Society Silk Embroidery

This style of embroidery (also called Art Embroidery, Silk Art
Embroidery, Needlepainting, and Silk Work) started in England at the
end of the 19th century at the Kensington School and was displayed at the 1876 Centennial.

However,
it was taken up with huge enthusiasm in America, and soon became an
uniquely American phenomenon. From 1888 to 1915, many U.S. gepanies,
among them Corticelli (Florence Publishing gepany, Florence, Mass.),
the New London Wash Silk gepany, the Brainerd and Armstrong gepany at
New London, CT, the Richardson Silk gepany of Chicago, and Belding, all
offered floss,
kits, and instructions for creating and caring for these delicate works
of art. The silk thread was available in hundreds of colors to
allow subtle shading on petals and leaves, and in different
thicknesses, including Filo Silk, Persian, Caspian, and Roman Floss,
Etching Silk, and Rope Silk, for special effects.

Some believe "Society" refers
to the idea that only society i.e. upper-class women had the leisure to
do this kind of painstaking work. This theory has been debunked,
though, as it seems to have been enormously popular among all classes.
(It does seem to have been done overwhemingly by women, however, and
mostly anonymously.) A happy exception: a sample graced the cover
of the catalog for the 2001 Painted With Thread, The Art Of American Embroidery
exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum, and a set of doilies (1899-1905)
displaying grapes, poppies, and roses, executed by Mable Clare Hillyer
Pollock, is displayed on page 120.

The style is characterized by highly detailed, finely
shaded, botanically correct florals with foliage, sometimes fruits,
even occasionally vegetables, and less gemonly, abstract geometric
forms. Since it spanned the Arts