Altar frontal
Mrs Madeline Clifton
Category
Textiles
Date
Unknown
Materials
Linen, Silk
Order this imageCollection
Sandham Memorial Chapel, Hampshire
NT 790200
Summary
Altar Frontal of natural linen, with an overall embroidered design worked in squares and rectangles arranged in a basket weave pattern. The squares are worked in pulled- thread stitches, and the rectangles in a variety of embroidery stitches forming either blocks of text or images. The two lines of text are embroidered in a total of 22 rectangular blocks; one set to read in the horizontal, the other in the vertical. Reading horizontally across from the left to the right the text is arranged in 10 blocks: IAM THE RESUR REC TION AND THE LIFE HE THAT Reading vertically from bottom to top the text is arranged in 12 blocks; WE ARE SUCH STUFF AS DREAM S ARE MADE ON& OUR LITTLE Both lines are incomplete and taken from the following texts: The New Testament (John II, v. 25); "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” Shakespeare's The Tempest (Act V, Scene 2, line 148); "We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep." The altar frontal was designed and worked by Mrs Madeline Clifton for the stone altar c. 1932, complete with a cushion for communion services. The text is worked in floss silks of yellow/gold and a pale green in lines of chain stitch.
Makers and roles
Mrs Madeline Clifton, embroiderer Mrs Madeline Clifton, designer
References
Harris, 1955: Kathleen M. Harris A.R.C.A., "Contemporary Trends in Embroidery", Embroidery Magazine, Summer 1955 , p.44-45 Behrend 1965: George Behrend, Stanley Spencer at Burghclere, London 1965, p.60