Anna Šenšelová's Embroidery Sampler, traditional Slovak folk embroideries.

Embroidery Sampler.

These embroideries are not the work of one woman. They are the work of our entire nation. Perhaps some of them were stitched by your grandmother, and you don't even know it. I look at every precise stitch with the same admiration I once felt in galleries, when I would press as close as I could to famous paintings and try to imagine how the painters worked. I want to get that close to these embroideries too. I picture the hands that worked by candlelight in the evenings, stitching for hours on end. And I picture the women, men and children who wore them as part of their everyday identity.

Thanks to what I have learned about my ancestors and the family Anna Šenšelová came from, I also find myself thinking about the story of these pieces. Where did they come from? Who looked at them, admired them, talked about them? Were they hidden away in a box somewhere, or did they serve as patterns and inspiration for garments from the Lipa workshop? Did Anna Šenšelová admire them alone, or did the eyes of other important figures in Martin's cultural life fall on them too? We will probably never know, but just wondering about it fills me with delight. I am grateful to be able to share them with you and give these embroideries a new life.

These embroidered fragments come from the estate of Anna Šenšelová. Tamara Šimončíková Heribanová, Stanislav Talapka, Zuzana Tajek Piešová and Michal Halabrín generously helped me with identification. We have tried to identify each piece as precisely as possible, though some questions remain. Do you recognise any of the embroideries, or do you have additional information? I would be eternally grateful if you got in touch. Every detail helps.

Click on an embroidery to see the photographs and description

Oblasť Bošáca/Moravské Lieskové/Horné Srnie

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