Mary Balch's School | |
---|---|
Location | |
22 George Street, Providence, Rhode Island (Defunct and demolished) United States | |
Information | |
Type | Private school |
Founders | Sarah Balch, Mary Balch |
Gender | Girls |
Enrollment | 113 (1821) |
Mary Balch's School, also known as the Polly Balch School or just the Balch School, was an 18th-century private, all-girls school in Providence, Rhode Island. It is most known for its students' style of needlepoint samplers. The school was started together by mother and daughter, Sarah and Mary Balch.
Mary "Polly" Balch was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1762. She was the second child of Timothy Balch, a tailor, and Sarah Rogers Balch. [1] [2] [3] At the start of the British occupation of Newport in 1776 during the American Revolution, Balch and her family moved from Newport to Providence, Rhode Island. Within a year, her father died, leaving her mother with four children. Balch likely began teaching in 1782 to help support the family. [2]
Sometime before 1785, Mary and Sarah Balch opened a school together in Providence using their knowledge on needlepoint samplers from their hometown of Newport. [3] The earliest sampler traced back to the school is dated from March, 1785. [2] Eventually, Mary Balch took over operation of the school from her mother.
On August 10, 1801, Mary Balch expanded the school by opening a boarding school on George Street. The new curriculum included subjects outside of needlework, included writing, music, and dancing. [2] In 1821, 113 students were enrolled, making the Balch School the highest-attended private school in Providence. [2]
Mary Balch continued to work at the school until her death. [4] She died on January 3, 1831, at the age 69. Her tombstone mentions that she was the "1st to establish a female Academy in Providence." After her death, the school was run by one of Balch's previous assistants, Miss Walker. [1]
Sometimes considered "playful", the Balch style of embroidery often included figures in elegant clothes and naturalistic florals in borders or on arches. Betty Ring named the Balch's style of work the "frolicking people" style, which can be contrasted with the more formal English style used by other instructors from Newport around the same time. [5] One common motif from the school is a depiction of a pseudo-classical arch [1] along with multiple figures. [4]
Many of the samplers included a public building as a focal point. [6] This style of using real buildings as a focal point in samplers was thought to have originated at the school. [5] Balch's students depicted buildings in Providence, including churches and statehouses. [7]
One of the most popular sayings included in the school's works was "Let Virtue be a Guide to thee." [6] Mourning embroideries done on silk were also completed at the school. [5] A feature of Balch's style of mourning embroideries included using stitching instead of ink for the details on memorial monuments. [8]
The original school building is now demolished. [9]
Samplers created at the school were the first in the United States to be recognized as having a distinctive embroidery style coming from a specific school. Balch herself became one of the most well-known teachers of needlework from the 18th century. [2] According to Joseph K. Ott, in modern times, the Balch School "produced the highest number of embroideries that can be attributed to a single source." [6]
Samplers from the school have been sold for over $100,000 at auctions. [9] In 1987, a sampler from the Balch School was sold for $192,500; the sampler was created by 11-year-old Eliza Waterman in 1788. [10]
Cross-stitch is a form of sewing and a popular form of counted-thread embroidery in which X-shaped stitches in a tiled, raster-like pattern are used to form a picture. The stitcher counts the threads on a piece of evenweave fabric in each direction so that the stitches are of uniform size and appearance. This form of cross-stitch is also called counted cross-stitch in order to distinguish it from other forms of cross-stitch. Sometimes cross-stitch is done on designs printed on the fabric ; the stitcher simply stitches over the printed pattern. Cross-stitch is often executed on easily countable fabric called aida cloth, whose weave creates a plainly visible grid of squares with holes for the needle at each corner.
Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to stitch thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on caps, hats, coats, overlays, blankets, dress shirts, denim, dresses, stockings, scarfs, shoes, handbags and golf shirts. Embroidery is available in a wide variety of thread or yarn colour. It is often used to personalize gifts or clothing items.
A needlework sampler is a piece of embroidery or cross-stitching produced as a 'specimen of achievement', demonstration or a test of skill in needlework. It often includes the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders and sometimes the name of the person who embroidered it and the date. The word sampler is derived from the Latin exemplum, which means 'example'.
Blackwork, sometimes historically termed Spanish blackwork, is a form of embroidery generally worked in black thread, although other colours are also used on occasion, as in scarletwork, where the embroidery is worked in red thread. Originating in Tudor period England, blackwork typically, though not always, takes the form of a counted-thread embroidery, where the warp and weft yarns of a fabric are counted for the length of each stitch, producing uniform-length stitches and a precise pattern on an even-weave fabric. Blackwork may also take the form of free-stitch embroidery, where the yarns of a fabric are not counted while sewing.
