Heinrich Kuehn – Tray with white flowers
K-JO013 Heinrich Kuehn – Tray with white flowers
Handpainted partial Berlin woolwork pattern on a single sheet. The pattern number has been torn off. White flowers on a background with shades of brown. The completed design is 85×195 but only the left and the middle part are on the pattern. People were supposed to be able to figure out the rest of the pattern, assumed to be the mirror image of the left side. The charts are complete. This type of pattern was used to make (glazed) tea trays in beadwork or wool embroidery. Of course other purposes are not excluded.
Images donated by ebay seller joan10605. Pattern from her grandmother’s needlework studio in Manhattan, LaMer’s Studio, from 1909-1967, where she taught needlework and did work for musea and famous customers.
The advantage of making the tray in beadwork was that beads are heat-resistant and can be cleaned with a wet towel, which cannot be said of embroidery. Embroidered trays were often glazed for that reason. I have a fully beaded unglazed tray that looks all-over black, but when the sun shines on it the actual bead colors show up. The beads are transparant and the background is dark, making the pattern difficult to see. One of our earliest tray patterns was charted from a tray with solid color beads, which are preferable when the background does not transmit or reflect light.