Needlework as art

Front matter

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Digitized by

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Preface

In the Preface to the " Handbook of Art Needlework," which I edited for the Royal School at South Kensington in 1880, I undertook to write a second part, to be devoted to design, colour, and the common-sense modes of treating decorative art, as applied especially to embroidered hangings, furniture, dress, and the smaller objects of luxury.

Circumstances have, since then, obliged me to reconsider this intention ; and I have found it more practicable to cast the information which I have collected from Eastern and Western sources into the form of a separate work, which in no way supersedes or interferes with the technical instruction supposed to be conveyed in a handbook. I have found so much amusement in learning for myself the history of the art of embroidery, and in tracing the beginnings and the interchanges of national schools, that I cannot but hope that I may excite a similar interest in some of my readers, and so induce those who are capable, to help and lift it to a higher place than it has been allowed in these latter days to occupy. If I have given too important a position to the art of needlework, I would observe that while I have been writing, decorative embroidery has come to the front, and is at this moment one of the hobbies of the day ; and I would point out that it contains in itself all the

VllI

Preface.

necessary elements of art ; it may exercise the imagination and the fancy ; it needs education in form, colour, and composition, as well as the craft of a practised hand, to express its language and perfect its beauty.

I confess that when I undertook this task, I did not anticipate the time I have had to spend in collecting and epitomizing the many notices to be found in German, French, and English authors, on what has been considered among us, at least in this century, as merely a secondary art, and therefore, as such, of little importance. Cursory notices of needlework are scattered through almost every book on art ; and under the head of textiles it is usual to find embroidery acknowledged as being worthy of notice, though not to be named in company with sculpture, architecture, or painting, however beautifully or thoughtfully its works may be carried out. I have tried to show that it deserves higher estimation.

My first intention was simply to consider Style, good or bad, as it influences our embroidery of to-day, and to find some rules by which to guide that of the future in its next phase. But when we search into the fluctuations of style, and their causes, we find they have an historical succession, and that we must begin at the beginning and trace them through the life of mankind.

This led me to attempt a sketch of consecutive styles, their overlap and variations.

I then found that Design, Patterns, Stitches, Materials, each require a separate study.

Colour, as applied to dyes, claims to be regarded as differing from pigments on the painter's palette.

Hangings, Dress, and Ecclesiastical Embroideries each require different rules, and the study of the best examples of past centuries. Finally, it seems natural to dwell on our own proficiency in decorative work. English Embkoidkrv has always excelled ; and, as we

Preface.

have again returned to this occupation, it is worth while to recollect what we have done of old.

In writing chapters on these subjects, I have found it most convenient to separate the historical and aesthetic questions from the technical rules, and the instruction which naturally belongs to a handbook, of which the purpose should be to teach the easiest and most orthodox manner of executing the simplest, and elaborating the finest works. Such questions ought not to be overlaid with archaeological inquiries, or with the information which only profits the designer ; though of course it is best that the knowledge of design should be part of the education of the craft.

Perhaps I may be found to have written a book too shallow for the learned, too deep for the frivolous, .too technical for the general public, and too diffuse for the specialist of the craft.'

I must deprecate these criticisms by saying that I have written it for the benefit of those who know nothing of the art, and are too much engaged to seek information here and there ; who yet, being women, have to select and to execute ornamental needlework ; or, being artists, are vexed at the incongruities and want of intention in the decorations in daily domestic use ; I have also sought to help the designer, that he or she may know something of the history of patterns and stitches.

' Besides the art, I have sought to give something of the archaeology of needlework. Now the qualifications for being a teacher on such subjects are rarely to be met with, all combined. Mr. Newton, in his "Essays on Art and Archaeology," p. 37, says that "the archaeologist should combine with the aesthetic culture of the artist, and the trained judgment of the historian and the philologist, that critical acumen, required for classification and interpretation ; nor should that habitual suspicion which must ever attend the scrutiny and precede the warranty of evidence, give too sceptical a bias to his mind." Such authorities have been interrogated on each part of my subject.

X

Preface.

