Berlin Woolwork

Osbert Lancaster, the illustrious and witty commentator on the history of British interior décor, has much to say on the Early Victorian period, including:

The mantelpiece is transformed into a parade ground for the perpetual marshalling of rows of Bristol glass candlesticks, Sévres vases, Bohemian lustres around the glass-protected focal point of a massively allegorical clock. For the better display of whole cavalry divisions of plunging bronze equestrians, Covent Gardens of wax fruit, bales of Berlin woolwork, the drawing-room, the library and the boudoir are forced to accommodate innumerable cupboards, consoles and occasional tables. 

This paragraph prompted both Internet searching and a castle audit. Without any advance plan, I had already acquired a Bohemian lustre, 4 (fake!) bronze equestrians, wax fruit and some Berlin woolwork.

The pair of small tapestry pictures of dogs and their owners that I had bought in a second-hand shop in Oxford many years ago turned out to be Berlin woolwork. It was one of those instances that one feels one should buy something to prop-up an independent second-hand establishment because one enjoys having them around. I wouldn't have bought the tapestries off eBay or at auction, but they were charming, decorative and cheap. :-)

Berlin woolwork (~ 1804-1875) is a form of tapestry with a particular pixellated look. The subjects are often biblical and canvases frequently feature pets and children - the type of romantic whimsy beloved of the bourgeois Victorian. One particular characteristic is that faces can be executed in double density stiches - just as painters realise the face in greater detail than the background in portraits. The resulting tapestry fabric was often used in upholstery. This was sometimes beaded, and having a dense rectangular grid of beads makes for a very hardwearing surface indeed. I have a small stool covered in beaded Berlin woolwork, which is on loan to some friends.

The patterns were generally distributed by German publishers, although the name comes from the German worsted wool used. 

Fast forward to October of last year and I spotted a massive tapestry for sale on eBay featuring a Victorian Scottish hunting scene. It was somewhere in Norfolk, so I decided not to bid on it due to the difficulty of pick-up. However, the item drew me back: the scale and subject matter were perfect for the castle - so I put on a 99p bid assuming that while I would not win the item at least I had had a "go".

Anyhow, you guessed it! I won the item and some friends who live just 50 miles away kindly went on a day trip to collect it. In turn, I collected the item from them at Christmas, and only removed it from my little van on Sunday with the help of a friend. The item is not heavy but awkwardly large. The tapestry is now leaning against an item of furniture in the Great Hall.

99p eBay tapestry in Great Hall

I apologised for the 99p bargain to the seller Hollie, but let her know it would take pride of place in the castle and that I suspected it was Berlin woolwork. She sent a very gracious reply:

This is an item from my late Mother's home and my siblings and I just wanted it to go somewhere that it would be appreciated. We cannot think of a better place for it. I wish we knew more about the piece, what I can tell you is that it was made by a friend of the family around 1940 but the frame is older; it's made from wood from a Rectory dating back to the 1800s.

I had initially thought the item could date from around the date of the castle (1860), but Hollie's provenance says it was made in the 20th Century but presumably to a much older design. A look at the untidy back of the canvas, and the good condition of the item probably support the later date. It is possible that the tapestry was made by an older lady who got the pattern as a child in the Victorian era. The amount of work in such a large piece is considerable.

You can still buy Berlin woolwork patterns here, a very similar example is shown in the next image. Note the same Scottish theme and the treatment of the dog in four shades of brown.

Berlin woolwork pattern - available online

I particularly love this Berlin woolwork image of Sir Walter Scott: again the same romantic Scottish theme with the omnipresent dog. You can see the face is done in double-precision stitching, but for some weird reason this is done in groups of 4 replicated stitches, so the benefit of the higher resolution is lost. If Sir Walter had lived in the digital age, he surely would have penned an article in the Scotsman entitled "My Physiognomological Upscale Fail". :-) 

reference Berlin woolwork

Berlin woolwork is quite out of fashion, but I have become quite the convert. It reflects the themes, leisure time activities and aesthetic of the Victorian period and is to be celebrated and cherished.