Berlin wool work is a style of embroidery similar to today's needlepoint that was particularly popular in Europe and America from 1804 to 1875. It is typically executed with wool yarn on canvas, worked in a single stitch such as cross stitch or tent stitch, although Beeton's book of Needlework (1870) describes 15 different stitches for use in Berlin work. It was traditionally stitched in many colours and hues, producing intricate three-dimensional looks by careful shading. Silk or beads were frequently used as highlights. The design of such embroidery was made possible by the great progress made in dyeing, initially with new mordants and chemical dyes, followed in 1856, especially by the discovery of aniline dyes, which produced bright colors.
The Royal School of Needlework (RSN) is a hand embroidery school in the United Kingdom, founded in 1872 and based at Hampton Court Palace since 1987.
Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, many needlepoint designs use only a simple tent stitch and rely upon color changes in the yarn to construct the pattern. Needlepoint is the oldest form of canvas work.
Chain stitch is a sewing and embroidery technique in which a series of looped stitches form a chain-like pattern. Chain stitch is an ancient craft – examples of surviving Chinese chain stitch embroidery worked in silk thread have been dated to the Warring States period. Handmade chain stitch embroidery does not require that the needle pass through more than one layer of fabric. For this reason the stitch is an effective surface embellishment near seams on finished fabric. Because chain stitches can form flowing, curved lines, they are used in many surface embroidery styles that mimic "drawing" in thread.
In everyday language, a stitch in the context of embroidery or hand-sewing is defined as the movement of the embroidery needle from the back of the fibre to the front side and back to the back side. The thread stroke on the front side produced by this is also called stitch. In the context of embroidery, an embroidery stitch means one or more stitches that are always executed in the same way, forming a figure. Embroidery stitches are also called stitches for short.
Hollie point is an English needle lace noted for its use in baby clothes, particularly in the 18th century. It is also known as Holy point, because it was originally used in liturgical laces. The Puritans were the first to make common usage of Hollie point beginning in the reign of James I.
Mary "May" Morris was an English artisan, embroidery designer, jeweller, socialist, and editor. She was the younger daughter of the Pre-Raphaelite artist and designer William Morris and his wife and artists' model, Jane Morris.
Art needlework was a type of surface embroidery popular in the later nineteenth century under the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum was an American cross-stitch embroidery designer known especially for her Victorian angel designs. Her designs were published under the business name Told in a Garden, with product divisions of Told in a Garden, Lavender and Lace, and Butternut Road.
Erica Wilson was an English-born American embroidery designer based in New York, known particularly for needlepoint. She also designed wallcoverings and greeting cards. Her designs were published by Vogue and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. Wilson earned the nicknames "Julia Child of embroidery" and "America's first lady of stitchery" for her work.
Cross stitches in embroidery, needlepoint, and other forms of needlework include a number of related stitches in which the thread is sewn in an x or + shape. Cross stitch has been called "probably the most widely used stitch of all" and is part of the needlework traditions of the Balkans, Middle East, Afghanistan, Colonial America and Victorian England.
The straight or running stitch is the basic stitch in hand-sewing and embroidery, on which all other forms of sewing are based. The stitch is worked by passing the needle in and out of the fabric at a regular distance. All other stitches are created by varying the straight stitch in length, spacing, and direction.
English embroidery includes embroidery worked in England or by English people abroad from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. The oldest surviving English embroideries include items from the early 10th century preserved in Durham Cathedral and the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, if it was worked in England. The professional workshops of Medieval England created rich embroidery in metal thread and silk for ecclesiastical and secular uses. This style was called Opus Anglicanum or "English work", and was famous throughout Europe.
Maria E. Piñeres is a Colombia-born American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Her work, mostly embroidery, has been exhibited at the Museum of Art & Design in New York City. and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. She studied painting at The Art Students League of New York and graduated from Parsons School of Design with a BFA in illustration.
Louisa Pesel (1870–1947) was an English embroiderer, educator and textile collector. She was born in Bradford, and studied textile design at the National Art Training School, causing her to become interested in decorative stitchery. She served as the director of the Royal Hellenic School of Needlework and Lace in Athens, Greece, from 1903 to 1907. Pesel served as the first president of the Embroiderers' Guild. She produced samplers for the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum and cushions, kneelers, alms bags and a lectern carpet for Winchester Cathedral. She collected textiles extensively, and following her death in Winchester in 1947, her collection went to the University of Leeds.
Betty Abrego Ring was an American decorative arts specialist. She was a researcher and collector of early and Colonial American needlework, and is considered one of the most prominent figures in early American schoolgirl embroidery.