If my readers should be aware of repetitions, they must forgive them ; remembering that the same idea has to be looked at sometimes trom a different point of view, according to the use to which it is to be fitted. The same material may be employed for wall-hangings and dress, and then the principles which have been formulated have to be varied. I do not shrink from repetitions if they make my meaning clear, remembering the Duke of Wellington's direction to his private secretary, " Never mind repetitions ; and dot your i's."

Portions of these chapters have been already published in No. 49 of the Nineteenth Centtiry^ in 1881 ; and more was delivered in three unpublished lectures the same year.

I have acknowledged and noted on each page my authorities for the facts I have quoted. The illustrations that are not original, have been copied from other works by permission of authors and publishers. To all of these I wish to express my obligations and thanks, especially to Mr. Villiers Stuart, Dr. Anderson, Sir G. Birdwood, and Sir H. Layard, for their courtesy in allowing me the use of their plates. To my old and valued friend, Mr. Newton, I wish to express my gratitude for his unstinted gifts of time and trouble, bestowed in criticizing and correcting my book, encouraging me to give it to the public, and making it more worthy of publication.

I have largely quoted Charles Blanc (" Ornament in Dress," English translation), Von Bock (" Liturgische Gewander "j, Dr. Rock (" The Church of our Fathers " and " Introduction to Textiles"), Semper (" Der Stil"), Yates (" Textrinum Antiquorum "), and Yule (" Marco Polo"), besides many others. But these authorities often differ, and, after weighing their arguments, I have ventured to select for my use the facts and theories ' Quoted by permission of the Editor.

Preface.

XI which accord with my own views. Facts are often so interdependent and closely linked, that it requires great care to distinguish where they have been shaped or coloured (however unintentionally) to fit each other or the writer's preconceived ideas. Certain it is that facts are but useless heaps till the thread of a theory is found on which to hang them. This process, like that of stringing pearls, has to be often repeated, till each occupies its right place. Only those who have adopted and cherished a theory can appreciate the pain of cutting the thread, to displace what appeared to be a pearl, but which, from its false position as to date or place, or its doubtful origin, has proved only an empty manufactured glass bead of error.

This has happened to me more than once ; and since I read my lectures I have had to change my opinions in several instances. If, therefore, any of my readers should observe such changes, I hope they will give me credit for trying to convey now what appears to me on each subject a correct impression.

Chapter I.— Style

Definition of style — Development of style— Primitive — Archaic — Egyptian — Babylonian — Phoenician influences on early Greek style — Decoration of hangings of the Tabernacle in the wilderness— Aryan ideas — The Code of Manu — Indian art — Celtic style— Greek art in dress and embroideries — Homer's descriptions of embroideries — Pallas Athene— Shield of Achilles — Roman art — Byzantine art — Art of Central Asia — Its arrival in Europe — Art of China, Japan, and Java — Christian art — Scandinavian art — The Dark Ages — Sicilian textile art— Renaissance — Arabesque— Grotesque — Spanish Plateresque— Style of Queen Anne and the Chippendales — Louis XV. style— Classical revival— Young England's style- Nineteenth century style .......

Chapter Ii.— Design

Artist and artisan — Prehistoric design — Naturalistic design — Egyptian immutability— Slow evolution of design — Greek perfection — Necessity of following rules — M. Blanc's laws of ornamentation—Laws of composition— Repetition— Alternation — Symmetry— Progression — Confusion — Designs for hangings and dress materials — Floral design — Design for carpets — The conventional— First principles .......

Chapter III —patterns

Ancestry of patterns — Classification — Their historical value — Primitive patterns — The wave — Tartan — Prehistoric African patterns — The naturalistic — Flowers— Shells — Indian forms of naturalistic patterns — Egyptian — The lotus— Sunflower — Celtic Zoomorphic patterns — The human figure on Greek textiles — Animal forms in Oriental patterns — Symbolical and conventional patterns — The wave patterns — The palm leaf — The cone — Gothic — Arab — Moresque — The Sacred Hom— Egg and tongue — The cross — Swastika — Fylfote — Gamma-

XIV

Contents.

