A KNEELER representing the life and work of Jane Austen has been accomplished by the embroiderers of Winchester Cathedral, after a special request and donation from the bestselling creator Tracy Chevalier.
The original watercolour design
Ninety years ago, two women, Louise Pesel and Sybil Blunt, became famous on this planet of embroidery for his or her work on the cathedral. The pair had been commissioned to design and stitch a whole lot of kneelers and cushions, initially to be used within the 14th-century choir stalls, and subsequently elsewhere within the constructing. The embroidery and designs were said to be of such a high standard, and were so widely acclaimed within the Nineteen Thirties, that Queen Mary visited Winchester for the only purpose of seeing their work. Their design, now officially generally known as the “Winchester Style”, has been replicated in other cathedrals.
Ms Chevalier fictionalised their story in her 2019 novel, A Single Thread (Books, 29 November 2019).
In the annual magazine of the Friends of Winchester Cathedral on the time, she wrote: “There are some ways to contemplate a cathedral. . . You can admire its architecture, its stained glass, its sculpture, its bells. You can study the lives of its monks and bishops and deans. You can treat it because the social centrepiece of a city. But few stop to think concerning the cushions we sit on, the kneelers we pray on, and the way they too might contribute literally and figuratively to the history of a cathedral.”
On a visit to the Friends shortly after the novel was published, Ms Chevalier viewed the entire set of the unique drawings of the Nineteen Thirties Pesel and Blunt cushion designs, including one which was never made, which depicted the names of three celebrated Hampshire women: Florence Nightingale, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Yonge.
The so-called “missing cushion” was immediately commissioned, with a big donation from Ms Chevalier to cover the associated fee of the work. The present cathedral embroiderers have now finished the work, in a latest design, in time for the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth, next 12 months. The cushion is to be assigned to a stall within the cathedral during a service later this 12 months.
