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Overview
Ethel Brilliana Tweedie - adventurer, writer, needlewoman and hostess
These embroidered table-cloths were created by Ethel Brilliana Tweedie, a successful journalist, novelist, travel writer and artist, who loved to entertain and embroider.
Based in London, Ethel first began collecting signatures as a newly wed in 1887. Following her marriage to Alexander (Alec) Tweedie, a marine insurance broker, the well-heeled couple 'began at once giving many dinners, luncheons and other functions' at their Regent's Park home. Emboldened by the 'precocity of youth', Ethel 'conceived the idea of coaxing the many delightful men and women of note who dined with us to pencil their signatures upon the table slips.' She then embroidered over their names and sketches, including portraits, animals and even a machine gun, in brilliant red thread.
A who's who of London
The cloths record the names of some of the most talented people of the period - artists, singers, actors, writers, politicians, scientists, military men and explorers, all of whom dined at the Tweedie home. Famous names include writers J.M Barrie, Bram Stoker and H G Wells, inventors Hiram Maxim and Guglielmo Marconi, artists Walter Crane, John Lavery and Linley Sambourne, and explorers Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott and Mary Kingsley just to name a handful.
The majority of signatures were colleced between 1887 and 1896. Alec Tweedie died in 1896, and following his death Ethel could no longer afford to entertain in quite the same way. To assist her position, Ethel took up her pen and 'became a professional scribbler'. Once back on a firmer financial footing, Ethel began to entertain again, albeit on a smaller scale, and the table-cloths came out again.
Sweet memories
In 1916 Ethel Tweedie published a book on her signature cloths entitled My Table-Cloths; A Few Reminiscences. The book includes lists of the signatories, along with tales of the many guests who swapped stories, ideas and opinions at her lively dinner table.
Ethel wrote My Table-Cloths during wartime. The book is dedicated to her son Leslie who was killed in action in January, 1916. As a child he used to sit beside her as she stitched the cloth. She concludes My Table-Cloths with the following words:
'And now we must fold up the roll of friendship, pregnant with sweet memories, and slip it away into a drawer, between lavender bags and rose leaves, to rest in peace till happier days when a great universal peace shall o'verspread the world, and men and women will seek to build empires and not destroy them. Lie still, dear table cloth of cherished memories.'