dion — The crenelated pattern — The Ninevite daisy — Emblematic patterns— Bestiaria — V olucraria — Lapidaria — Byzantine patterns — Gothic— Renaissance — The cloud pattern — The fundata — Italian — French patterns — Radiated patterns — The shell — Patterns by repetition — Balcony pattern — Chinese wicker-work — Survival of a pattern — Opus Alexandrinum — Quilting patterns

Chapter Iv.— Materials

Raw materials — Revelations of the microscope — Hemp — Jute — Honduras grass — Spartum — Pinna silk — Hair — Leather — • Feathers — Asbestos — Coral — Pearls — Beads — Wool — Classical notices of wool— Careful improvement of wool by the ancients — Tanaquil — Homeric woollen carpets — Crimson textile fragments — Scandinavian woollen garments — Qualities of wool — English wool — Goats' hair — Flax — Lake cities — Byssus — Fine linen of Egypt— The Atrebates — Embroidery on linen — Cotton — Indian origin — Carbasa — Buckram — Cotton fabrics — Gold — Silver — Gold brocades — Jewish — Indian — Chinese — Dress of Darius — Attains — Attalic textiles — Agrippina's golden garments — St. Cecilia's mantle — Roman tombs — Gold wire — Anglo-Saxon tomb — Childeric's tomb — Proba's gold thread — Golden wrappings from tombs of Henry I. and Henry III. — Gold embroideries and jewellers' work of Middle Ages — Spangles — Enamels — Purl — Modern schools of gold embroidery— Silk — Pamphile of Cos — Early specimens of silk stuffs — Chinese silks — The Seres — Mela — Seneca^ — M. Terrien de la Couperie — Empress Si-hng-chi — Princess of Khotan — ■ Euripides — Lucan — Pliny — Silk in Rome — Elius Lampridius — Flavins Vopiscus — Tailor's bill — Justinian's codex — Imperial monopoly — Paul the Silentiary — Bede — King John's apparition— Greek and Sicilian manufactories of silk — Distinctive marks of different periods — Lyons — Spain — Italy — Flemish towns — Marco Polo— Satin — Welsh poem, " Lady of the Fountain ' — Chaucer — Velvet — Transference of work to new materials

CHAPTER v.— COLOUR

Harmony and dissonance — Names of tints — Authorities for theories — Art of colouring — Expression of colouring — Purple — Red — Crimson — Blue — Yellow — Pliny — Renouf— Chinese colours —Indian dyes — Persian colours — Dyes of the Gauls — Romans

Contents.

XV

— Scotch — Scales of colour — MM. Charton and Chevreuil on tones of colour — Gas colours . . . . . -175

Chapter Vi.— Stitches

Stitches — Part I. : The needle — Gammer Gurton's needle — Art of needlework — Lists of stitches — Part II. : Plain work — The seam — Mrs. Floyer — White embroidery — Nuns' work — Greek • — German — Spanish — Italian white work — Semper's rules for white work — Part III. : Opus Phrygium — Gold embroideries ■ — Part IV. : Opus pulvinarium — Cushion stitches — Mosaic stitches — Traditional decorations from Chaldea and Assyria — ■ German and Italian pattern-books — Part V. : Opus plumarium — The Plumarii — Feather-work of India — Islands of the Pacific — African work — Mexican and Peruvian — Cluny triptych— Mitre of St. Charles Borromeo — Essay by Denis — Chinese and Japanese feather-stitches — Part VI. : Opus consutum or cut work — Patchwork — Egyptian and Greek examples ■ — Irish cut work— Chaucer — Francis I.'s hangings at Cluny — - Lord Beauchamp's curtains — Spanish examples — Remarks — Art of application — Part VII. : Lace — Opus filatorium — Mrs. Palliser — M. Blanc — Guipure — Sir Gardiner Wilkinson- Netted lace — Homer — Solomon's Temple — Bobbin laces — Yak — Coloured laces — Venetian sumptuary laws — Golden laces — Point d'Alengon — Mr. A. Cole's lectures — M. Urban de Gheltoff on Venice laces — Lace stitches — Revival of lace school at Burano — English laces — Part VIII. : Tapestry — Opus pectineum — Modes of weaving tapestry — Its great antiquity — Egyptian looms — Albert Castet on tapestries — Homeric pictureweaving — Arachnse — A paraphrase by Lord Houghton — Nometicum — Sidonius Apollinaris — Saracenic weaving — Arras — Brussels — Italian tapestries from Florence, Milan, and Mantua — French tapestries — Cluny Museum collection — Gobelins — Beauvais — English tapestry — Comnenus — Matthew Paris — Early trade with Arras — Coventry tapestries — Chaucer — Tapestry " of verd " — Hatfield tapestries — Armada tapestries— Sir F. Crane — Mortlake manufactory — Francis Cleyne — Raphael cartoons — Percy tapestry from Lambeth . . .194

