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Export bar placed on 19th-c. schoolgirl’s sampler
When the UK’s Art Minister places an export bar on an artifact in danger of leaving the country, usually the object is something like Charles Dickens’ study table or Queen Victoria’s coronet. This time the maker was an 11-year-old schoolgirl and the cultural treasure being prevented from leaving the UK is a needlework sampler she stitched in 1827 celebrating the construction of the Menai Suspension Bridge.
Designed by engineer Thomas Telford, the Menai Bridge spans the Menai Strait connecting the island of Anglesey with mainland Wales. The strait had always been treacherous to ship travel because of its fast waters and complex currents, and it claimed many lives before Telford’s bridge suspended by iron chains with a single span wide enough to connect piers on the high banks on either side of the strait was built. Construction began in 1819 and the bridge officially opened on January 30th, 1826.
It was the first large suspension bridge in the world and was greeted with lavish acclaim by the public and press. One newspaper called it “the most stupendous monument of human art in the whole world.” Little Mary Anne Hughes saw the architectural marvel when it was still new. She immortalized its arched piers, chain cable suspension, the busy sailing ships under it, even the people walking their dog on the shore in her own needlework masterpiece dated 10th August 10th, 1827. The embroidered text reads: ‘Anglesey / MENAI BRIDGE – Near Bangor – Caernavonshire / Caernarvon’ (within embroidered cartouches, above) ‘In legth [sic] 1714 Feet in Height 100 Feet from High Water Mark AD 1829 (Anglesey) / Mary Anne Hughes Her Work Aged 11 August 10th (Caernarvon)’.
The greatest of this young girl’s accomplishment and the history it records made the 17×26-inch piece catch the discerning eye of the Marquess of Anglesey. It was in his collection at Plas Newydd alongside Flemish tapestries, Regency mahogany bookcases, Napoleon’s spy glass, family jewels, ceramics, silver, clocks and other high-end decorative arts that were offered for auction at Sotheby’s London in April. The sampler sold for £14,564, far above its presale estimate of £1,200 – 1,800.
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art agreed with the Marquess of Anglesey and the buyer that Mary Anne Hughes’ work was too special to let go of if a UK institution could be found to keep it in the country.
Committee Member Mark Hallett said:
“Mary Anne Hughes’s needlework picture of Menai Bridge in Anglesey, stitched when she was just 11 years old, is not only a testament to her individual skill and prodigious powers of concentration.
It is also a window into the world of early nineteenth century working class education and female accomplishment in Britain, giving us a glimpse of a culture that has been largely lost to us, and for which there are far too few traces.
This rare, modest treasure is of enduring interest and value, and thoroughly deserves to be saved for the nation.”
Institutions have until January 7th, 2025, so come up with the purchase price or show that they’re well on the way to raising the funds. If someone steps up to the plate, the auction buyer will be reimbursed the cost and the sampler will become part of a museum collection.
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