For almost 20 years, Witney Antiques have held an autumn exhibition of exquisite English embroideries, attracting visitors from as far afield as Japan and the USA — not surprising, given the quality of their shows. Over 45 years, they have established a worldwide reputation, as experts in the field, with museums as well as private individuals as clients. Founders Stephen and Joy Jarrett are now joined in their showroms at Corn Street, Witney, by their daughter, Rebecca Scott.

Among treasures on display are rare band samplers dating from the age of Charles I, map and darning samplers, and examples worked by girls as young as seven — truly the “products of a youthful mind”.

Sampler making was a popular pursuit for female children of the gentry for whom it was a social accomplishment. For the poor, skill with the needle could be a means to domestic employment — where the ability to make and mend household linen was necessary. The sampler illustrated was worked more than 250 years ago, in the early years of the reign of George II. The charming scene depicts a fashionably dressed shepherd and shepherdess together with their flock and a dog.

What is different this year is the involvement of Oriental rug dealers Christopher and Angela Legge whose shop is in Summertown. Woven Flowers — Oriental Carpets and Textiles contains examples from the main weaving areas of Iran through to Central and Southeast Asia. Among their exhibits are an excellent Tekke carpet made by women of a major Turkoman tribe in the first half of the 19th century. It has the distinctive ‘guls’ (meaning ‘flowers’) representing the respective tribe.

A highlight is a 19th-century silk Ikat Chapan from Uzbekistan. Ikat are extremely complicated weaves, in which the silk warps are tie-dyed in separate dying processes for each individual colour and then woven with the weft in either cotton or silk to produce these stunning designs. This example is quilted, with beautiful Russian block-printed cotton lining, and would have been worn by a person of high standing, possibly as the outer layer of coats — there might have been up to six in all, according to rank.

John Howard, of Heritage, Woodstock, is displaying British pottery figures in a show called If These Pots Could Talk. John’s ceramics certainly have tales to tell. Staffordshire figures were a means of visually passing on stories, historical, biblical and sensational, to ordinary people, before the age of film and television. Witney Antiques’ exhibitions are always worth seeing but this year we have a triple treat. All three firms are international experts in their fields.

The exhibition runs until Sunday, October 30, from 10am-5pm. Admission is free and everyone will feel welcome.

Witney Antiques is at 96-100 Corn Street, OX28 6BU. Tel. 01993 703902