Left half of the front petticoat panel, detail

Edmund Burke called Mrs Delany (née Mary Granville, 1700–1788) ‘the highest bred woman in the world, and the woman of fashion of all ages’.Quoted in Ruth Hayden, Mrs Delany and her Flower Collages, 2nd edn (London: British Museum Press, 1992), 129, citing what Dr Johnson heard Edmund Burke say. See also Lady Llanover, ed., The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mary Granville, Mrs Delany, 6 vols (London: Bentley, 1861–2), V, 12. Already recognized in her own times, she continued to attract admirers after Lady Llanover brought out a complete ‘autobiography and correspondence’ in the...

Most historical textiles that have survived from previous centuries in private families and public collections are now anonymous, the identities of their original makers and wearers untraceable. Examples that do have a personal association can be valuable evidence of individual tastes, skills, or way of life. The embroideries associated with Mary Delany (and in particular as Mary Pendarves) have...