A CHARLES II EMBROIDERED STUMPWORK PANEL 17TH CENTURY The ivory ground finely embroidered in coloured silks and metal threads with a raised work noble family to the centre, beneath a raised and padded work mansion, and above a mermaid bathing amongst sea creatures in a watery grotto, all surrounded by large raised and padded work flowers, domestic and wild beasts, birds, insects the panel approximately 32 x 45.5cm, the later glazed frame 45 x 59cmProvenance:Property of a deceased estate in Merseyside. Probably originally hung at Balls Park, Hertford, the property of Sir Lionel Faudel-Phillips. This lot belongs to a small but distinct set of mid-17th century stumpwork panels characterised by the inclusion of a small scene of a mermaid bathing. Often, as with this lot, they illustrate the mermaid regarding herself in a hand-mirror. This motif seems to have been drawn from bestiaries and earlier psalters- with the suggestion that as 'femme fatales' the mirror is present as the mermaid grooms herself to appear more comely to approaching sailors.For similar please see an example (with a tail-less mermaid) in the Art Design and Fashion gallery, National Museum of Scotland. Also Metropolitan Museum, tortoiseshell framed embroidered mirror depicting Jael and Barak C.1672, Mrs. Thomas J. Watson Gift, 1939 (Accession Number: 39.13.2a).