CHAPTER VIL— HANGINGS.

Classical hangings — Babylonian and Persian — Semper's theory — Sanctuary in the wilderness — St. Peter's at Rome — Abulfeda — Akbar's tent — Nadir Shah's tent — Tent of Khan of Persia—

XVI

CONTKNTS.

Tents of Alexander the Great at Alexandria — Roman hangings — Funeral pyres— Kosroe's tent — Semper's rules for hanging decorations — Ancient carpets — English and French hangings — Rules for designs of hangings ...... 260

Chapter Viii.— Furniture

Penelope's couch — Chaldean furnished house — The bed— Earl of Leicester's inventories — State apartment of Alessandri Palace — Indian embroideries for furniture — The sofa and chair — The footstool — Furniture stitches — The table cover — The screen — Book covers — Morris on furniture ..... 280

Chapter Ix.— Dress

Art of dress — Ancient splendour — Persian, Greek, and Roman — Indian — Homeric — Early Christian — Charlemagne's mantle and robe — Objects of dress — Embroidered garments . . 294

Chapter X.— Ecclesiastical Embroidery

Christian art — Dark ages — Greek and Roman ecclesiastical dress — Northern influence — Continuity of ecclesiastical art — Authorities— Anglo-Saxon orthodox colours — Veils of the Temple — Hangings in Pagan temples and Christian churches — Russian use of veils — Art in the early Church — Rare examples— Destruction by the iconoclasts — Early embroiderers — Empress Helena — Bertha, mother of Charlemagne — His dalmatic — Pluvial of St. Silvester — Pluvial of museum at Bologna — Daroca cope — Cope of Boniface VIII. — Style of the twelfth century — Mantle of St. Stephen of Hungary — Kunigunda's work for Henry II. — The Romanesque — Movement perfecting Gothic art, thirteenth century — Opus Anglicanum — Syon cope — Embroidery on the stamp — Pictures in flat stitches — Flemish work — Renaissance — Work of some royal ladies — French — Spanish — Sicilian and Neapolitan — German work — Sacred symbolism — Melito's "The Key" — Mystical colours — Prehistoric cross — Many forms of the cross — The roes — The chrysoclavus — Modern decoration — Principles and motives for church embroideries — The altar-cloth — The reredos — The pulpit and reading-desk — The ancient Paschal — The banner of St. Cuthbert — The fringe — Lay heraldry of the Church — South Kensington Museum . 303

Contents.

xvii

CHAPTER XL— ENGLISH EMBROIDERY.

First glimpse of art in England — Dyeing and weaving in Britain in early times — Caesar's invasion — Roman civilization — Anglo- Saxon times and art — Adhelme's poem — Icelandic Sagas — Saga or story of Thorgunna — English work in the eighth century — The Benedictines — Durham embroideries — Aelfled — St. Dunstan — Queen Emma's work — William of Poitou — The Bayeux tapestry— Abbess of Markgate — Gifts to Pope Adrian IV. — Robes of Thomas h Becket at Sens — Innocent III. — English pre-eminence in needlework from the Conquest to the Reformation— John Garland on hand-looms — Blode bendes and lacs d'amour — Opus Anglicanum — -English peculiarities in ecclesiastical design — Penalties against luxury in dress — Protection the bane of art — Dunstable pall — Stoneyhurst cope — Destruction of fine works at the Reformation— Much on the Continent, much collected in our old Catholic houses — Field of the Cloth of Gold — Mary Tudor's Spanish stitches — Queen Elizabeth's embroideries — Institution of Embroiderers' Company — East India Company — Oriental taste discouraged on Protectionist grounds — Decay of the art in England — Style of James I. — Dutch style — Cushion stitches — Miss Linwood — Miss Moritt — Mrs. Delany — Mrs. Pawsey — Postscript — Revival of the art of needlework — " Royal School of Art Needlework " 350

