If you watched the television serialisation of Jane Austen’s Emma, you probably have a vivid picture of the kind of society in which many of the samplers on display in Witney Antiques were made. Regular readers of my features in Limited Edition know that I enjoy antiques for the narrative that comes with them. Take the Bayeux Tapestry, where described in stitches is the tale of the Battle of Hastings, from the viewpoint of the Norman conquerors. It takes only a little imagination to weave stories about the lives of the women who made it.

Joy and Stephen Jarrett like to do just that, to extensively research the background to their stock. It is not surprising that they are regarded as experts in the field of historic embroidery. All the fine examples in their stock, as well as in this show, were embroidered by girls and young women; where they differ is their circumstances and social background. They also vary in skill but even the most exceptional are regarded as craft. So I find myself asking: “Why are they ‘craft ‘and not ‘art’?”

If those young women had used a pen or brush would they be art? Is it the use of a needle that makes it craft; or is it because the makers were female? A great contemporary male artist, who has a female alter ego, Grayson Perry, has just completed his acclaimed Walthamstow Tapestry and wonderful it is. So maybe it will mark the beginning of a re-assessment of the medium.

Joy Jarrett is certainly a champion of embroidery. She says: “This is our 17th annual exhibition and the aim of this one is to reflect the talent of the many teachers of the subject over a period between three and four hundred years.”

The teachers. for the most part. remain anonymous, whereas their pupils embroidered their names proudly on the piece. Joy explains.

“It is an exhibition about a most important aspect of the education of young women from the mid-17th century to the third quarter of the 19th century. Through the needle, feminine virtues were impressed on the young minds.”

Admission to this selling exhibition, Tis Education Forms the Common Mind, is free. Witney Antiques is at 96-100 Corn Street, Witney, OX28 6BU (www.witneyantiques.com)