Fire screen
Jane Jessup (d.1796)
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1750
Materials
Mahogany and wool
Measurements
123.5 x 67.4 x 35 cm
Place of origin
England
Order this imageCollection
Peckover House, Cambridgeshire
NT 781467
Summary
A mahogany and needlework fire screen, English, circa 1750 Of rectangular form, the frame with circular columns with entwined flowers and foliage. The serpentine shaped top rail with a fretted pierced and carved design with interlaced C scrolls and the centre with a shell. The retractable needlepoint panel depicting a gentleman and lady standing in a garden with animals in front of a red brick house. With a silk backing. and a brass plaque - 'embroidered in the Chinese style by Jane Jessup, later Peckover. c.1750'. Raised on acanthus carved cheval legs and terminating on claw and ball feet.
Full description
Christies catalogue entry: the property of AJP Penrose Esq, formerly at Peckover House, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. A fine George II beechwood cheval firescreen with a rising petit point needlework panel worked in well-preserved colours with a gentleman and his wife in front of a red brick house surrounded by rustic buildings, animals and figures, including sheep in chenille technique, the frame entwined with fruiting foliage, the pierced cresting centred by a shell on arched bar feet carved with acanthus bearing a plaque inscribed 'This screen was worked before her marriage by Jane Jesup afterwards Peckover ... her estates ... are now in the possession of her great grandson Alexander Peckover of Wisbech'. The house depicted in the needlework is most probably Wisbech Castle. Provenance: jane Jesup (d.1796) only child and heiress of Daniel Jesup of Theberton, Suffolk, who married Richard Peckover of Fakenham in april 1753. Her daughter Jane, wife of richard Harris. Her daughter Sarah Harris, who left the screen to Jane (Jesup) Peckover's great grandson alexander Peckover. Thence by descent.
Provenance
This screen was worked before her marriage by Jane Jesup (d.1796), only child and heiress of Daniel Jesup of Theberton, Suffolk, who married Richard Peckover of Fakenham in April 1753. By descent to her daughter Jane, wife of Richard Harris, and her grand-daughter Sarah Harris, who left the screen to Jane (Jesup) Peckover's great grandson Alexander Peckover. Then by descent. Purchased by the National Trust in 1982 at Christie’s sale, 15th April 1982, lot 32, the property of A.J.P. Penrose Esq. Purchased with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund (now known as the Art Fund) and a grant from the Purchase Grant Fund.
Marks and inscriptions
Back: This screen was worked before her marriage by JANE JESUP afterwards PECKOVER. She had 4 children Joseph, Jonathan, Edmund and Jane who married Richard Harris and who was the mother of Sarah Harris who left in her will this screen to Alexander Peckover. Jane Jesup Peckover survived her husband, to who she was married in 1753, many years and her estates, she being the only child, which had been some 250 years in the family, at Theberton and Badingham are now in the possession of her great grandson Alexander Peckover of Wisbech. The screen was worked in the reign of George II
Makers and roles
Jane Jessup (d.1796), needleworker