Treasures At The Textile Society Fair, Chelsea

It was a sunny hot day in Chelsea - the littlies were dashing naked through the fountains by the Saatchi Gallery and there was an air of festivity down the Kings Road. Inside the Town Hall was a veritable Samarkand of traders' textiles to enjoy and buy - and yes, dear reader, I bought!

The French sampler couldn't fail to attract my eye - this is the first French mourning sampler I have seen and is dedicated to Josephine Duclos of Bourgoin who died 15 February 1849 aged 8 years. Very beautiful and dignified, it was worked by her 10 year old sister Marie.

Elizabeth Gibbons also had some marvellous continental samplers, including darners and some lovely white-work English exercises. I'll talk more about Elizabeth in another post.

Oh, just look at those irresistable purple dancing shoes tucked away in there!

And here was a treasure trove of pattern sampler books - porter!
If you weren't there, you missed a treat. In addition to all the wonderful items to see and buy, there were wonderful people to talk to and I shall be telling more about them in some future blogs entitled Meetings with Remarkable Women.....