Embroidery from Provence

When I was in France this winter browsing the bookstores, I came across this charming and not very well-known embroidery book and thought I would share it with you. The title is a lovely play on words. Provence - particularly the Bouches du Rhone is famous for the wind called the Mistral blasting down the Rhone valley from the mountains. And if you look carefully at the paintings and sketches made by Van Gogh in St Remy de Provence you will see he painted the Mistral. Even on a clear blue sunshiny day the air can be in a howling rage all about you and the only thing you can see that's different is a slight curl to the top of the high pines and cypresses. Mistral is also the name of Frédéric Mistral who was instrumental in preserving and promoting the ways of the old Langue d'Oc of the south (as opposed to the Langue d'Oui of the North).

There are a number of little projects described and charted in this book based upon that old southern culture. Here you can see some pretty pockets embroidered with ladies in their Arlesienne finery. Every year there is a festival where the women of Arles dress - and my goodness me, they are beauties in their costume!

Here you can see a project to embellish a shirt - this is very much in the spirit of the Saintes Maries de la Mer where the summer attire for trekking on those fabulous white horses is a pair of chick jeans, cowboy boots and some exquisitely embroidered, tailored shirt.

Frédéric Mistral was responsible for founding the Museon Arlaten at the end of the 19th century. While this museum is undergoing a six-year restoration that began in 2009, you can still see some of the rooms illustrated in this book. And it's only a snip at around €11! Click here for more details.

Sampler Stories * Pakhuis Koophandel Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands * Until 31 October 2013

The Pakhuis Koophandel Museum is one of Leeuwarden's best kept secrets - don't miss this smaller museum if you are touring in the North Netherlands and planning to visit Leeuwarden's spectacular town museum. Some of these samplers are like nesting boxes, they tell stories referencing other stories referencing even older stories. Such as a sampler of 1786 the original of which is in the Zuiderzee museum. A pattern for this sampler was published in the 1980s and one lady, Geertje Dijkstra Hoff embroidered it in 1993. This sampler featured in the recording of a televised Douwe Egberts advert, and created a sensational amount of interest in samplers and sampler makers. Also in the exhibition are: antique samplers (the oldest is from 1694); embroidery patchwork from the Biedermeier time; darning samplers; red school samplers; contemporary samplers and samplers commemorating the life and tours of the Dutch royal family. Also on show are antique sewing kits from a private collection. The museum is open Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 11am to 5 pm. Click here for more details.

Recipient of Merwaardig's 25th Anniversary Diary

The recipient of the dairy is Nancy in Ontario

For those of you who missed out this week - don't despair there will be other give always and you can always obtain a copy of this lovely diary by contacting our friend Erica. The price is 18 Euros excluding shipping just click here to place your order.

Non Angli Sed Angeli * Opus Anglicorum Cope, Bologna

When I was in the second form of junior school. I remember being told the story about Pope Gregory I referring to the English as not Angles but angels. From that moment on, I took a certain comfort from the fact that, though sometimes crusty of nose, scabby of knee and wild and wayward of hair, I was in some important person's regard, somehow, something of an angel...somewhere inside, at least.

And I was reminded of this just a few weeks ago while watching the Antiques Roadshow when I heard one of the presenters refer to a type of early English embroidery as Opus Angelicanum. Forgiveness for this slip is everlasting. Who would not confuse this exquisite embroidery with the work of angels?

In Bologna, recently, in the Museo Civico Medievale, I stood transfixed and mesmerised by the astonishing work in the Bologna Cope (Piviale) which illumines the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary.

The cope was worked in England during the first half of the 14th century. Here you can see a detail of the journey of the Magi.

And here is the entire cope - with apologies as it is very difficult to photograph without internal reflections from the glass case.  If you do visit Bologna, do go along and see it, it is worth the pilgrimage. There is a very interesting PhD thesis by Christine Linnell about this and three other Opus Anglicanum copes. Click here to download a copy.