Painting

The V&A acquired a fragment of embroidered silk in 1863, believed to have originally been part of a coronation robe donated by Richard of Cornwall to the coronation collegiate of Aachen in 1262. In 1893, it underwent a restoration procedure used on a number of fragmentary historical textiles at that time, which had incomplete pattern repeats - it was glued to cardboard, and a watercolour painting was made alongside to indicate how the pattern would have looked if completed. This is the painting, commissioned from Blanche F Hunter, a professional artist, skilfully done to imitate the texture of threads and stitches.