Outstanding
Embroidered Wallet
Unfinished.

Dated 1786.   

Probably New England, possibly New York, Pennsylvania, or Mid-Atlantic. Dated 1786. Initialed ‘?-P’ (the maker or the intended?). If you can decipher the first initial let me know!

Wool embroidery with beautiful repeating diamond shapes alternating with stylized hearts. Hand-stitched to a laid-paper or thin press board backing. Scalloped bottom edge. The wallet was never finished, we can only imagine why-yet was saved as a work of art inside a frame of the period, pressed between two period pieces of glass, the glasses held within by cut nails. The frame allows the wallet to be hung, or it may be removed from the frame and laid flat on a desk or table. I have shown it framed and unframed, and in sun and shade.

Exceptional condition. Colors are bright and unfaded. Unframed about 10 inches x 6 3/8. Framed 12 5/8 inches x 8 ½. Reference: "Worldly Goods, the Arts of Early Pennsylvania", Philadelphia Museum of Art, and "What Clothes Reveal", Baumgarten, Colonial Williamsburg.

Provenance: Private New England collection acquired many years ago from noted Americana dealer Robert ‘Bob’ Thayer.