Hidden for Centuries, Rare 17th-Century Miniature Papercuts Have Been Discovered Under Floorboards in Hackney

a collection of papercuts including a hen embroidered with pink and green, a couple in 17th century dress, a folded star, a fox, a bird, a woman on grass, and two corner texts reading "nightingail" and "an african bird" on a wooden surface

All photos by James Dobson, courtesy of National Trust, shared with permission

For middle and upper-class girls, 17th-century education included lessons in core subjects like reading and writing, along with embroidery, housekeeping, and paper-cutting. The latter craft typically involved using minuscule pairs of scissors, knives, and pins to carve a design from themed books. Girls would then paint the tiny cuttings with watercolor or embroider within their lines before affixing the images to boxes or other decorations, a sign of the maker’s taste and skill.

Volunteers discovered a collection of these miniature artworks at Sutton House, a Tudor home built in 1535 in Hackney that served as a girls’ school in the 17th century. During renovations in the 1980s, construction workers pulled hundreds of textiles, papers, bones, and other objects from the floorboards that were then stored until recently. The findings include a series of delicate papercuts thought to have slipped through the cracks during lessons.

Less than an inch wide in most cases, the works depict a hen stitched with pink and green silk thread, a fox, an elaborately folded star, and a couple donning clothing typical of the period. According to Dr. Isabella Rosner, the papercuts are exceedingly rare given that the craft was just emerging in the U.K. at the time and the material’s delicacy means it rarely survives centuries without intentional preservation.

“We have long known about the role of Sutton House as a girls’ school over its lifetime but with few details about the classes, the pupils, or teaching,” said Kate Simpson, National Trust Senior Collections and House Officer, told artnet. “This discovery brings to vivid life one of the skills that pupils were taught and the painstaking process of handling, cutting, and coloring such tiny pieces of paper.”

If you’re in London, you can see eight of the papercuts at Sutton House through December.

a white hand holding a papercut of a hen embroidered with pink and green