Print-work Silk Embroidery, Providence, Rhode Island, circa 1818

View Similar Items

Large Original Antique Map of Rhode Island, USA, C.1900

Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower's Ceremonial Robe Embroidery

Antique Print of an Janizary, 1818

Antique Print of an Egyptian Bey, 1818

Antique Print of an Caramanian Soldier, 1818

Lovely Silk Embroidery Work of Lizas in Garden China Artist, 20th Century

Napoleon III Silk Embroidery Art Work Horse Race, France 19th Century, Framed

Very Large Gobelin with Dancing Turkish Dervishes, circa 1900

Antique Print of Rotterdam Island by Klauber, circa 1810

Antique Print of a Native of Timor Island 'circa 1840'

Antique Print of Chinese Embroidery Paintings by Racinet 'circa 1890'

Pl. 6 Antique Print of Chinese Embroideries Ornaments by Racinet 'circa 1890'

1 of 3

Print-work Silk Embroidery, Providence, Rhode Island, circa 1818

About the Item

Amongst the excellent silk embroideries worked at the Balch School in Providence, Rhode Island is a group of print-work memorials, worked between 1810 and 1820. They feature elaborate monuments without figures and were all accomplished, according to Betty Ring, with "an infinite array of minute seed stitches which create the effect of an engraving." Examples are shown in Betty Ring's Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee and her Balch School article in The Magazine Antiques, April 1975. A similar example was in the collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch.

This important silk embroidery, a newly discovered example from this group, was worked in memory of the first wife and infant children of Newport watchmaker and silversmith, Nicholas Geffroy (1764-1839). The inscription read "In Memory of Sally Geffroy wife of Nicolas Geffroy who died Sept 12 1805 age 29," "John Geffroy died August 4 1797 age 3 month and six days," and "Julia Geffroy died Sept 17 1801 aged 4 days."

It is attributed to their daughter, Adeline Geffroy (1803-1819) who would have attended the Balch School in Providence as a boarding student. In fact, Adeline's death in 1819 at age 16 was recorded in Providence and may have occurred when she was still a student. Nicholas Geffroy was born in Grenville, France and was married in Newport in 1795 to Sally Shaw (1776-1805). The book, American Silversmiths and their Marks, by Robert Ensko, states that Mr. Geffroy was working in Newport as early as the year he married, 1795. An 1800 advertisement in The Newport Mercury indicates the scope of his business as a watchmaker and merchant as well.

Samplers and needlework are our specialty. If you are interested in more of this type of work please visit our website, www.samplings.com.

Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1818
Condition:
The silk embroidery is in very good condition with slight weakness to the silk background.
Seller Location:
Philadelphia, PA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: U0911098583161