An interesting mid-17th century embroidered biblical picture, English, circa 1660


Designed with scenes from the Old and New Testaments, to the left Susanna is surprised by the two elders, Samson slays the lion followed by Delilah about to cut Samson's hair, to the right Esther sits at a banquet with Ahasuerus and numerous other scenes, between the scenes secular and religious imagery - a monkey; turkey; hare; butterfly and wolf; a pelican feeding her young; the Holy Ghost as a dove; David's harp and the hand of God - the upper left border with depictions of the senses and the lower border with eleven apostles and Christ identified holding a cross, embroidered in tent stitch with coloured silks and coiled metal and applied silver thread with coloured and pearl bead embellishment, framed and glazed, 53cm x 78.50cm
|Provenance:Formerly Athelhampton House, Dorset. Reputedly purchased in the 1940s from a Dorchester-based specialist oak furniture dealer who had acquired the embroidered picture directly from descendants of the original owner.