Auction Roundup - Scottish Houses and A Turin Shroud

It is a little while since I have had the opportunity to look at what is happening out and about in the auction houses. This week I found two samplers displaying my favourite subject - Scottish houses, with an added surprise being an early embroidered representation of the Turin Shroud. But first this lovely sampler of 1831 worked by 11 year old Agnes Johnston which has all the markers of a Scottish sampler. Unmissable are the paired large thistles to either side of the text, and above them paired intials in the distinctive, hairy, style - outlined in Holbein stitch or what the Italians so aptly call punto scritto. The other markers are a rose border in its twisted arcade and the rather strange urn of five flowers which you can see in the centre below the house gate. And some peacocks for good luck! This sampler is lot 211 for auction at Lyon and Turnbull, Edinburgh on 23 October 2010. Estimate is £300 - £500.

On the other side of Scotland, in Glasgow, McTear's have Lily Gardner's 1837 woolwork sampler for auction. Again notice the rose border in twisted arcades and the urn of flowers. This sampler is lot 541 with an estimate of £200- £250 and the sale date is 23 October 2010.

For those of you who live on the other side of The Pond is this interesting 18th century Italian embroidered piece showing a bishop and two assistants holding the Turin Shroud. Their faces and the shroud are depicted in watercolours. I tried to see if there were any particulary important events related to the Shroud at this time, but there was nothing that really stood out, maybe with more time it will be possible to discover if this is a special, commemorative piece. The auction is in Iowa, at Jackson's International of Cedar Falls, and this is lot 1016 with an estimate of £250 -£450. The sale date is 26 October 2010.