Screen
Sarah Anne Child, Countess of Westmorland (1763 - 1793)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1770 - 1779
Materials
Giltwood, silk, metallic thread, satin
Measurements
4 cm (Depth); 42 cm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Berkeley Square
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 771785.1
Summary
A pole screen panel, English, circa 1770-9, the needlework possibly by Sarah Anne Child (1764-93), the screen and pole possibly by John Linnell (1729-96) Circular, the giltwood frame moulded and carved with husks and a riband, framing an embroidered monogram 'SAC' within bands of leafy garlands, in silks and metallic threads on a white satin ground.
Full description
The crudely embroidered design stitched to this pole screen panel is attributed to Sarah Anne Child (1763-93) the only child of Robert Child (1739-82) and his wife Sarah, owners of Osterley after 1763. In the 1770s, Robert Adam (1728-92), the architect of much of neo-Classical Osterley, produced a number of designs inscribed ‘for Mrs Child’ now in the collection of the Soane Museum, some of them beautifully coloured. Most were patterns for embroidered fire screens, but he also produced designs for chimney boards and, even, a work bag. In 1782, John Linnell (1729-96) - who is thought to have made the bulk of the furniture for the rooms Adam designed - billed Mrs Child for ‘a neat satinwood pillar and claw Firescreen, one side covered with your needlework, the other with green lutestring [lustring]…£2 2s…’ This one stitched by Sarah Anne, and another stitched by Sarah Child in the Etruscan Room (NT 771793) are the only screens worked by the Child women to survive.
Marks and inscriptions
Centre: SAC
Makers and roles
Sarah Anne Child, Countess of Westmorland (1763 - 1793), embroiderer possibly John Linnell (1729 - 1796), cabinetmaker possibly John Linnell (1729 - 1796), furniture designer