Flora MacDonald's prayer book

Jacobite

“Little Office of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary” prayer book. Originally bound in plain card it has decorated with an intricate design of woven coloured straw. Published by Joachim Carlier at St Omer Audomari in 1672, the prayer book was one of the most popular devotions of the Roman Catholic laity before the Reformation. The prayer book belonged to Flora MacDonald’s mother and was used by Flora. The straw decoration is rare, the only known examples of similar works of books decorated with woven straw found in the United Kingdom date from a later period and were made by Napoleonic prisoners of war.

Material: paper, straw

Size: L 76 mm x W 51 mm

Sources: West Highland Museum