Yesterday we visited Montacute House in Somerset.
It has quite a number of tapestries but this is the Hunter Tapestry (1788) in all it's newly cleaned gloriousness. It had just returned from Holland and was very bright and clear and every woven line was visible in great, minute detail.
Needle Point and Petite Point on a screen. Not sure I'd have the patience for that amount of work anymore.
Graffiti on the glass done by the house owner and his son, Edward and Edward Phelips. I do hope they didn't use the best family diamonds!
And then there was a part of the sampler collection on display. The work is stunning and mostly worked on fine linen. I did my best taking photos but the light was very low. In the end I bought the book (The Goodhart Samplers) for the better quality and over 120 of the rest of the collection.
For those not familiar with our 10p, it is 24mm or just short of an inch across. The stitches are minuscule!
And in one of the bedrooms I found a stumpwork box from 1693 depicting the Judgement of Solomon. A little hard to photograph behind glass but beautiful all the same.
There is also a large display from the National Portrait Gallery going on there at the moment which was good to see but no photos allowed of course. I looked Henry VIII right in the eye! (I wouldn't of married him, I can tell you!!!)
