The past few months have been an extremely busy time in our Studio, as our expert team embarked upon embroidering nine special projects for King Charles III’s Coronation.  In addition to these historic items, we were very fortunate to work on a variety of heirloom commissions including the restoration of a treasured hand embroidered canvas hanging.

We were first approached by our customer who had inherited the very special piece which was worked by his late mother in the early 1970s.  Measuring 48” wide by 42” high, this beautiful canvas hanging, depicting a mediaeval miracle play, was embroidered by Mrs Barbara Want over five years.

Barbara grew up in Hampton and moved to Sunbury-on-Thames in 1953 where she stayed until her death in 2022. She was a very keen embroiderer all her life and was an enthusiastic member of the Hampton School of Needlework for many years. Almost every wall in her house was adorned with examples of her work of which this embroidery was the pinnacle. It occupied pride of place hanging in the living room for nearly 50 years!

As is typical of woven and canvas hangings, after some time they require a little TLC and a freshen up.

The Studio team began the commission by deconstructing the hanging, firstly removing the wooden rings used as a hanging mechanism. Whilst removing the backing fabric we rather excitedly discovered a wonderful hand written note from Barbara detailing how long it had taken her to work the piece. After a gentle surface clean with our conservation vacuum, and on success of a wet test, we were able to delicately wet clean the canvas in part and restretch it.

Some minor repairs were undertaken to some broken wool threads and we stabilised the whole canvas before making it back up into a hanging. Two concealed slots replaced the wooden rings and a new fringe trim was added to the bottom edge of the hanging. Finally, we added one of our very special 150^th anniversary labels, which sat underneath Barbara’s as a continuation of the story of this precious keepsake before relining the back with a new linen fabric.

We were thrilled to invite Barbara’s son back into the RSN Studio to collect the hanging and we are so happy to see it back on display in his home where it will be admired for many more years to come. In addition to embroidering pictures, Barbara was also one of the embroiderers who created the Sunbury Millennium Embroidery which is on display at the embroidery gallery in Lower Sunbury.

It is always such a pleasure to work on pieces which hold such a sentimental attachment and we look forward to seeing what other exciting projects will come our way over the coming weeks and months.

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