Introducing European Embroideries

The Burrell Collection, Glasgow, holds more than 300 European embroideries, which date from the medieval period to the eighteenth century, with works from the seventeenth century being particularly well represented. The embroideries were made in professional workshops and also by skilled amateurs, sometimes as part of girls’ formal education. The collection is wide ranging and of international importance.

Introducing European Embroideries is an accessible exploration over 60 highlights from the collection, which gives an insight into their designs and themes, the techniques used to make them and the historical contexts in which they were created. The varied selection includes ecclesiastical vestments, secular garments and accessories, furnishings, embroidered panels, samplers, boxes and decorative items, and objects with royal connections. All these beautiful embroideries are reproduced in full colour.

Rebecca Quinton is Glasgow Life Museums’ Curator of European Dress and Textiles. Her research interests include British embroideries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, nineteenth-century dress, and textile manufacturers in Glasgow and the West of Scotland and their connections with slavery and the British Empire. Rebecca Quinton is the author of a number of other publications, including Introducing European Tapestries.

• Publisher: Glasgow Museums Publishing
• Author: Rebecca Quinton
• Date of publication & format: 25 April 2024, 80 pages, full colour, paperback
• ISBN: 978-1-908638-47-2