Description and Details
A magnificent boxed Sajou Museum & Heritage kit for a large embroidery celebrating Marie-Antoinette, the last Queen to live in the Palace of Versailles before her tragic end.
The embroidery brings together the iconic portrait of Marie-Antoinette by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun — the Queen’s official portraitist — alongside designs drawn from embroideries associated with, and in some cases worked by, Marie-Antoinette herself. Her famous love of lace and fashion is reflected in motifs based on fabric samples used by Rose Bertin, her dressmaker, as well as the Queen’s own silhouette and monogram.
Marie-Antoinette (1755–1793) continues to fascinate. Despite her tragic fate and the many grievances held against her, she remains one of the most compelling and iconic figures in French history. Vilified during the Revolution, her reputation was gradually rehabilitated: in 1816 Louis XVIII gave her the state funeral she had been denied; the Empress Eugénie devoted years to collecting objects that had belonged to her; and writers including Dumas and the Goncourt brothers kept her memory alive. It fell to Pierre de Nolhac (1859–1936), the first curator of Versailles, to fully restore her image, returning the Petit Trianon to its original character and bringing her portraits back to public attention. Today, she is a worldwide myth.
This embroidery represents approximately 310 hours of stitching.
The motif measures 340 x 340 stitches, giving a finished size of 56.7 x 56.7 cm on 12-count linen.
The kit includes:
- A large 68 x 80 cm pattern chart printed on matt paper
- A 70 cm square of pink linen fabric
- Four 14 cm squares of linen in off-white, Sajou blue, cyclamen, mole and lime tree colourways
- 35 cards of Retors du Nord embroidery thread: 2001, 2004, 2005, 2018, 2022 x 3, 2023 x 2, 2024, 2025 x 2, 2032, 2034, 2036, 2037, 2041, 2042, 2180, 2190, 2227, 2317, 2340, 2350, 2409 x 2, 2443, 2445 x 2, 2469, 2535, 2536, 2615, 2818, 2876
- Two 28 mm buttons to cover
- Approximately 20 cm each of pink and pale blue satin ribbon, plus nine pieces of organza ribbon in pastel tones
This kit forms part of the Sajou Versailles Palace Museum & Heritage collection. You will find further kits from this collection in my shop, including the Chenonceau Château, the History of Toile du Jouy, the Bayeux Tapestry, Tinctorial Plants and more.
