Fane Family Needlework

This intriguing needlework piece - a French sweetheart sampler - was stitched for Major General Sir Vere Fane and is dated Octobre 1918: the end of the Great War. It is for sale by Bateman's on 1 October 2011 some 93 years after it was made. The estimate is £60 - £100. Click here for more details. What is even more intriguing is the history of the Fane family.

The Fane family have lived at Fulbeck Hall since 1632 when it was left by Francis Fane, 1st Earl of Westmorland (1580-1629), to his third son, Sir Francis Fane (circa 1611-1681), a courtier, Royalist and commander of the King’s forces at Doncaster and Lincoln. The building was burned down in 1731, and was subsequently rebuilt between 1732 and 1733, possibly by Stamford architect George Portwood, with only the back wings and cellars surviving from the early 17th century. In 1767, the grandson of Sir Francis Fane, Henry Fane (1669-1726) was left the residence at Fulbeck, before the estates in Lincolnshire were left to his eldest son Thomas Fane (1701-1771), 8th Earl of Westmorland, making him one of the richest landowners in England. He then left Fulbeck Hall to his younger son the Honourable Henry Fane MP (1739-1802). In 1777, Henry married Anne Buckley Batson, heiress of the Avon Tyrrel estate in Hampshire, by whom he had 14 children, and went on to occupy and enlarge the hall from 1784, adding a new north wing. During the 19th century, the house was home to General Sir Henry Fane MP (1778-1840), Commander-in-Chief of India, and his brother General Mildmay Fane. They were succeeded by their nephew and the son of the Reverend Edward Fane, General Walter Fane (1828-1885), who raised Fane’s Horse, a regiment of volunteers to fight in China during the Second Opium War. Walter was also an avid artist, completing a number of pieces included within the following lots. Although he had limited artistic success during his lifetime, he was the most successful member of a moderately artistic family. He married Maria Hodges, and was buried at Fulbeck after his death. As Walter and Maria Fane had no children, ownership of the estate then went to Colonel William Vere Reeve King-Fane (1868-1943), the son of William Dashwood Fane and the Honourable Susan Reeve. During the Second World War, the hall was requisitioned by the army and is famously known as the headquarters where the Battle of Arnhem (code name Operation Market Garden) was planned. The samplers above and below were stitched by Fane girls, Elizabeth Christine in 1916 aged 10 and Charlotte in 1786.