Mary Ann Earle, Ludlow Castle, Marvelous Large Georgian Needlework on Silk in Original Reverse Glass Painted Frame rounded corners carefully painted but with brush

carefully painted but with brush strokes evident

with the surfaces a really nice matte white

with smiling faces pointing out

especially along the top edge

with these wonderfully eager large ears and this  heartbreakingly homely face

Mary Ann Earle, Ludlow Castle, Marvelous Large Georgian Needlework on Silk in Original Reverse Glass Painted Frame rounded corners carefully painted but with brushMy favorite find of the week, and among my favorites ever, found in southern Maine but painstakingly created in Shropshire, England, c. 1820s. I occasionally come across fine early 19th century British embroideries on painted silk in this manner (and some less fine Victorian ones that are wrongly described as Georgian) but this one feels like it was expressly made to arrive in my hands 200 years after its creation; for me its all about her, and I