Name/Title
Tablecloth: Herb Garden 450Description
A Country Prints sales sample retained as a print record. This sample bears a hanging loop for showroom display.
A tablecloth with a three-color silkscreen print on white linen depicting stylized herb plants and tree branches in support of lyrics from a folk song with many titles sung by Jean Ritchie, an early folk song revivalist. Ritchie won a Fulbright scholarship to study the link between American, Irish and English fold songs; see web links for biography and complete lyrics.
The four edges of the tablecloth are bordered in stylized herb plants. In opposite corners are repeated two stanzas from the song set amongst rows of herbs:
“be sure to keep your garden clean, let no one take you thyme, my thyme is all gone away, I can not plant anew, and in the place where my thyme stood, is all grown up in rue.”
“in june comes in the primrose flower, but that is not for me, come all ye goodly fair young maids who flourish in your prime, be sure to keep your garden clean, let no one take your time.”
At center is a rounded square medallion formed by a curving branch ringed by the song lyric, “be sure to keep your garden clean, let no one take your thyme”, repeated twice in script.
This tablecloth appears in the c.1955 brochure “Country Prints Mat Sets and Luncheon Squares by Robert Darr Wert”. The description states, “From one of the earliest collected folk ballads comes this design in soft Greens and Rose on White”. A matching tile was also produced; see images.
This is one of the first three tablecloth designs produced by Country Prints. A c.1955 price list trumpets the recent debut, “Long awaited and now being enthusiastically received, they are pure linen, 52” x 52”. They are air dried in our tall silo after hand printing. All priced at $7.00 each [retail].”Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Robert Darr WertRole
ArtistManufacturer
Country PrintsDate made
circa 1954Time Period
20th CenturyPlace
Location
Gill MA.Continent
North AmericaInscription/Signature/Marks
“robert darr wert by hand” in script with red outlined heart.Material
Bleached Linen, Textile InkColor
Green, Dark Green, Dark Pink
