More Old Sturbridge Village Textiles

At Old Sturbridge Village they have a lovely textile exhibit, tucked away in the back of the building with the firearms exhibit.

The exhibit includes weaving, knitting, embroidery, netting, crochet and tambour work.

The embroidery includes several embroidered purses and pockets.  Here, two of the earlier purses and a crewl work pocket sit below a crewl work petticoat.

 Except for that pocket (of which, for some reason, I only got this shot -- however, unlike the other purses I've shown below, this one is on their collections on line, here), the purses and pouches are variants of canvas work.

Three are different flame stitch or Bargello patterns:

Embroidered Purse, late 18th century. Probably New England. OSV 64.7.2

Embroidered Drawstring Purse, circa 1820.  Probably New England OSV 26.29.127

Embroidered Drawstring Purse, early 19th century. Probably New England OSV 64.7.33

One, however, the Fanny Bliss embroidered purse, is something different:

Embroidered Purse, 1786. Fanny Bliss (1772-1833) Springfield, Massachusetts. OSV 64.7.15

Fanny's purse uses a more complex, compounded stitch.  Looking at the close up, and zooming in tight, it might even be Queen Stitch, a fun, if sometimes frustrating stitch to work. Sadly, with the bag behind glass, this is the closest I could get.  OSV does have some of their collections on line, but I wasn't able to find any of these bags there.