Description
depicting a young lady with caged bird, original frame
Dimensions
53 x 46cm
Footnote
Note: Berlin wool work patterns were first published in Berlin, Germany, early in the 19th century and were issued mostly as single sheets which made them affordable. Soon they were exported to Britain and the United States, where 'Berlin work' became popular. In Britain, it received a further boost through the Great Exhibition of 1851, and by the advent of ladies' magazines such as 'The Englishwoman's Domestic Magazine'. Subjects to be embroidered were influenced by Victorian Romanticism and included floral designs, Victorian paintings, biblical or allegorical motifs. By the late 1880s demand for this sort of work waned as the publishers failed to adapt, opening the way for less pictorial styles as advocated by William Morris and others.