Wall Pockets of the 17th and 18th Centuries
Last updated: Jan 7, 2024
The placement of the pockets, type of closure, and (usually) plain backs distinguish wall pockets from housewifes and pocketbooks, but they often use similar styles of embroidery. Wall pockets (holding combs and other small personal items) occasionally appear in trompe l'oeil artwork from the 18th century, often hanging from a wall on a nail, including a trompe l'oeil with combs, engravings, and playing cards by Andrea Domenico Remps, an anonymous painting with sewing tools, and a painting by Gabriel Gresly.
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-52, a red silk wall pocket with metal thread embroidery, Italy, 17th century
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-51, an embroidered wall pocket in silk and metal threads, 17th century
- Art Institute of Chicago 1955.16, a wall pocket embroidered in silk with biblical scenes, Germany or Switzerland, 17th century
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-54, a wall pocket embroidered with silk and metal threads, late 17th century
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-55, a wall pocket embroidered with heraldry and allegorical figures in silk and metal threads, Germany, late 17th century
- MFA 42.484, an embroidered wall pocket made in 1699 in Rhode Island
- MFA 43.1119, a quilted satin hanging pocket case made in France
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-48, a quilted linen wall pocket made in Switzerland, 17th-18th century
- MFA 43.1073, a brocade wall pocket made in Munich, 17th-18th century
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-49, an embroidered wall pocket in silk and metal threads, 17th-18th century
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-56, a silk wall pocket with metal thread embroidery, Italy, 17th-18th century
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-53, a red silk wall pocket with silk and metal thread embroidery, early 18th century
- Cooper Hewitt 1950-121-50, a coral silk wall pocket with metal thread embroidery and bobbin lace trim, 17th-18th century
- Meg Andrews 8443, Swiss wall pockets, 18th century; “Four large pockets, each with a different large flowerhead, flanked by leaf scrolls containing flowers including jonquil and pinks (carnations), each stiffened with card, a border of a leaf meander interspersed with small flowerheads, all worked in soft shades of apricot, old gold, green, blue and ivory floss silks with gold filé infill in basket weave and outlining, all on a saxe blue silk ground, the pockets edged with silk and metal fringing to the top and bottom of the pocket, the sides and the edges of the whole piece in metal thread braid, lined with original rich gold silk.”
- Thomaston Place Aug 27 2016, Lot 459, English, “Rare 18th c. Wall-Hanging Sewing "Etui" or needlecase, silk over pasteboard, rounded at the top, tapering to the bottom ending in a stuffed pin cushion, in five segments, each with alternating oval and heart mirrors (silver nitrate painted glass), framed by gold bullion-work and glass beads, the edge in Spanish style gold bullion-work lace”
- Sotheby’s January 20-22 2016, Lot 752, a wool and silk hanging needlework wall pocket, c. 1725
- Skinner 3278M, Lot 232, a flame-stitched wall pocket probably made in Dutchess County, New York, c. 1756
- Skinner 2922M, Lot 12, a flame-stitched wall pocket made in America, 1774
- Skinner 3121M, Lot 722, a flame-stitched wall pocket made in America, 1780
- MFA 43.2371, 43.2372, 43.2373, 43.2374, 43.2375, sablé beadwork wall pockets trimmed with metallic bobbin lace
- Skinner 3278, Lot 129, a wall pocket made of printed cotton fabrics, early 19th century
