Mary Card 'Water Lily' & Kingfisher, Dragonfly design ~ Centre/mat - 4 available
I have for sale a gorgeous off-white Antique hand crochet Centrepiece/mat in 'Water Lily' & Kingfisher, Dragonfly design Chart #80 from the mid 1930's. There is a Kingfisher looking down at the Lily pond for his dinner, floating Lilies and pads, with foliage and Reeds to the edges of the pond, with Dragonflies flying around the border. This wonderful piece of history has been made with an off-white quality cotton firm thread - 4 available. all matching from the same hand - if interested in all of them, message me for a price :)
Originally these placemats were for the large hexagonal centrepiece of this 'Breakfast' set - see last photo
See photos - I have included a photo of the design at the end :)
A design by Mary Card 1861-1940 (an Australian lady who became world famous for her creative crochet designs - see more information about her below)
These stunning and intricate lace pieces are highly collectible and getting very hard to find :)
- just wonderful :)
Excellent Antique Condition - I can see no issues with this stunning piece - remarkable considering its age :)
Measurements; 47.5cm x 30.5cm or 18 6/8" x 12" - approx. each
Information on Mary Card (1861–1940)
Mary Card (1861-1940), crochet pattern designer, was born on 24 September 1861 at Castlemaine, Victoria Australia. In 1880 Mary was a student at the National Gallery School of Design. 1903 she had become increasing deaf, faced with the need to find an occupation in which her disability was not a handicap, she decided to combine her writing, drawing and needle-work abilities to become a 'professional designer and teacher of needlework through the press'. Choosing Irish crochet as her medium, she joined a Ladies' Work Association which undertook repairs of valuable crochet pieces and taught herself to mend old lace. When she discovered that she could make new and effective designs to be worked from a chart method of her own invention rather than the usual printed directions.
Her first designs were published in the Ladies' Home Journal in the United States of America. In 1909 she decided to offer her designs and a monthly article to the New Idea (later Everylady's Journal), Melbourne. Her patterns became so popular that the editor reprinted many. She then developed 'giant charts' for more ambitious designs and to cater for workers with failing eyesight, drawn on the scale of ten squares to the inch with a guiding line at every inch.
With five books published, Mary went to the U.S.A. late in 1917 to launch some of her newer designs. In New York, The Mary Card Co. was set up to reprint her crochet books. Later she settled in England in a studio-cottage at Barkham, Berkshire. She continued to produce designs for more than twenty years
Mary Card revisited Australia occasionally. Early in 1940, in poor health, she returned to Victoria to live at Olinda, where she shared a cottage with her sister Harriet. She died there on 13 October 1940 and was cremated.
Reference ~24/08/2016; Citation detail; Sally O'Neill, 'Card, Mary (1861–1940)', Australian Dictionary of Biography published in hardcopy 1979
Would look so lovely in your collection :)
Overseas buyers must pay via PayPal.
Keep watching as I will be listing lot more Vintage Linen and treasures in the days/weeks to come :)