Appendix

I. Charles T. Newton on Votive Dresses .... 400 II. The Moritzburg Feather Hangings . . . . .401

III. The Story of Arachne, translated by Earl Cowper . . 402

IV. Charlemagne's Dalmatic, by Lord Lindsay . . . 405

V. Notices of various Mediaeval Embroideries by the Hon.

and Rev. W. Ignatius Clifford . . . 407

VI. Syon Cope, Rock's Introduction, " Textile Fabrics " . 408 VII. Assyrian Fringes . . . . . .412

VIII. Hrothgar's House Furniture : Poem of Beowulf , .412

IX. Thorgunna, by Sir G. Dasent 413

X. Pedigree of Aelswith . . . . . . -414

XI. Statutes at Large . . .. . . . . -414 a

CUTS.

Page.'

20 Egyptian corselet. Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," p. 332.

25 Tabernacle of Balawat. Temp. Salmaneser. British Museum.

30 Zoomorphic Celtic pattern.

32 Pallas Athene attired in the sacred peplos. Panathenaic vase, British Museum.

62 Wave pattern.

63 Key pattern.

63 Metopes and triglyphs.

73 Persian carpet. Egyptian symbolic patterns.

91 Gothic sunflower. R. S. A. N.

98 Wave.

104 Egyptian ally and enemy. Temp. Rameses II. Wilkinson's

"Ancient Egyptians," iii. p. 364.

105 Assyrian crenelated pattern.

107 Gothic type of trees. Bayeux tapestry.

1 1 1 Radiated pattern.

1 1 1 Radiated sunflower.

112 Shell pattern. 112 Balcony pattern.

115 Varied adjustments of square and circle.

146 Spangles.

19s Needles.

208 Feather patterns. Egyptian.

216 Application. Egyptian. Auberville's " Tissus."

217 Embroidered border on mantle. Crimea. " Compte Rendu." 281 Babylonian or Chaldean house and furniture.

311 Italian fifteenth-century pattern. Celtic type.

377 Barbed quatrefoil.

380 Holbein pattern. Sampler.

388 Arms of Embroiderers' Guild ; given by Queen Elizabeth.

393 Portion of James II.'s coronation dress ; from an old print.

a 2

XX

Plate Pase. Ref.

1 22 93

2 22 93

3 29

4 30

5 33

6 40 93

7 42

8 43

9 45

10 87

11 88

12 90

13 95 102

14 91

15 92

16 93 114

17 93 217

,8 93

19 97 114

21 100

List of Illustrations.

PLATES.

Title-Page. Penelope at her loom, reproached by her son Telemachus. From vase found at Chiusi, in Etruria. " Monum. d. Inst. Arch. Rom." ix. PI. 42.

ASSUREANIPAL (Sardanapalus). Sculptures from Nineveh. British Museum.

Portion of royal Babylonian mantle. From Layard's " Monuments," Series i. pi. 3.

St. John. From King Alfred's Celtic Book of the Gospels. Lambeth Palace Library.

A PAGE of the Book of St. Cuthbert, or Book of Lindisfarnc.

Silver Bowl from Palestrina. From Clermont Ganneau's "Journal Asiatique, Syro-Egyptien-Phcenicien."

Empress Theodora. Ravenna Mosaic.

Itall'VN Embroidery, fifteenth century. South Kensington Museum.

Italian and Spanish orphrey, sixteenth century. Plateresque Design. Spanish coverlet, green velvet and gold, sixteenth century. Goa work.

Wave Pattern, i, 4, 9, 12, 13. Greek wave pattern. 2. Key or Marauder Greek wave. 3. Greek broken wave. 5, 6, 7. Egyptian smooth and rippling wave pattern. 8. Medi;i;val wave. 10, II, 14. Babylonian and Chaldean. 15. Persian or Greek, from glass bowl. British Museum. 16. English wave (or cloud). Durham embroideries, tenth century.

