In the last half of the eighteenth century, wealthy New England schoolgirls often displayed their stitching skills by executing elaborately embroidered coats of arms.1 One such object (Fig. 1), likely from Boston and dated between 1790 and 1820, is now in the collection of Winterthur Museum. Much of the surface is elaborately embroidered, but in one location the word “Gold” has been written on the silk ground fabric, partially obscured between the worked shield and garlands (Fig. 2). This presented the distinct possibility that the wording was intended as a color instruction for the embroiderer and was provided by the artist who painted the design. Research suggests that the designs for coats of arms used by schoolgirls were typically chosen from books of heraldry and then a sign painter or artist was employed to reproduce and transfer them to the fabric using paint.2 The presence of the word “Gold” was exciting given that little is known about how the color instruction was relayed to the embroiderer when a design was purchased.
