Chimney piece with images of Adam and Eve. Artist: Unknown. Culture: American. Dimensions: 16 × 38 in. (40.6 × 96.5 cm). Date: ca. 1760.Eighteenth-century embroideries wider than they are tall, like this one, were called "chimneypieces" because they were meant to be hung above a parlor mantel, a place of honor. The prominent display of this type of schoolgirl needlework signaled that the young lady of the home had been well educated and was ready to become an accomplished wife. The designs found on chimneypieces were usually derived from European print sources; in this case, scenes from the story of Adam and Eve were adapted from prints of paintings in the renowned collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria. The Hapsburg archduke was patron to Flemish artist David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690), who was charged with overseeing the publication of Leopold Wilhelm's collection of Italian paintings. The resulting volume, called the Theatrum Pictorium (1660), was the first illustra