Simple Patterns, i. Persian. 2. Lotus border, Egyptian.

Lotus Borders, i. Indian. 2, 3. Egyptian. 4, 5, Greek. 6. Indian.

Indian Lotus, i. With Assyrian daisy. 2. Lotus. 3. The egg and tongue, or Vitruvian scroll from Vignola. '• Regole di Ordine di Architettura."

Sunflower Pattern. R. S. A. N. Nineteenth century.

Portion of a page of the Book of Kells. Dublin University Library.

Demeter. Greek fictile vase. British Museum.

1. Greek Embroidery, 300 B.C. From tomb of the Seven

Brothers, Crimea.

2. Egyptian painted or embroidered linen. The cone, bead,

daisy, wave. Lotus-under-water patterns arc represented on this fragment.

Egyptian Tapestry weaving finished with the needle. British Museum.

Egyptian key patterns. Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," p. 1 25.

Trees of Life. 1, 2, 3. Assyrian. 4. Sicilian silk. 5. Mediaeval.

Birdwood's " Indian Arts."

Trees of Life. i. Sculpture over gate of Myca^ne. 2. Sicilian

silks ; Persian type.

Plate. 22

23 24

29 30 31

34 35 36

37 38 xxi

Lotus merged into Tree of Life. i. Split Chinese Lotus. 2. Split Persian Lotus, from a frieze by Benozzo Gozzoli. Ricardi Palace, Florence. 3. Petal of flower. Greek glass bowl from tomb in Southern Italy.

Trees of Life. Sicilian silks. Auberville. i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10. Persian type. 6, 7, 8, 9, 11. Indian type.

Tree of Life transformed into vine. Modern pattern of work from the Principalities.

Typicat- Crosses, i. Swastika fire-stick cross. 2. From Greek vase, British Museum, 765 B.C. 3. Sectarial mark of Sakti race. India. 4. Sectarial mark of Buddhists and Jainis. 5. On early Rhodian pottery. 6. Egyptian prehistoric cross. 7. Tau cross. 8. Mark of land, Egyptian and Ninevite. 9. Mark of land, Egyptian and Ninevite. 10. Clavus. " nail " or " button," or sun-cross. 11, 12, 13. Scandinavian sun and moon crosses. 14, 15, 16. Celtic. 17. Chrysoclavus. 18, 19. Staurocin patterns. 20. Norwegian. 21. Runic. 22. Cross in Temple of the Sun, Palenque. 23. Scotch Celtic cross. 24. Cross at lona. 25, 26. Runic and Scandinavian crosses. 27. Cross diapered on Charlemagne's dalmatic. 28. From mantle of Henry II., Emperor of Germany.

Prehistoric Crosses, i. Greek. Pallas, with plaited tunic worked with Swastika. 2. Greek. Ajax playing at dice with Achilles. Cloak embroidered with Swastika and other prehistoric patterns. Fictile vase, Vatican Museum.

Assyrian Carpet carved in stone, British Museum.

Gothic, i. Dress patterns from old MS. 2, 3. Old English tiles.

Cloud Patterns, i, 2, 3, 7. Japanese. 5, 8, 9. Mediaeval. 4. Chinese. 6. Badge of Edward II.

Indo-Chinese Coverlet. Hatfield. Supposed to have belonged to Oliver Cromwell.

Fundata Patterns, i. On Phoenician silver bowl. ("L'Imagerie Phenicienne.") 2, 3. From tomb at Essiout, Egypt. Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyptians," ii. p. 125. 1600 P,.C.

Part of Border of silk, gold, and pearls. Worked by Blanche, wife of Charles IV. of Bohemia. Bock's " Lit. Gew." ii. p. 246.

Embroidered Window hanging from portrait of Mahomet II , by Gentil Bellini ; belonging to Sir Henry Layard,

Classical Silks, i. Greek. 2. Roman.

Durham Relics. Persian type of silk weaving.

Durham Relics. Norman and Persian types nii.xed.

Durham Relics. Grasco-Egyptian type.

