The story of the dresser and the tapestry begins in the mid-90s in Mississauga. Our friend Dave gave us a dresser from his house. He had inherited the house and its contents from his mother, his father passed away in (I think) the 70s. When Dave decided that the house was too much for him and was selling to move to a condo he called me over and gave the dresser to me.
Click on any of the images to see larger.
Inside one of the drawers there was a paper Eatons bag. Inside the bag was a long narrow needlepoint tapestry with a few other items.Dave's father worked at Eatons all of his working life. It was over 50 years that he was there. I remember seeing the 1/2 century club certificate that was awarded to him.
I remember Dave telling me that his father did needlepoints. He had made all the seats of the chairs for his dining room suite. They were very beautiful. Dave told me that he was working on this needlepoint 
when he died so it's still a WIP.
when he died so it's still a WIP.Well, if I want to finish it, at least I have all the stuff I need! Check out what was in the bag. There's the tapestry with treaded needle and two extra skeins of the tapestry wool.
Check this out! The original product tag from the tapestry with its original price sticker! I love old stuff! I love Canadian stuff (Eatons) but it cracks me up that even back in the early 70s this item was made in China! And it wasn't a cheap item. $13.99 was a good chunk of change back then .
The two birds are worked using Petit-point which is very fine needlepoint that yields a much finer image than the larger needlepoint areas. Amazing work eh?! I really should finish the row that was being worked and then take this to a professional to frame.
These three pictures show the details of the tapestry.
Yeah, I know...I have a really old ironing board but I LOVE it! My step-mother bought it around 1971 at a Rummage Sale held by the Brownies for a whomping 50 cents! My dad did the "repair" on the leg where it was broken. He wrapped a bunch of masking tape around it and I can remember my step-mother going on and on to him about how it wouldn't hold and such...hahaha. More than 4 decades later I'm still using this ironing board and the tape is still perfectly in tact. Way to go daddy!
These three pictures show the details of the tapestry.
Yeah, I know...I have a really old ironing board but I LOVE it! My step-mother bought it around 1971 at a Rummage Sale held by the Brownies for a whomping 50 cents! My dad did the "repair" on the leg where it was broken. He wrapped a bunch of masking tape around it and I can remember my step-mother going on and on to him about how it wouldn't hold and such...hahaha. More than 4 decades later I'm still using this ironing board and the tape is still perfectly in tact. Way to go daddy!
3 comments:
Okay, that is very cool. I love the dresser, the tapestry, the Eaton's bag, the sticker, and the ironing board.
I think the 'apostrophe S' in Eaton's dates it. It's all "Eaton" now, right, so as to work in both French and English? Like it's not "Labatt's" now, it's "Labatt", because French doesn't do possessive form? That certainly happened after 1978, which is when we left the country.
I think maybe the tapestry was made in China because that was something China actually did *well*, back then. It's not just cargo-ships-worth of toxic plastic cr@p, like today.
Wandered over from Flickr because the photos were so intriguing!
Hi Zieknits, I just happened to come back to this blog entry and I see you left a comment. I don't know why it didn't send me a message telling me that! I wasn't ignoring you.
Eaton's is no longer eh, did you know? Even the big store in Toronto is closed. So very sad when that happened.
I was asking my friend that gave me this dresser about it after I posted this blog entry and he tells me that his dad was working on those tapestries in the late 50s. He was in rehab after an accident or something so that's a really old sticker. He passed away in 1977.
Glad you wandered over from Flickr. Please feel free!
:o)
found you via a twitter post or something ... love this blog posting as I love "old" textiles -- want a find! And how lovely to know "who" worked on it! Very sweet.
And the ironing board LOL -- call me if you ever want to get rid of it LOL (I imagine I would be standing in line for it)
Maryjo
Post a Comment