Provenance

This embroidered cloth was given to Zoe and Edmund Smith around 1980 by Mrs Lucy Nicholas (born 1887) who was described by the donor as around 90 years old at that time. Lucy Nicholas was the daughter of Edwin Henry John Mitchell (1848–1929) and Annie Margaret Solly (born 1859). Edwin Mitchell was the son of Catherine Augusta Mitchell (nee Keast 1812–99), to whom the cloth is attributed. Lucy Nicholas gave the embroidery to Mr and Mrs Smith for display in a small museum they had established in the old Lisdillon church on the Tasman highway on the east coast of Tasmania. The cloth was donated to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in May 2008 by Edmund Smith in memory of his wife Zoe Smith.

History

This embroidered cloth is attributed to Catherine Augusta Mitchell (1812–99) and was made at Lisdillon, a property on the east coast of Tasmania. It is distinguished by both the exacting reproduction of native plants and by the highly sophisticated use of varied threads and stitching techniques to accurately represent characteristics of the plants such as colour, reflectivity and texture. While native plants are represented in many embroidered works made in the nineteenth century, they are often somewhat generic in character. In the case of this work, however, the plants represented are specific in nature—heathland plants from eastern Tasmania. Their unique characteristics are represented in sufficient detail to accurately identify them.

In mid-nineteenth century Tasmania there was a strong interest in botany, particularly among a group of women associated with Louisa Ann Meredith (1812–95). Mrs Meredith, the wife of east-coast farmer and later politician, Charles Meredith (1811–80), was an enthusiastic amateur natural historian and botanical illustrator. Her work inspired many women in the community. Sketching and embroidery based on observation of native plants were ways in which women could engage in scientific interests that in the mid-nineteenth century were otherwise the exclusive domain of men.