Textiles

Betty Mendes, who has died peacefully aged 90, was one of the leading lights in the field of antique lace and textiles.

Furnishings that were once part of the family home of Gertrude Bell, one of the most fascinating figures of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, are coming up at auction at Tennants in North Yorkshire on March 17.

Cautiously catalogued as mid-19th century and suffering some damage, a large suzani attracted international interest at the Andrew Smith & Son (19% buyer’s premium) Winchester sale.

Dedicated to those who campaigned for 50 years for the right of women to vote, the Museum of London is currently holding an exhibition of images and objects chosen from the museum’s vast collections of suffragette material.

Sworders is to sell the primary contents of North Mymms Park, Hertfordshire – including a collection of European tapestries that have been at the property for over a century.

Robin Yacoubian runs the family business, Gallery Yacou, with his father Ezekiel. The firm has been in the family for more than four generations and specialises in antique, decorative and contemporary carpets. This year, the gallery moved from Fulham Road to its current location in north London.

Work from 1880 returns to where it was made after it was offered at nearby antiques fair...

The annual London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair (LARTA) returns to Battersea for the second time to run in conjunction with the Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair from January 23-28. Taking place on the mezzanine of Battersea Evolution, the fair focuses on carpets, rugs and woven design.

Carol and Stephen Huber from Connecticut deal in antique embroideries and are stalwarts of the Winter Antiques Show, having exhibited there for 25 years.

Folk art has many admirers. Kent-based Anne Kelly specialises in recycled textile folk art, much of it inspired by nature, particularly birds, and her world travels.

“If you lived here you could make it absolutely divine,” wrote author Virginia Woolf to her sister Vanessa Bell in 1916.

Shown here is the central medallion of a patchwork and appliqué quilt believed to have been produced by some patriotic sewer to mark the 1815 marriage of Princess Charlotte, the Prince Regent’s daughter, to Prince Leopold of Saxe- Coburg-Gotha.

While it is well known that Queen Victoria sent her troops tins of chocolate boxes for Christmas in the second Boer War (1899-1902), the eight scarves she personally crocheted to send to individual soldiers are not so familiar.

A small but select sale of a collection of carpets and tapestries comes up for sale at Piasa in Paris on June 15. The 14 lots of weavings spanning the 16th to 18th centuries have a particular emphasis on Spain and the New World.

Through surviving examples of Charles II beadwork, it is possible to catch a glimpse of the splendid colours of Stuart England.