9047.
Cushion, elaborately wrought by the needle on fine canvas, and figured with animals, armorial bearings, flowers, and love-knots, as well as with the letters I and R royally crowned. Scotch, 17th century. 11 inches by 8 inches.
We have on the first large pane a rose tree, bearing one red rose seeded or, barbed vert, and at its foot, but separating them, two unicorns argent, outlined and horned in silver thread; above them, and separated by the red rose, two lions passant, face to face, langued and outlined in gold thread; above the flower a royal crown or, and two small knots or, and at each side a white rose slipped; over each unicorn a gold knot, and a strawberry proper. Beneath this larger shield are three small ones: the first, fretty or, and vert (but so managed that the field takes the shape of strawberry leaves), charged with four true-love-knots or, and in chief vert, a strawberry branch or wire or, bearing one fruit proper, and one flower argent; the second shield gives us, on a field azure, and within an orle of circles linked together on four sides by golden bands, and charged with strawberry fruit, and leaf, and flower proper, and alternating, a plume of Prince of Wales’s feathers argent, with the quill of the middle feather marked red or gules, at each of the four corners there is a true-love-knot in gold; the third small shield is a series of circles outlined in gold, and filled in with quatrefoils outlined green; below, on a large green pane, a white rose slipped, with grapes and acorns; by its side, the capital letters, in gold, I and R, with a strawberry and leaf close by each letter, and above all, and between two love-knots, a regal crown. By the sides of this device are several small panes, exhibiting fanciful patterns of flowers, &c.: but in most of them the true-love-knot as well as the strawberry plant, in one combination or another, are the principal elements; and in one of the squares or panes the ornamentation evidently affects the shape of the capital letter S; upon the other side, with an orle of knots of different kinds, is figured a mermaid on the sea, with a comb in one hand, and on one side of this pane is shown a high-born dame, whose fan, seemingly of feathers, is very conspicuous. Underneath the mermaid are shown, upon a field vert, a man with a staff, amid four rabbits, each with a strawberry-leaf in its mouth, and at each far corner a stag. As on the other side, so here the larger squares are surrounded by smaller ones displaying in their design true-love-knots, strawberries, acorns, roses, white and red, and in one pane the combination, in a sort of net-work, of the true-love-knot with the letter S, is very striking. In Scotland several noble families, whether they spell their name Fraser or Frazer, use, as a canting charge in their blazon, the frasier or strawberry, leafed, flowered, and fructed proper; the buck, too, comes in upon or about their armorial shields. And this may have been worked by a member of that family.