HAND-EMBROIDERED LINEN SHEET TOP WITH ‘A G’ MONOGRAM

Every sheet brings something new: this one is a wonderful example of buttonhole-edged cutwork.  This one might be tight for making a banner as the top is cut unevenly (see image), although there could be creative ways of filling this.  The monogram would make a wonderful cushion front with the back half plain, half with the cutwork overlapping, and there would be plenty of linen left to make smaller cushions with the decorated edge over the plain linen. These examples of needlework are becoming rarer and more expensive than they were when I first discovered antique French linen sheets through the truly wonderful Elizabeth Baer, an energetic and indomitable lady who, with her darling husband, Derek (an ex-investment banker), travelled around France hauling linen and hemp sheets and fabrics out of barn lofts and cowsheds long, bringing them back to England to be laundered in the huge industrial washing machines they installed in the cellars of Freshford Manor.  Elizabeth supplied hemp and linen to costume designers and interior designers and was definitely one of the people who first inspired me to work with antique textiles. Her blog is still available to us as a fabulous resource and I often turn to it, hearing her voice as I read. She loved to find out about the fabrics she sold and took great pleasure in sharing this information. I cannot describe the excitement I felt every time I visited her cellars, first at Freshford Manor and later at the big house in Bradford-on-Avon. Shelves from floor to ceiling filled with laundered and pressed torchons, sheets and textiles; baskets overflowing with lace and trims, trays of buttons. Once I had chosen my treasures, we would meet upstairs and have tea, sitting on comfy velvet sofas, Elizabeth totting up the bill, always leaving something off the bill and giving a discount. Here is an excerpt about sheets:

‘Old French linen and hemp sheets are usually made to fit a 4ft bed, so they are often a bit narrow for English double beds which are from 4’6 to 5’6 wide or American Super King up to 6′ wide. The main bedrooms in France often had two 4’ wide beds, even for married couples . For the grand and enormous beds in some of the chateaux, the sheets were specially woven on extra large looms and were normally decorated with lots of elaborate monograms and embroideries. The very best also had fine lace and were washed by hand very carefully . Older sheets are often extremely long by our standards – I have had them up to 15 ft long – this was because they were laid over the massive bolsters and pillows of the Georgian beds when people actually slept sitting upright ‘for health reasons’. I have a big stock of every type in my stores; hemp. linen, metis and fil, ranging from a Princess’s dowry to the rough ‘porridge’ hemp from the peasants’ ancient lits clos, (cupboard beds,) in Brittany. More about Buying Sheets, Care for Sheets, etc. on later Blogs.’