This is from my private stash. I'm disbursing panels I just am never going to get to make up in to those lush opulent down-filled throw pillows I love. YOU get to do it, instead. FABulous! This is a finely stitched petitpoint, really, in the needlework style roughly called needlepoint. One tiny stitch over a thread of the linen canvas upon which it is worked, silk and wool yarns used and some metallic threads there at Napoleon III's epaulets. Its has been folded back about a half inch around edges and has been framed. The panel is really quite astonishingly well preserved, and I think it is supple enough to be worked up as centerpoint of a luxurious down-filled and lushly fringed throw pillow. Or certainly can be matted to fit a rectangular frame, or framed without mat in an oval frame. The panel did not come to us with a frame, but it's obvious to me it was always protected within one, under glass. There are no losses to moth or bug, no holes, no lost stitches you'd need to restore. It is a fine old panel. Large, too, at 19.5" x 14" - would be spectacular worked into creamy silk moire panel for a pillow top. Charles- Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew to Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon III, his wife, Empress Eugenie, and their heir to the throne son, all captured here in needlework portrait. Napoleon III, the last Emperor of France and last to have apartments in the Louvre (you can still walk through their living quarters there as part of the museum), elected President of France from 1848-52, then unable to be re-elected, he simply seized power as Emperor and thusly reigned in France from 1852-1870, when he was deposed and exiled to England. He was Born: April 20, 1808, Paris, France, and died: January 9, 1873, Chislehurst, United Kingdom, never returning to his native France after exile in 1873. Empress Eugenie was immensely popular for her beauty and for her aesthetic, which influenced much of the world's decorative taste during those years and beyond. Will be listing a large private collection (my own) of c.1600 = c.1850 tapestry panels. Be sure to mark our shop and come back!
Very good to excellent condition for age and type. Very well preserved. Supple canvas remains and I believe it is fine for use incorporated into an opulent pillow top. Of course these old panels are more for the decorator's touch, not so much to be sat upon, leaned against and otherwise roughly treated. They are focal points. The panel has no splits, no holes. no loss to the wool and silk stitches. I see no evidence of moth or bug damage, there are no odors to it beyond the faint natural scent of wool. No stains. Some wools used are slightly variant in the shade of off-white, as you can see. That is original to the work, and is not fading or staining. There is about 1/2" canvas folded backside which can be part of the piece in order to sew it up into a pillow top so you don't lose any of the needlepoint size. A fabulous piece, rare historical portrait. From my personal collection, and purchased in Paris years ago.
