This extraordinary sampler is a tour de force of technical control and decorative invention, a concentrated display of virtuosity demonstrating how an accomplished weaver could manipulate texture, colour, spacing, and structure to remarkable visual effect within only a few inches.

Woven with exceptional fineness and density in its most intricate passages,the tightly worked twined ground gives way to delicate bands of openwork and spaced twining, intricate crossed passages, coloured supplementary-weft accents, and exquisitely worked false-embroidered floral motifs. The transitions are as impressive as the techniques themselves, moving from densely packed surfaces to the finest lattices of open space without sacrificing the precision of the whole.

The flowers are especially remarkable. Executed in coloured false embroidery, these miniature blossoms seem almost impossibly fine, their tiny petals, slender stems, and delicately articulated centres emerging from the textile with the precision of a drawing. Even at this minute scale, each retains its own distinct character.

ND