Abigail Bull

FAMILY FINDS 'JUNK' EMBROIDERY DONE DURING AMERICAN REVOLUTION By Donald Grant

an "old lady in 1700 during the Colonial War" did the embroidery "after the Boston Tea Party." The woman and her family came to Canada as United Empire Loyalists, the story says but she gave the work to a daughter who stayed in the United States.

The embroidery, showing a stage coach in front of Windsor Castle, followed by a troop of soldiers, and in the foreground a man waving under a tree and a woman riding a horse side-saddle, with a soldier and groom, had unusual tree shadows which seemed to spell either 1773 or Lee.

"The search worked out to Lee," Mr. Dickinson said.

"It's unique," said Mr Dickinson. "It's really fine needle work, not the fish hook type needles, but the finer needles that only the upper crust had in those days. Then it's silk on linen."

A Victoria and Albert Museum official in London, England said the embroidered pictures were worked in silks or wools on a silk ground around 1780 to 1820.

"By this time the silk grounds have decayed...but yours is in a fine state of preservation," wrote the museum official.