Today we have a lace-edged linen tablecloth, decorated with cutwork and embroidery, made by Mary Louise Parsly of Brookeville.
Mary Louise Parsly (sometimes spelled Parsley) was born in 1887, the second child of John and Cornelia Search Parsly. Her father ran a general store in Brookeville. In 1914 or 1915, Mary Louise married Dr. Ernest Fishbaugh of Indiana, and they moved to California. The tablecloth was donated to MCHS in 1979 by her daughter, Ernestine Fishbaugh, who wrote, “The embroidery on this cloth is so perfect and so exquisite that I would like very much to give it to your organization in [my mother’s] memory.”
The cloth measures 52 inches in diameter, not counting the 5 inch crochet lace trim which, according to Miss Fishbaugh, her mother “did not make . . . but added it to the cloth.” Perhaps the lace was purchased from Mr. Parsly’s store?
This is a lovely example of whitework and, while I’m not as qualified a judge as some, I would say Mary Louise’s work is pretty close to “perfect.” (Although, alas, I cannot find evidence that she tested her mettle by entering this or other work in the county fair.) The circular patterns are evenly matched, and the embroidery is tidy, even some 100 years later. Mary Louise added her initials along one side, in padded satin stitch letters that are three inches high:
If only she’d added the date! The donor noted it was “made by my mother before she was married,” but could not be more specific. I suspect that it was part of Mary Louise’s preparations for running her own household after her marriage. The big, bold initials are fantastic; we have other monogrammed linens in our collections, but few are quite so definitively marked. You’re not going to miss MLP’s name if you happen to sit down to tea.
The Parsly family, circa 1905. Mary Louise is standing behind her mother. The other children are George (the youngest), Elmer (in uniform), Lewis, Isabelle, and Alice. Donated by Lewis Parsly.
January 9, 2013 at 2:46 pm
I love this. My mother left some nice embroidered tablecloths–hard to use them these days, let alone do similar work.
I do like those neat, well-made, sensible, and polished shoes the children are wearing. Something on shoes?
And how about something on old packaging of the period, if you have any?
January 9, 2013 at 2:50 pm
Oh, those are both good ideas! The trick is that neither shoes nor packaging always survived, but we have a few. There are some old boxes on the blog but I don’t think I’ve done any shoes – I’ll hunt some up.
And yes, I love the shoes in this picture, particularly Alice in the lower right – she looks very jaunty!
January 9, 2013 at 3:27 pm
I have a small round tablecloth from my mother’s family with an almost identical embroidery pattern. I had always thought that they bought it already done. (I have other pieces that I am fairly sure were hand sewn.)
January 9, 2013 at 3:32 pm
Well, it’s always possible that Miss Fishbaugh was mistaken (or misled) in her belief that her mother made the tablecloth herself. But embroidery patterns were published in all types of magazines &c. – we have similarly embroidered pieces from other families – it’s likely that a relatively simple design like this would be found in many places. So without other examples of MLP’s work, I’d like to think that she did this fine embroidery herself!