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Kneeling cushion


Collection: Needlework Development Scheme Collection
Object Type: Embroidered Homeware
Artist/Maker: Nicholson, Joan
Place Made: Britain
Date: 1958
Media/Materials: wool with tent stitch
Dimensions: 36 x 26 x 5.5 cm

Description:

A small cushion with twelve images of animals including cats, plants, figures, sun and moon. This wool embroidery with tent stitch was created by Joan Nicholson who was highly active as a designer of needlework. Nicholson was also the designer of silk embroidered panels which were created in 1953 for the Royal Yacht Brittania. The designer was chosen by Sir Hugh Casson (HM The Queen’s chosen designer for Britannia’s State Apartments)." The cushion is one of many needlework collection objects which are part of the Needlework Development Scheme collection which was was a collaborative project between art and design education and industry. Originally established in Scotland in 1934, its aim was to encourage embroidery and to raise the standard of design in Britain. Financed by J and P Coats, the thread manufacturers, the Scheme was organised by the four Scottish art schools, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Its collection of foreign and British embroidery was available to domestic science and training colleges, women's institutions and schools, as well as art schools. By 1939, the Scheme had acquired some 900 embroideries but the outbreak of WWII closed the Scheme and the collection was retained by the four original art schools. For more information about the Needlework Development Scheme visit http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/n/needlework-development-scheme/


Object Number: ABDRG10284