Summary

Alternative Name(s): Table Cloth, DrawnThread Work

White drawn thread table runner made by Henrietta Gibson (nee Walpole), mother of Ada Henrietta. It is likely to have been made aroudn 1900 or in the first decade of the 20th century. The runner was acquired by the Museum with 'The Art of Drawn Thread', Metropolitan Art Series, vol.5, no.1, 1899 (HT 32792), which may have been used as a guide in making the work.

Drawn thread work is a form of needlework in which threads are removed from the fabric and remaining threads often gathered together, sometimes into elaborate patterns. It is usually employed on household linens, and is often worked in white.

Ada Henrietta married William Gillott Blakeley in 1937 at the Congregational Church in Windsor, Melbourne. Ada was the organist there at the time and her father, John Conway Gibson, a lay preacher. Ada was a budding concert pianist, William a saw and knife manufacturer like his father. After Ada and William married they moved to a purpose-built house in Marriage Road, Brighton (plans for the house have been donated to the State Library of Victoria). After World War II they moved to William's family farm at Red Hill.

Part of a collection of and other material relating to the life of William Henry Blakeley and the Blakeley family donated to Museum Victoria. William Blakeley was the first saw manufacturer in Australia. He was born in England in 1839 and was indentured as a saw maker. In 1867 he set up his own saw shop in Little Bourke Street - soon to become a successful manufacturing business, W.H. Blakeley and Co (which became W.H. and Company Proprietary Limited in 1922), with several locations in inner Melbourne. The Blakeley business has continued into the 21st century. The donor and her sisters are the daughters of William and Ada.

Physical Description

White rectangular long table runner featuring drawn thread work in a geometric design. The runner has a 50mm border.

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