Frances Williams Silk Embroidered (Printwork) Memorial Mary Balch School Providence, Rhode Island dated 1812 This Balch School mourning picture was created with the then fashionable style of printwork, which was meant to simulate copperplate engravings. First the basic design was painted onto the silk with a wash of ink or paint in shades of grey to black. Using a delicate needle and a single strand of silk thread, fifteen-year-old Frances skillfully delineated the design of the monument and figure with an outline stitch, and then proceeded to fill in areas with tiny seed stitches in black, grey or cream silk thread, sometimes making hundreds of stitches per square inch! The precisely-stitched lettering on the monument appears almost as printed text. The monument is dedicated to two of the stitchers deceased male siblings. Frances stitched the following inscription: Inscribed to the remains of / EDWARD WILLIAMS /who was born July 14th 1799, and died Jan. 16th 1805. in the 6th year of his age/ And / GODFREY WILLIAMS / who was born March 20th, 1804, and died April 5th 1811, aged 7 years. Written in ink on the linen beneath the eglomize: "By Frances Williams, 1812." A rectangular space has been left clean on the eglomize, so that the signature is visible today. The frame is the original Dutch gesso ripple frame with a gilt liner and replacement eglomize glass mat. The talented maker of this printwork memorial, fifteen-year-old Frances Williams (1797-1816), the daughter of Roger Wolcott Williams (1764-1821) and Polly Scarborough (1775-1820), led a short life, and left no descendants, but her family history is filled with amazing people, lots of inter-marriages, and stories about the founding of our country. Provenance: Illustrated in, Girlhood Embroidery by Betty Ring Let Virtue Be a Guide to Thee by Betty Ring American Needlework Treasures by Betty Ring Exhibited in, Rhode Island Historical Society in Providence RI 1983 Museum of American Folk Art, New York 1990 Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas 1984 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1984 Ownership, Betty Ring Stephen & Carol Huber Dan & Marty Campanelli Extensive research accompanies this needlework. Silk thread and ink wash/paint on silk ground; 25" x 27" with original frame. $6,500 STEPHEN & CAROL HUBER (860) 388-6809 View Other Silk Embroidered Memorials