An early 19th century English embroidered picture incorporating scenes from the story of Jack and the Beanstalk

Worked in silk floss thread by Margret Williams

On a fine linen gauze ground with two female figures - a falconer in an Empire gown, and a harpist trailing sheets of musical staves and standing with boxes and barrels - beside a palm tree in a broad landscape before distant hills and beneath stars and a crescent moon, in a variety of stitches including satin, long and short, chain, back, and stem, and with a blue glass bead for the falcon’s eye.

Below these, together with the inscription Margret Williams / her Work, are embroidered vignettes copied from two of the three copper-plate engravings that illustrated The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk, published in 1807 by Benjamin Tabart at The Juvenile and School Library, No. 157, New Bond Street. Copies of both engravings are shown here, and are taken from the edition of the book held in the Hockliffe Collection (see the Hockliffe Project https://hockliffe.dmu.ac.uk/items/0019.html).

Benjamin Tabart (1767/8-1833) published editions of moralising children’s literature from his premises on New Bond Street between 1801 and 1820 (many which were either written or rewritten by him) and employed as his editor Mary Jane Godwin, the second wife of William Godwin. Tabart’s version of Jack and the Beanstalk was influenced by much earlier oral traditions, and at least one 18th century published edition of a related tale, but his was the first in which the story assumed its standard form and is the one from which all later versions derive.

The textile 42.5cm (16¾”) high and 38cm (15”) wide

In a frame 53.3cm (21”) high and 47.3cm (18⅝”) wide.