18th Century Knotting

Last updated: July 13, 2025

From the Letters from Mrs. Delany (a letter to Mrs. Frances Hamilton, October 10, 1783):

The King, with his usual graciousness, came up to me, and brought me forward, and I found the Queen very busy in showing a very elegant machine to the Duchess of Portland, which was a frame for weaving of fringe, a new and most delicate structure, and would take up as much paper as has already been written upon to describe it minutely, yet it is of such simplicity as to be very useful. You will easily imagine the grateful feeling I had when the Queen presented it to me, to make up some knotted fringe which she saw me about. The King, at the same time, said he must contribute something to my work, and presented me with a gold knotting shuttle, of most exquisite workmanship and taste; and I am at this time, while I am dictating the letter, knotting white silk, to fringe the bag which is to contain it.

She also references knotting for chairs in her Autobiography & Correspondence. See Tatting Myths Dispelled for photos of the knotting on Mrs. Delany’s chairs or the 1765 Delany quilt at the Ulster Museum.

Several of the workbags & purses may also have knotted fringe and/or tassels.

• Colonial Williamsburg 1967-699,1, England, c. 1730; “Valance or bed furnishing textile of yellow (Munsell 5Y 7/6) silk satin with design of knotted and couched red wool threads stitched through innerlining of damask linen; couching done with red wool and coral silk thread.”
• Colonial Williamsburg 1972-1, Great Britain, c. 1730-1750; “This is a counterpane made of white twilled linen and cotton ground fabric with all-over repeating pattern of leafy vines, various flowers, and pear-shaped fruit, embroidered in a knotted stitch through the ground. Colors include blue-greens, shaded rose, blues, and golds on white. The flowers and vines seem to be made of a series of knots couched onto the ground. The centers of most of the flowers are made of bullion knots and French knots.”
• The V&A has some examples of knotting from the second half of the 18th century, including several balls of knotted silk (T.353C-1965, T.353D-1965, T.353E-1965, T.353G-1965), some tassels (T.353B-1965), and some fringe (T.353-1965). The captions also feature a remark on the custom of knotting: “The Comtesse de Genlis, in her Dictionary of Court Etiquette, maintained that knotting had no other purpose than to enable a woman to appear composed when in company.”
• 'The Most Splendid Bed in the Universe'? Knotted-work hangings made for George III (“some hangings and chair covers of knotted work embroidery, commissioned and partly made by Queen Charlotte for a bed and suite for George III but not used; sold after her death and redeployed on other furniture”), including a a bedcover from the King’s Bed Chamber, Windsor Castle (RCIN 71467)

Knotting shuttles

• V&A 560-1907, a pierced steel knotting shuttle, Woodstock, c. 1770-1790
• Wallace Collection W210, Paris, mid-18th century; “This iron knotting shuttle is made up of two oval plaques joined together by an oval central column. The plaques have been chased with a border of overlapping circles which has been falsely damascened (gold foil hammered onto the roughened surface) in gold on a chased ground. In the centre is a gold medallion falsely damascened in gold with a foliate V and intertwined L's below a laurel wreath. Surrounding the medallion is interlaced foliage which has been pierced and chased.”
• Inlaid shell knotting shuttle, England, c. 1790
• Silver inlaid tortoiseshell knotting shuttle, late 18th - early 19th century

Portraiture and depictions of knotting

• Three Ladies of the Leman Family and their Dogs on a Terrace by Benjamin Ferrers, 1728
• The Du Cane and Boehm Family Group by Gawen Hamilton, 1734-1735
• Lucy, Duchess of Montrose by Benjamin Vandergucht, 1793, after an Andrea Soldi portrait c. 1740
• Double portrait presumed to represent François de Jullienne and his wife Marie Élisabeth de Séré de Rieux by Charles Antoine Coypel, 1743
• A portrait of the Vigor family: Jane Vigor, Joseph Vigor, Ann Vigor, William Vigor and probably John Penn by Joseph Highmore, 1744
• A portrait painter and his wife, c. 1745
• Lady Lloyd and Her Son, Richard Savage Lloyd, of Hintlesham Hall, Suffolk by Thomas Gainsborough, 1745-1746
• Portrait of a Woman by John Wollaston, 1749-1752
• Portrait of a lady by Arthur Devis, c. 1750-1751
• Madame Dange by Louis Tocque, 1753
• Princess Maria Kunigunde von Sachsen by Pietro Antonio Conte Rotari, c. 1755
• Princess Marie Adelaïde de France by Jean-Marc Nattier, 1756
• Marie Angélique Vérany de Varennes, Mme Georges Gougenot de Croissy by Jean Baptiste Greuze, 1757
• Anne, 2nd Countess of Albemarle by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1760
• Mrs. Charles Tudway by Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1760-1765
• Madame Rigaud de Vaudreuil by Louis Carrogis Carmontelle
• Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, the later Queen Marie Antoinette of France, at the age of 7 years by Jean-Etienne Liotard, 1762
• Conversation piece attributed to Benjamin Wilson
• Elizabeth Kerr, née Fortescue, Marchioness of Lothian by Angelica Kauffmann
• Elizabeth de la Vallee de la Roche by Michel-Pierre Hubert Descours, 1771
• Madame la Comtesse de Belsunce by Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, 1775
• Family group by Francis Wheatley, c. 1775-1780
• Queen Charlotte with Charlotte, Princess Royal, by Benjamin West, 1776
• Mrs. Seymour Fort by John Singleton Copley, c. 1780
• Mrs. Pearce by Francis Wheatley, 1786
• Margot Wheatley by Francis Alleyne, 1786
• The Rookes-Leeds Family by Arthur Devis
• Lady Jane Mathew and her daughters, c. 1790