Vintage Fashion & Textiles

Kerry Taylor Auctions are selling the Celia Birtwell Collection on June 23 in Bermondsey, south London.

This late 19th century Native American outfit proved the highlight of Fonsie Mealy’s latest sale in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny, when it sold for €320,000 (£246,150).

There may have been no internet or TV in the third quarter of the 19th century, but it was possible to find out what the fashionistas of 1867 were wearing at the time.

Among the most desirable of all needlework samplers are those associated with pupils at the Ackworth School, founded as a co-educational boarding school in 1779 by the Quaker physician John Fothergill and still thriving today.

The two-day House & Garden Sale at Mallams in Abingdon, Oxfordshire saw this near pair of early 20th century Louis Vuitton ‘malle armoire secretaires’ sell for £24,000.

Paris auctioneers Gros & Delettrez have announced the sale of 350 lots of haute couture from Danielle Luquet de Saint Germain, muse to the late Yves Saint Laurent in the 1960s, and later an artistic advisor at Dior.

MK Auctions are selling a Flemish verdure tapestry at their sale on May 5.

Vintage luggage made by Louis Vuitton was a fitting addition to this year’s aptly named ‘Travel in Style’ ski sale at Christie’s South Kensington.

A pair of Queen Victoria’s silk black stockings complete with royal monograms is up for sale at Holloway’s of Banbury on December 4.

A saddlecloth reputedly used by Queen Elizabeth I during her state visit to Bristol in 1574 is to be offered at auction.

The attics of Camden, Maine, a famous summer colony for the ‘haves and have yachts’ of the Gilded Age, are just the place one might expect to find period Louis Vuitton luggage.

Duke’s of Dorchester’s annual vintage clothing auction on September 5 will include a Brussels lace wedding dress from c.1908.

Over 200 items of vintage couture belonging to a former fashion model will be offered at an online auction by CJM Auctioneers on July 25.

This papal skull cap or zuchetto will feature in the fine art and antiques auction at Peter Francis of Carmarthen on May 29.

The sale at Grand Auctions in Folkestone on May 23 will offer a textile wall panel designed by Henry Moore in the 1940s, of which only 65 were made.

A house clearer has won a High Court battle to regain possession of a pair of medieval embroideries thought to be worth millions after a longstanding dispute with a fine art specialist.

A NEW textile conservation centre – the first of its kind in the UK – is to be established at the University of Glasgow.

EARLY 17th century embroidery is a fairly rare beast, but it does surface occasionally.

THE deadly sin of avarice was the theme of this large 16th century Flemish tapestry, but the warning failed to temper the desire of bidders when it came up at Skinner's most recent sale of European furniture and decorative arts in Boston in the USA on April 11.

This 18th century needlework panel appears to be a fragment of a work conceived on almost Bayeux Tapestry proportions.