Stitched: from high-born women to crofters’ daughters, exhibition showcases two centuries of Scotland’s finest embroidered art
An inspiring celebration of the rich heritage of embroidery, Stitched: Scotland’s Embroidered Art has opened its doors at Edinburgh’s Dovecot Studios.
Curator Emma Inglis adeptly pulls together a showcase spanning 200 years from 1720-1920, exemplifying the detail, skill and craft in often-overlooked gems gathered from National Trust properties across Scotland.
Located beneath Dovecot’s working tapestry studio, the vividly painted gallery rooms provide a warm backdrop to the motifs, symbolic depictions, complex compositions and extensive colour palettes of an array of embroidered textiles. The collection of 80 exquisite pieces features everything from bed hangings to ornate armchairs, intricate firescreens, tablecloths, cushions and even tea cosies.
Some pieces have been taken out of storage and have undergone meticulous textile restoration specifically for Stitched. Others, normally buried in the vast rooms of lavish Scottish castles and houses, are given the opportunity to shine and share their stories. These works include works from Newhailes House near Musselburgh, Drum Castle in Banchory, House of Dun near Montrose, and Weaver’s Cottage in Kilbarchan.
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The chosen pieces are accompanied by engaging histories, focusing on their practical function as well as how they were made and the women who made them. Singling out these items in an exhibition powerfully re-evaluates what was commonly dismissed as “women’s work”, focusing on the craft and skill involved.
From Scotland’s grandest houses to more humbler homes, the pieces in this exhibition are unified by the desire to create something decorative and civilising. Whether that’s a firescreen embroidered with exotic parrots by Lady Augusta Gordon of the House of Dun, or the golden embroidered leaf motifs stitched into a wool carpet by a Dundonian watchmaker’s wife in the mid-19th century, this is a fascinating opportunity for visitors to witness the craft and invention of the women who created ornate stitched patterns.
There is also a sense that this is just the start of unearthing many of the stories behind the the pieces and the exceptional skills that created them. From wealthy women who could afford the materials and time to master the intricate stitches of contemporary trends, to self-taught embroiderers who came from far more modest backgrounds, there is much to explore and untangle from their stitches.
An exquisite floral bedcover originally embroidered in the 1740s by Lady Anne Gordon of Haddo House in Aberdeenshire, but left unfinished, is a stunning example. Rediscovered in the 1880s by Ishbel, Lady Aberdeen, who was keen to revive embroidery skills, the task was given to a talented local embroiderer, May Sandison.
The daughter of an Aberdeenshire crofter who learned embroidery at her mother’s knee, Sandison later went on to lead the local Methlick School of Needlework. A great supporter of traditional crafts, Lady Aberdeen created the school “for the training and employment of girls in the district who do not desire to go out into the world, but who want to earn some money at or near home”. Sandison’s work to complete the piece followed the traces of the stems and leaves set out by Anne Gordon more than 140 years before.
Such fine, intricate work was not expected from the hands of rural working-class women. A local newspaper noted that the 1894 Home Industries Exhibition was “a really marvellous display when one considers that the women who execute such dainty work are taken from the ranks of the peasantry”.
The Stitched exhibition is an ideal opportunity to engage new audiences and drive interest in the National Trust for Scotland properties from which so many of these beautiful things been borrowed. In the Dovecot’s gallery spaces, these textiles feel almost freshly minted, pulling the visitor into other worlds and histories.
Indian embroidered curtains created in the 1720s borrowed from the House of the Binns in West Lothian reveal the unique plant-based colour from the locality of their making. They present an example of the visual trends of the time and the desire for beautiful, professionally stitched textiles in Scotland.
Examples from Lady Aberdeen’s needlework school include embroidered panels and a stunning gold thread table cover, copied from an Italian original. These sit alongside a pair of fine Chinese silk embroidered hangings purchased for Newhailes House just outside Edinburgh.
Inglis pleasingly connects many of the textiles to their people, whether that is the embroiderer themselves, or those who commissioned, collected, owned and used the items. This gives a strong sense of the context of this craft at various times throughout the last 200 years, reflecting the shifting fashions for stitch styles, technique, colour and materials.
Showcasing these archival embroidered textiles underscores the growing interest and market for embroidered textiles, as well as an increasing visibility in the arts. An appreciation of this slow, meticulous craftwork also highlights how this quiet domestic mode of expression has more recently become a less-quiet vehicle for women’s activism, reigniting excitement around the use of stitch.
Delving into archives is an excellent way to kindle interest in forgotten textures, pattern and colour in textile design. The histories embedded in these archives have the potential to inspire the next generation of timeless, long-lasting materials, prompted by designers’ need to challenge the overconsumption of modern fast fashion and interiors.
In an industry of opaque supply chains, highlighting the stories and people behind these exceptional works echoes the move to shift the current narrative around textiles. Stitched offers a rare opportunity to enjoy embroidered pieces whose stories can be traced back through history, reminding us of the integrity of handmade crafts designed to be cherished – and to last.
Collette Paterson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.