Flea Market Item 26-304

Antique Hand-Embroidered Whitework Collar — c.1910–1920

A beautiful early 20th-century detachable collar, worked by hand on exceptionally fine, sheer white cotton lawn or batiste.

The collar is richly decorated with delicate whitework embroidery. Each end features an elaborate flowering spray with leaves and tiny blossoms worked predominantly in raised satin stitch and fine outline stitches. Small embroidered motifs are scattered across the length of the collar, while pierced eyelets and decorative openwork details add a lace-like quality.

The outer edge is finished with a finely worked scalloped embroidered border, while the combination of padded embroidery, eyelet work and delicate open spaces is characteristic of the refined whitework used for fashionable dress accessories during the Edwardian and early post-Edwardian period.

The long, softly curved shape was designed to sit around the neckline of a blouse or dress, with the wider embroidered ends falling down the front. Detachable collars such as this allowed a relatively simple garment to be transformed with an elaborate piece of needlework.