My all time favorite needlepoint book is Sylvia Sidney's, lovingly described here with wonderful photos of her stitching and photographs of her in various acting roles. The writer didn't mention the pug needlepoints were studies for the pillow that she stitched for the Duchess of Windsor.
http://shewasabird.blogspot.com/2011/03/sylvia-sidneys-needlepoint-1968.html
You can see that pug pillow down at the bottom of the page, 4th photo from the bottom. See the date and the initials SS? That stands for Sylvia Sidney and the date the pillow was stitched, not the dog's birth and death dates. You can see a pencil drawing of this pillow in Sylvia's book but she was too discrete to show the actual pillow. I always wondered what that pillow fetched at Sotheby's when the Duke and Duchesss' things were sold at auction and now I know.
http://www.interiordesignhound.com/2011/08/02/royal-hounds-the-duke-duchess-of-windsor-pack-of-dogs-a-pug-story/
Mary Martin's book on needlepoint is also good but I prefer Sylvia's.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/43756235/mary-martins-needlepoint-vintage
Needlepoint books in the early 1970s were often more personality than charts and diagrams. Personality was what counted then, not how to do a complex stitch. How I wish we had a few books like these today! Not that I don't appreciate all the stitch dictionaries available to us but I miss glimpses of lives where needlepoint played a part.
Written by Jane/Chilly Hollow
Blogging at http://chillyhollownp.blogspot.com
and at http://chstitchguides.blogspot.com
Showing posts with label Duchess of Windsor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Duchess of Windsor. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
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