On Saturday, Bruce and I drove down to Winterthur, the DuPont Estate just outside of Wilmington, Wilmington, DE. We've been talking about visiting for years but just never got around to it. We really wanted to go to see the antique furniture but I was pleasantly surprised to see bits of DuPont's tapestry collection. Evidently, Henry Francis DuPont collected the largest antique fabric collection in existence.
Included in his collection were several needlepoints. Their was a needlepointed chair cover (the needlepoint for an entire wing chair) that had been done in the late 18th century. I also learned that needlepoint kits have been around since the late 17th century. Typically, the kit included a pattern, the threads and the material. There were early examples of completed painted canvases, too.
