Angel with Lighted Lamp
This piece is by an English artist named Grace Christie. It’s an embroidered panel called “Angel with Lighted Lamp.”
This piece is one of the original objects selected for the Art Museum, whose first exhibit actually went up in 1930, when the Cranbrook Art Museum was just one room the Art Academy’s administration building. George purchased this piece from the DSAC in 1919. Christie was a renowned designer, teacher, and writer of embroidery. She wrote a well-known technical manual called Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving in which she said this: “In the practice of embroidery, the needlewoman has an advantage not now shared by workers in any other craft, in that the technical processes are almost a matter of inherited skill. Every woman can sew, and it is with little more than the needle and thread, which she habitually employs, that the greatest masterpieces of art have been stitched.” She wrote this in 1906. She was more well-known by the name Mrs. Archibald H. Christie.
Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (founded 1906)
Founded on June 26, 1906, the Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts provided an environment where artists, craftsmen, architects, and designers could share ideas and coordinate activities to raise the level of American craftsmanship. Out of their showroom, works by major craftsmen active in Europe and America were exhibited and sold. George Booth was not only one of the founders of the Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts, but also its first president.
The Society’s showroom operated from 1916, when it opened a new building on Watson Street in Detroit, until 1958, when the mission of the Society shifted toward design education (the Art School of the Society of Arts and Crafts had been established in 1926). George Booth worked closely with the Society’s Secretary Helen Plumb sourcing objects for display and sale in the showroom; George Booth also filled his home, Cranbrook House, with items he purchased or commissioned for the showroom. Beyond George Booth, Ellen and the entire Booth family patronized the Society’s showroom for gifts and furnishings for their respective homes. The Booth family continued support of the Society well into the second half of the 20th century, as it reincorporated as the Center for Creative Studies - College of Art and Design (1975 to 2001) and later the College for Creative Studies (2001-present).
Kevin Adkisson
Curator
Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research
November 2021
Width: 7 1/2 in (19.1 cm)
ProvenanceGrace Christie (before 1920)
Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (1920-1921)
George G. Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth (1920-1948)
George G. Booth (1948-1949)
Cranbrook Foundation (1949-1973)
Cranbrook Educational Community (1973-present)
Credit LineCranbrook Center for Collections and Research
Cultural Properties Collection, Founders Collection
Bequest of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth through the Cranbrook Foundation.
Medium | MaterialsEmbroidered panel with silk; metallic threads
GenreObject TypeTextiles (visual works); Embroidery (visual works)
Alternate Title(s)
- Untitled (Angel Textile)
Select Bibliography and Archival Citation(s)"No. 41," Catalogue: Exhibition of British Arts and Crafts Assembled by the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, 1921 November 24-1921 December 24, Series 6 Subseries 1, Box: RG5.0-2008.003, Folder: 21. Corcoran Gallery of Art and Corcoran College of Art + Design, Corcoran Gallery of Art curatorial office records, COR0005.0-RG. Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University. https://searcharchives.library.gwu.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/459243 Accessed March 11, 2025.
Cranbrook Museum Art Collection (1924). George G. Booth Papers, 1981-01, Box 24-10, pg 92. Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
Cranbrook Museum Art Collection (1930). George Gough Booth Papers (1981-01). Box 24:18. Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
"Cranbrook Museum Art Collection 1 thru 399." (1944) George Gough Booth Papers (1981-01). Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
Appraisal by Stalker & Boos (1975). Series II: Appraisals and Inventories. George Gough and Ellen Warren Scripps Booth Financial Records (1981-02). Cranbrook Archives, Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research, Bloomfield Hills, MI.
