Dreams Less Sweet Antiques

Description

Rare, charming and characterful 19th Century sailor’s Woolwork folk art picture & frame, depicting the British Royal Coat of Arms.

C. 1860 - 1890.

Raised silk work lion and unicorn supporters, flanking embroidered coat of arms outlined with beads and contained within an unusual folk art cork frame with love hearts.

Charming folk art character.

Unusual and very decorative.

Areas of wear particularly to the woolwork green field. Some small loses to cork pieces around frame, although almost all are intact and present.

Overall: 57 x 66cm.

Along with arts and crafts such as wood carving, scrimshaw and ropework, the sailors woolwork is a genre of folk art popular amongst servicemen in the British Navy and Royal Marines from the mid-19th century onwards.

Woolworks, or woolies as they are sometimes known, are hand embroidered pictures, usually worked in coloured wool and on rare occasion supplemented with silk, cotton thread and beads.

Depictions of the British Royal Coat of Arms in Woolwork are found from the mid to late 19th Century.