E-text prepared by Susan Skinner
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(/c/)
Hils, Dales, Plaines, Pastures, Skies, Seas, Rivers, Trees,
There's nothing neere at hand, or farthest sought,
But with the needle may be shap'd and wrought."
—John Taylor ("The Praise of the Needle").
SECOND EDITION REVISED
(A reprint of the First Edition, with various slight alterations
in text)
THIRD EDITION REVISED
(A reprint of the Second Edition)
THE ARTISTIC CRAFTS SERIES
OF TECHNICAL HANDBOOKS
EDITED BY W. R. LETHABY
EMBROIDERY AND TAPESTRY
WEAVING
EMBROIDERY AND
TAPESTRY WEAVING
A PRACTICAL TEXT-BOOK OF
DESIGN AND WORKMANSHIP BY
MRS. ARCHIBALD H. CHRISTIE
WITH DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR
AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS
PUBLISHED BY JOHN HOGG
13 PATERNOSTER ROW
LONDON 1912
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
[Pg xi]
EDITOR'S PREFACE
Needlework, which is still practised traditionally in every house, wasonce a splendid art, an art in which English workers were especiallyfamous, so that, early in the XIIIth century, vestments embroidered inEngland were eagerly accepted in Rome, and the kind of work wrought herewas known over Europe as "English Work." Embroideries façond'Angleterre often occupy the first place in foreign inventories.
At Durham are preserved some beautiful fragments of embroidery worked inthe Xth century, and many examples, belonging to the great period of theXIIIth and XIVth centuries, are preserved at the South KensingtonMuseum, which is particularly rich in specimens of this art. In order to[Pg xii]judge of what were then its possibilities it is worth while to go andsee there three notable copes, the blue cope, the Sion cope, and therose-colour Jesse-tree cope, the last two of which are certainlyEnglish, and the former probably so. The Sion cope bears a remnant of aninscription which has unfortunately been cut down and otherwise injured,so that all that I have been able to read is as follows: DAVN PERS : DE : V ...; probably the name of the donor.
In the XIIIth century the craft of embroidery was practised both by menand women.
That great art patron, Henry the Third, chiefly employed for hisembroideries, says Mr. Hudson Turner, "a certain Mabel of Bury St.Edmund's, whose skill as an embroideress seems to have been remarkable,and many interesting records of