Embroidery and the Nymans Needlework Guild

Marion Sambourne passed on her embroidery skills to her daughter Maud Messel, her granddaughter Anne, Countess of Rosse and her grandson, Oliver Messel. All four collected embroidery and were well informed on the history of textiles.

From the early 1900s Maud ran embroidery classes from all her homes, selling the products through sales of work. Like similar organisations across Europe, her aim was to provide training and an income for young country girls. The class teacher was Miss Warren, trained at the Royal College of Needlework.

Maud set up her Nymans Needlework Guild in 1916. Pupils made three types of work: Whitework - reticella, drawn thread and crochet for household use; natural linen envelope bags and mats embroidered with one-coloured silk thread; small white satin drawstring bags embroidered with coloured silks.

Maud completely rejected art nouveau, art deco or Modernist design influences, developing instead an elegant vernacular revival style. Designs were inspired by the seventeenth and eighteenth-century Jacobean and Italian samples in her embroidery collection.

Maud's Guild lasted through to the mid 1950s, when classes were still being held in the village of Handcross.


'Whitework' table mat	Embroidered linen table mat