$705
Silk Embroidered Needlework Picture, by "Maria Billings M. E. and A. Sketchley's Boarding School, Poughkeepsie." silk threads on a silk ground with watercolor highlights depicting a shepherdess seated while inscribing the letters "TANCRED" on a nearby tree, with two sheep in the foreground, and distant mountain, in an oval enclosed by a meandering flowering vine, (thread losses, color runs, couple tears), 13 5/8 x 13, unframed. Note: Maria Billings was born May 7, 1789 in Poughkeepsie, New York, to Andrew and Cornelia, (Livingston) Billings. Two notes accompany the needlework, one relating to a couple advertisments for the Sketchley Boarding School in the Poughkeepsie Journal in 1800 and 1802, the other includes provenance from a previous owner stating Maria Billings bequeathed the needlework "to her great-niece Mrs. S.W. Linsley, Webster. Given to Mrs. Herbert Brindley by the Rev. S.W. Linsley on Nov. 2, 1938...she sold unframed picture to me for $10.00... Florence Shaw."
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2004-06-06
