Embroidery silks can weave fine investment

Do you have an old embroidery sampler at home, however small? Or a tapestry, embroidered or beadwork cushion? Or perhaps a silk embroidered bedspread?

Ms Liz Mansergh, a specialist textiles restorer at Peter Linden's in Blackrock, Co Dublin, says people can invest a lot less money on an embroidery than a painting while the embroidery can appreciate far more. A lot of people, she says, "can't distinguish handmade tapestries - real tapestry - from stuff that's run off on a machine, on a jackard loom". You could pay £500£1,000 for a machine-made tapestry, "but that's just a piece of machine-made cloth so you can imagine that as an investment that's not very shrewd", she says.

The problem with old tapestries is they're usually very big. When they're put up for auction in Ireland, they have often been cut or "cut and shut", that is, bits are removed and then the piece is joined together in a more manageable size. "But those will not be very valuable," Ms Mansergh says.

The most valuable tapestries are "big things that might end up on a castle wall or maybe a boardroom wall" and those can be "very, very expensive - you're probably looking at between £20,000 and £40,000 for one that is complete and in good condition," she says. If you see one for £12,000 you might find after a closer look that "it's missing borders or there's a bit chopped out or it's really only a fragment" and such items, Ms Mansergh says, are "never going to be as valuable".

Meanwhile, suzanis from the last century - colourful handmade bedspreads embroidered in silk - can be worth "from £2,000 up to £20,000 or beyond" depending on their quality and rarity.

Ms Patricia Frost, a textile expert and associate director at Christie's in London, says that embroidered samplers can be valuable. Samplers are small bands of linen often worked with an alphabet and little pictures - of perhaps houses, trees or birds.

"Early samplers are quite sought after," she says. For instance, a mid-17th century sampler measuring 9.5 by 38 inches worked with various bands of different patterns including monkeys, owls and a row of boxers - three little figures fighting each other - in a major Christie's textile sale on February 12th is estimated at £3,000£5,000 sterling (€4,302.3-€7,170.5).

The untutored eye might not recognise it as valuable "but you'd probably find it charming. It's very, very pretty", says Ms Frost.

She believes readers could have valuable samplers at home because young girls in the 19th century used them to practice their sewing skills. Even a simple mid-19th century sampler made by an unknown six-year-old girl could be worth "anything from £100 to £3,000 or £4,000 depending on how pretty it is. The most expensive very early sampler we've sold was around £28,000. There's a big range. If you have something from around 1900 it might be only £50, depending on the quality and the charm of it. The older, the more expensive obviously."

Tapestry cushions tend to fetch £400 to £500 each, she says. Sometimes, if larger tapestries are damaged they're cut down and made into a tapestry cushion. "Good colours, not faded" are an indicator of value. Embroidery cushions also sell well "but make slightly less", while 19th century beadwork cushions - which form pictures made out of glass beadwork - are very popular and tend to make £200£300 each.

Readers can contact textiles experts at: Peter Linden, Georges Avenue, Blackrock, Co Dublin. Telephone: 01 288 5875 or Christie's, King Street, London. Telephone: 0044 171 839 9060.