Books

The 2023 Witney exhibition catalog is their first hardcover book covering an extremely rare collection of treasures of the schoolroom from 1650-1750.  The primary collection is the 1667/1668 casket on the cover worked by Elizabeth Hall at the Shacklewell School outside Hackney and containing a number of small casket toys made by her.  The family continued to add items to the box such as a handmade layette set, small whitework pieces and their patterns.  The box also came with a set of samplers made later by other family members and friends from this small Quaker meeting.  What is stunning is the research done by Rebecca Scott and Isabella Rosner regarding Elizabeth, her friends and family using the extensive collection of family letters.  Never has so much been known about a set of embroidery from the period.  Copies of some of the important letters are shown in the book.  The casket and sampler worked by Hannah Downes, now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum's was made contemporaneously adding to the information.  Samplers worked by girls who went to school and were attendant at Elizabeth's wedding are included in the exhibit giving a fleshed out understanding of these women's worlds at the time.

This tome is a follow on to the 2022 Witney exhibiton catalog which extensively covered samplers of the period (and many are on display with the Hall sets now.  But it is the prequel to the 2024 Witney exhibition catalog which will be larger and will cover more caskets with their internal items which also have impressive information on the girls and their schools. 

The 126-page book has full page photography, including many views of the casket and very magnified views of the casket smalls in the clear photographs you have come to expect from Witney's catalogs with an essay about each piece.  

'I Write the Needles Praise' A century of Sampler Making, 1630-1730 is the 2022 catalog for the exhibition Nov 2022 by Witney Antiques.  If you are a lover of English band samplers, whitework samplers or spot samplers - this softcover book needs to have a space on your bookshelf.  144-book features a sampler and a page of research on it for 70 samplers.  All of which are either recently on sale (call to ask Witney Antiques if still available) or brought out of private collection for the one month exhibition.  

The research was done by Rebecca Scott and Isabella Rosner and covers both genealogy of the girls, new school information and comparable examples.  It is written in the format of the highly coveted Feller Collection and Goodhart Sampler books published a decade ago.  

This is being made available direct in the USA by Access Commodities who arranged for a special pallet of the books to be shipped here from the UK to make getting them easier as Witney does not have online ordering.