Pelmet
Category
Textiles
Date
Unknown
Materials
Textile
Measurements
41 x 168 x 0 cm
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 516853.1.2
Summary
The pelmet fabric is believed to be discharge printed whereby a ‘discharge ink’ is printed onto an already dyed fabric which ‘bleaches’ the fabric down to its natural colour, in this case the dolphin design areas. Via email conversation with Philip Sykas, expert on printed textiles from Manchester School of Art, he suggests, “The fabric would have been appropriate for one of the ocean liners of the 1920s and 30s. British liner decoration, until the Queen Mary, was usually conservative in style rather than modern. So the design may be French in origin… Certainly, fish and shell motifs seem to have been popular in the second half of the 1920s” (email 06/12/2019). Further to this, National Trust curator for the East of England, Louisa Brouwer comments that the curtains/fabric may have been taken from Lord Fairhaven’s yacht ‘Sapphire’, further research is needed to confirm this. L. Brouwer also noted via email communication during the estimating phase of this work that “Kate Wigley (formerly at the Warner Textile Archive) said she has seen a design similar in style to this but on a very small scale, by a designer called Margaret White”. (email 06/12/2019). The repeat design features three identical dolphins which descend in size from large to small. The pattern repeat is approx. 44cm in height. The pelmet is constructed with three very precisely pattern-matched pieces of fabric, the central panel (believed to be a full width of fabric – 117cm), and two narrower outer pieces (26cm & 25cm). The pelmet is attached to a wooden pelmet board by a narrow strip of Velcro® which is stitched to the top reverse edge of the pelmet approx. every 11.5cm along the length. The pelmet is lined with a gold colour cotton sateen.
Provenance
Bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.