Flora Delanica #8: Marigold (Calendula Officinalis)
by Becky Brown
by Becky Brown
Calendulas, once called Pot Marigolds, are a Mediterranean native. This month we celebrate Mary Delany's "Hive" so the now common garden flower and its pollinators are May's Flora Delanica block.
After her well-loved Irish husband died in 1768 Mary Granville Delany moved back to England to rejoin her circle of friends. She spent summers at her closest friend's home, assisting Margaret Duchess of Portland with the estate's gardens and her collections of shells and botanical specimens.
The Duchess of Portland's favorite home Bulstrode Park was not far from Windsor. Even the King and Queen were envious of the fun and learning that went on in what was called The Hive.
After her well-loved Irish husband died in 1768 Mary Granville Delany moved back to England to rejoin her circle of friends. She spent summers at her closest friend's home, assisting Margaret Duchess of Portland with the estate's gardens and her collections of shells and botanical specimens.
Gothic remodel of Bulstrode Park long after the Hive buzzed there
Margaret Cavendish Harley Bentinck, the Duchess of Portland (1715-1785)
Through a series of inheritances from female fore-bearers and a fortunate marriage, Margaret Bentinck inherited enough to be considered the richest woman in mid-18th-century Britain (Sarah Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough was a rival.) Rather than spending her fortune on frivolity Margaret became a great collector of natural sciences and art. She also maintained a collection of like-minded friends.
Bulstrode house in 1794
From a watercolor by Richard Courbould about 1790
This early house was pulled down and a new one built in 1865.
Becky's Calendua
Mary enjoyed it:
"We live as magnificently as the Prince of Wales, I am as easy as if I was at home, which is charming and very uncommon."
Henrietta Cavendish Holles (1694-1755)
Landscape "View of Bulstrode Park," signed "M Pendarves, 1741"
Mary drew landscapes most of her life, telling her sister
they were the easiest things to draw.
They have nothing of the finesse of her papercuts.
Marigold by Ilyse Moore
After her mother died Margaret inherited Bulstrode and she and Mary grew closer.
Margaret commissioned this box with Mary's portrait on the top
when they were in their early middle age.
Portraits of four members of The Hive; Mary referred to them as "the Hivites" in a 1755 letter. Clockwise from top left, Elizabeth Robinson Montagu, unknown, Mary Delany, Margaret Duchess of Portland. The unknown woman in the white dress looks like Anne Donnellen but might be another Hivite.
#8: Marigold (Calendula Officinalis)
by Nancy Phillips
by Nancy Phillips
Mary described the widows' recreation:
"We have variety of amusements..." reading [although the Duchess did not like novels so no frivolous novel reading], working, drawing, billiards, looking over prints, cribbage, four meals a day, playing with the children.
Nancy's Calendula
"Working" meant doing needlework, which might be plain sewing of clothing for the family or the poor or fancywork, forms of embroidery.
Applique on the diagonal to an square cut 10-1/2" or on the vertical center of a rectangle cut 9-1/2" x 12-1/2".
Create a word file or a new empty JPG file that is 8-1/2" x 11".
And join our Facebook Group: MaryDelanyQuilts:
Marigold (Calendula Officinalis) by Mary Delaney
British Museum
https://www.bmimages.com/preview.asp?image=01060990001&itemw=200&itemf=0001&itemstep=1&itemx=23
The Block
#8 Calendula
One Way to Print the Pattern:
Create a word file or a new empty JPG file that is 8-1/2" x 11".
Click on the image above.
Right click on it and save it to your file.
Print that file out 8-1/2" x 11". Note the inch square block for reference.
Adjust the printed page size if necessary.
Right click on it and save it to your file.
Print that file out 8-1/2" x 11". Note the inch square block for reference.
Adjust the printed page size if necessary.
More detail in the negative
#8: Marigold by Barbara Brackman
I let the fabric do a lot of the drawing.
A Little More Mary Delany
Mock Orange
William Gilpin who influenced "picturesque" garden design described Mary Delany's methods:
"She pulls the flower in pieces, examines anatomically the structure of its leaves, stems, and buds, and having cut her papers to the shape of the several parts, she puts them together....by laying one piece over another."
Further Reading
Read more about the Duchess here:
And this biography: Duchess of Curiosities: The Life of Margaret, Duchess of Portland by Rebecca Stott.
Ilyse's Calendula
Recent interpretation of the Hive: "Collecting the World: Female Friendship and Domestic Craft at Bulstrode Park," by Madeleine Pelling.
Thank you. I was a little slow this time!
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