Machester vs. Boston, trencher throwdown!

[ppfuf]

In the last few weeks, I've stopped obsessing about the little rhymes on the trenchers, and started obsessing on flower identification. Looking at the pictures rather than the words, had at least one interesting side effect: I noticed the some members of the set at the Manchester Art Gallery (Fruit Trencher, Accession Number: 1922.836/12) have non-circular centers, just like some at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. This one is a sister to the trencher on the bottom right of the Manchester set.

If anyone can identify the flower in this userpic, I'd be very grateful.

Comments

[xrian.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see it closer up, but maybe honeysuckle.

Eowyn Amberdrake has done a lot of work on identifying the flowers you see on embroidered sweet bags -- different medium, same culture and era. I'm not sure what she has available online but she'd definitely be a good person to talk to. Many of the flowers are (as you're discovering) rather stylized ;)

A starter reference might be <a href="http://wkneedle.bayrose.org/filum/filum_33_sweetbags.pdf>this issue of the Needleworkers Guild newsletter</a> (a PDF file) with one of Eowyn's sweet bags on the cover. There are a number of small flower diagrams inside as well as Eowyn's article.