These delightful pieces of rare hand painted silk are signed painted by Pheobe Holmes. Pheobe was a talented artist and I think this might have been for Pheobe's wedding dress. The myrtle flower is often used for weddings and symbolises hope and love. My other guess is that she was from Wales. The Welsh for leek (the original national emblem) is Cenhinen, while the Welsh for daffodil is Cenhinen Pedr. Over the years they became confused until the daffodil was adopted as a second emblem of Wales.
The silks were owned by Patsy Flippance of Caterham, Surrey. Her neighbours were two elderly unmarried sisters, Gertrude and Mary Barnes who lived next door. When Gertrude died, the vendor's mother, Patsy, helped Mary sort her house in preparation to going into a home. She was given these pieces of painted silk.
I am prepared to split these up. The individual flowers would look lovely framed.
The ivory silk taffetta hand painted with large ribbon swags in blue green, entwined with a variety of naturalistic flowers including roses, daffodils, primula, morning glory and myrtle, with similar but larger specimens scattered on the ground between the swags. Piece B is signed in ink painted by Pheobe Holmes.
B - This piece is of very uneven length. Longest side 40 x 23 1/2 in; 1 m x 60 cm. Shortest side 27 in; 70 cm. There is also a small round section which fits into that lower left hand side. 12 in; 30 cm dia.
Width 42 in;1.7 m maximum
B - Blackish markings right at the top and five more lines almost half way across the silk.
The edges have some very small holes and one can seen how they have been sewn down the entire length with pin prick holes. Splits to the very top of the panel. Ask for more photos if you cannot see.
All images and text © meg-andrews.com 2021
