LOT 156

Image: Illustration from Kunst-und Fleiss-übende Nadel-Ergötzungen, Margaretha Helmin, circa 1725 

Dr. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood grew up in the old mill landscape of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Attracted to textiles as a child, Gillian wanted to work as an embroiderer but, since she also displayed academic potential, she was encouraged onto an academic path. Gillian managed to combine both by studying Archaeology in Manchester, with Middle Eastern textiles as her specialism. Volunteering at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum during her holidays, she catalogued their collection of Coptic textiles. Here she learned about John-Peter Wild, then a historian and lecturer at Manchester University, who took her under his wing: “I went straight from a BA to a PhD. I would not recommend it!” 

Image: Kunst-und Fleiss-übende Nadel-Ergötzungen, Margaretha Helmin, circa 1725 

It seems to have paid off, though. Gillian headed off to Tunisia, working on the textiles at Qasr Al Kadim, then to Egypt. For over forty years, on-and-off, Gillian worked on Egyptian textiles for The Grand Egyptian Museum, producing the first catalogue for the textiles from the tomb of King Tutankhamen.

Now the Director of the Textile Research Centre, in Leiden, the Netherlands, Gillian is a specialist in Middle Eastern embroidery, textile and dress. Amongst other esteemed publications, she is the author of The Encyclopedia of Embroidery from the Arab World (Bloomsbury, 2016), a volume which won the PROSE award, the Dartmouth Medal of the American Library Association, and was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year.

Yet this glowing success story belies an incredible amount of hard work, and several bitter disappointments.

Image: Illustration from Kunst-und Fleiss-übende Nadel-Ergötzungen, Margaretha Helmin, circa 1725 

Gillian set up the Textile Research Centre in 1991: “The Volkekunden Museum and Antiquities helped me set up the TRC, and I helped them with their textiles. It grew from there. It was never the intention to have a collection, but the museum would not make theirs available for teaching.” So, Gillian compiled a collection from the textiles she and her husband, Willem Vogelsang, had accumulated over years of travelling, researching, and collecting. The TRC is now housed in Hogewoerd, a district of Leiden.  

As their website proclaims, ‘the basic aim of the TRC is to give the study of textiles, clothing and accessories their proper place in the field of the humanities and social sciences. The TRC does so by providing courses and lectures, carrying out research and by the presentation of textiles and dress from all over the world.’ It currently boasts a textile, garment and accessories collection of some 19500 items, a reference collection of samples and objects, a library of over 3000 books, and regularly organises intensive courses and workshops.  If that weren’t enough, the TRC presents two exhibitions a year, based on its collection, and houses TRC Needles— a digital encyclopaedia covering all aspects of needlecraft, determined to make ‘the study of embroidery in its widest meaning more visible and emphasise its role in cultures and societies from all over the world.’ 

Incredibly, the TRC is a non-profit making cultural institution (ANBI), dependent on project support and individual donations. All its work is carried out by volunteers. 

So, when LOT 156 came up for auction recently, Gillian and the Textile Research Centre were desperate to raise the funds to make the winning bid.

Image: Illustration from Kunst-und Fleiss-übende Nadel-Ergötzungen, Margaretha Helmin, circa 1725  

LOT 156 consisted of a volume of embroidery designs by Margaretha Helmin, also known as Margaretha Helm, (1659-1742). She was a German embroiderer, teacher and skilled copper plate engraver working in Nuremberg, who created plates of her many embroidery designs. The works, in three volumes, were published by Johann Christoph Weigel of Nuremberg, in about 1725.

This was a rare opportunity: the volume available for auction, containing all three parts in one edition, was purchased by one Martin Orskey, at Sotheby's in 1968, apart from which no other copy has been seen at auction. London’s V&A has a copy of the work in its collections. A substantial volume, it contains beautiful designs for household linen and clothing, such as fans, shoes and slippers, gloves, stomachers, borders, night caps, jackets, neckerchiefs, muffs, neck linen, gown hems, hats, bags, aprons, tassels, saddle cloths, and book covers.

 Image: Illustration from Kunst-und Fleiss-übende Nadel-Ergötzungen, Margaretha Helmin, circa 1725 

Of course, the volume sold, for £15,000. But perhaps the lucky new owner will yet donate or lend their acquisition to the Textile Research Centre. As Gillian says, “We have to collaborate more to shine a light on the value of textile and to connect talent to knowledge.”

Image: Detail of illustration from Kunst-und Fleiss-übende Nadel-Ergötzungen, Margaretha Helmin, circa 1725 

But there may yet be a happy ending to this tale. Remarkably, the TRC have been made aware of a further set of the three volumes now available for sale at an estimate of at least £18000. So, there is still hope. And if you have the means, or know someone who does, you know what to do. 'Tis the season for such generosity, after all.