2]. This mirror, which is framed by imitation tortoiseshell and which has mirror glass from a later period, features a courting couple stood amongst flora and fauna in a variety of stitches and scales.

In each of the frame’s four corners is a large flower in a vase. The top two are made entirely of metal purl. The bottom flowers are made of silk threads, with the viewer’s left-hand flower featuring three-dimensional petal and leaves made of detached buttonhole stitches. The flower on the bottom right is flat, wrought with satin stitches. On the viewer’s left side of the mirror is a fashionably dressed man doffing his hat. His cuffs and collar are made of tiny pieces of lace, likely made by the frame’s stitcher instead of bought ready made from a haberdasher. To the right of the mirror is a woman smelling a flower whilst stood beneath a tree growing two large strawberries. She, too, wears a lace collar. She lifts her skilfully draped, three-dimensional skirt to reveal an underskirt made of long and short stitches. Both figures’ faces are made of tent stitches, a stitch much more often used on linen than on satin. The figures’ heads and necks were stitched upon linen and appliquéd onto the frame’s satin ground. The inclusion of a courting couple, the man doffing his hat and the woman smelling a flower, is common on schoolgirl needlework from seventeenth-century England.

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