c. 1896

Ecclesiastical Embroidery

The artist and illustrator Walter Crane may have designed this embroidery for the Church of the Ark of the Covenant in London. Crane was an artist of the Arts and Crafts movement, which began in Britain under the leadership of the artist and writer William Morris (1834–1896). The movement responded to the uninventive mass-produced embroideries of the period and called for a return to traditional craft methods. Crane’s embroidery contains illustrated passages from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer that call for Earth’s creatures to praise God.