Another little piece of history

It’s not all about the 19th Century – today I got the opportunity to start sorting out the total mess that has become of our linen since we moved (I’m trying to segregate things by the floor they belong to so we have towels upstairs, tablecloths downstairs etc) and I came across this rather nice tablecloth.

This would have been made in 1937 to celebrate the coronation of King George VI (and Queen Elizabeth who was later to be known as the “Queen Mother”).  It is obviously hand embroidered and has a really nice and rather complicated design so I think it was probably from one of the many patterns given out in magazines at the time.

It features the royal coat of arms.

But even more attractively – the four flowers of the four countries of the United Kingdom.

We also see these designs in the glass windows of all the bathrooms at Castlebank House.  I am not sure of the date of these though.  Castlebank would not have had bathrooms when it was built in 1854 – my guess is that these would have gone in during the 1870s.