Punched Paper, worked to celebrate Geo. Washington, American, circa 1875
Price: $425, Sight size: 11¾" x 10"

In the later years of the 19th century, needleworkers stitched pictures, quotations and aphorisms onto perforated paper, also known as bristol board. The majority were worked with coarse wool sewn onto board with large holes while some, such as these, were miniaturized and worked with very fine silk thread into holes of a very tight scale.

These two examples, which we have framed together, celebrate the life and accomplishments of George Washington. That on the top presents two quotations; the first from a sermon delivered by Rev. H. B. Whipple and later published to wide distribution and the second the words of Gen Henry Lee, an American Revolutionary War general who delivered these words at a funeral oration for Washington. The lower work quotes Lord Byron, the noted English poet. This verse was written in 1814 and popularized later in the 19th century.

Worked in silk on board, they are in excellent condition and have been framed in a late 19th century veneer frame.