Morris and his daughter May were early supporters of the Royal School of Art Needlework, founded in 1872, whose aim was to "restore Ornamental Needlework for secular purposes to the high place it once held among decorative arts".
Following in Street's footsteps, Morris became active in the growing movement to return originality and mastery of technique to embroidery, and was one of the first designers associated with the Royal School of Art Needlework with its aim to "restore Ornamental Needlework for secular purposes to the high place it once held among decorative arts".
The references to traditionally feminine decorative art, especially needlework, are deliberate, but there is nothing condescending in such quotations of "women's work".
Adler took special note of the sampler, a decorative piece of needlework often included in the hope chest that would showcase a woman's knowledge of both stitching and story-telling.
At the tail end of "pteridomania" in the late 1860s, Mr. Allen writes, fern motifs "broke out on glass and china, on curtains and wallpaper, in needlework, on decorative tiles, even on wrought-iron chairs and benches for the garden".
"She sold costumes, textiles, needlework and decorations".
Featherwork, decorative use of ornamental feathers, especially the feather mosaic needlework of Victorian England.
After the Restoration (1660), cabinets were used as decorative objects, and their embellishments included walnut veneers, floral marquetry, needlework, and japanning (oriental style lacquerwork).
She thought it unfortunate that so many women wrote "out of a decorative impulse" and sought to avoid wasting her own talents on mere "literary needlework".
They have enriched it with notable collections of fine and decorative arts, an awesome library of books and manuscripts, scientific instruments, silver, furniture and needlework.
