Choice and Precious Work Volume 1, Witney Antiques Catalog (Hardcover)

The 2023 Witney exhibition catalog is their first hardcover book covering an extremely rare collection of treasures of the schoolroom from 1650-1750.  The primary collection is the 1667/1668 casket on the cover worked by Elizabeth Hall at the Shacklewell School outside Hackney and containing a number of small casket toys made by her.  The family continued to add items to the box such as a handmade layette set, small whitework pieces and their patterns.  The box also came with a set of samplers made later by other family members and friends from this small Quaker meeting.   Never has so much been known about a set of embroidery from the period.

This tome is a follow on to the 2022 Witney exhibition catalog which extensively covered samplers of the period (and many are on display with the Hall sets now.  But it is the prequel to the 2024 Witney exhibition catalog which will be larger and will cover more caskets with their internal items which also have impressive information on the girls and their schools. 

The 126-page book has full page photography, including many views of the casket and very magnified views of the casket smalls in the clear photographs you have come to expect from Witney's catalogs with an essay about each piece.  This book is now out of print, so existing inventory is all that is available