Egyptian Boat with embroidered and fringed sails, and floating scarves. Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," iii. p. 21.

White embroidery from sculptured tomb of a knight, fifteenth century. Ara Coeli, Rome.

Processional Cloak, Spanish work, temp. Henry VIII., belonging to Lord Arundel of Wardour.

Opus Pulvinarium. Counted stitches, i. Italian. 2. Scandinavian. 3. Ancient Egyptian. Turin Museum.

Italian Mosaic Stitch work, si.xteenth century. Alford House.

xxii

Plate.

43 44 45

46 47

SI

52 53 54 55 56

57 58 59

67 68

69 70

List of Illustrations.

Japanese Opus Plumarium. White silk.

Opus Consutum. Funeral tent of an Egyptian queen.

Opus CONSUTUM, " Inlaid" and "onlaid." Italian, seventeenth century.

Egyptian Gobelins finished with the needle.

Rheims Cathedral Tapestry. The Virgin weaving and

embroidering on frame a "basse-lisse."

Tent of Charles the Bold, taken at Grandson, now in

museum at Berne. The badge is that of the Golden Fleece. English Tapestry belonging to Lord Salisbury, at Hatfield

House, temp. Henry VIII.

Italian Knight of fifteenth century armed for conquest. Gentile

da Fabriano. Academia, Florence.

St. John. Anglo-Saxon Book of the Gospels. York Minster

Library.

Classical Pattern adapted into Christian art. Charlemagne's Dalmatic. Vatican Treasury.

Charlemagne's Dalmatic. Vatican Treasury.

Portion of Charlemagne's Dalmatic. Half-size. St. Silvester's Pluvial. Treasury of St. John Lateran, Rome. Opus Anglicanum, thirteenth century.

Portion of St. Silvester's Pluvial, showing its condition. Bologna Cope. Museo del Municipio. Opus Anglicanum. Daroca Cope. Archaeological Museum at Madrid. Opus Anglicanum.

Boniface VIII.'s Cope from Anagni, his native place ; now in

Vatican Treasury ; twelfth century.

Altar Frontal at Anagni, Italy. Italian work, fourteenth

century.

Worcester Relics of the tenth century, i. From tomb of Walter de Cantilupe. 2. From Aix, in Switzerland. Same type.

I. Mitre of Thomas a Becket. 2. The cross with twelve leaves, "for the healing of the nations." Coronation vestments at Rheims.

Anglo-Saxon Work, purple and gold, from tomb of William de Blois, Worcester. He died Bishop in 1236.

A portion of St. Stephen of Hungary's Mantle, worked by his Oueen Gisela. From Bock's " Kleinodien."

Portion of Mantle of Henry II., worked by his Empress Kunegunda. From Bock's " Kleinodien."

The Syon Cope. South Kensington Museum.

Italian Embroideries designed by Pollaiolo ; worked by Paolo da Verona. Sixteenth century.

Spanish Altar Frontal. The Arms of Castile embroidered in gold with pearls. Ashridge. Plateresque style, seventeenth century.

Consular Ivories. Two diptychs. i. Zurich, Wasserkirche. Inscribed to Consul Areobindus, A.D. 434. 2. At Halberstadt. No date. From Bock's " Lit. Gew."

List of Illustrations.

xxiii

Plate.

Page.

Rcf.

-!78

382 383

Aelfled'S Orphrey, signed by her. Durham Cathedral Library.

St. Gregory and St. John (Prophet), from Aclfled's orphrey. Durham. Enghsh work, tenth century.

St. Dunstan in adoration, drawn by himself. Bodleian Library, 0.\ford. Tenth century.

Small Parseme Patterns from Strutt's "Royal and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of the English from iioo to 1530."

English Patterns of embroidery, i. Panel of a screen in Hornby Church, Yorkshire. 2. Dress on a painted window in St. Michael's Church, York. 3. Woven material of the Towneley Copes.

Opus Anglicanum, twelfth century. British Museum.

Typical English Ornaments for ecclesiastical embroideries, twelfth century.

Dunstable Pall. Temp. Henry VII.

Vintners' Company Pall. Henry VII.

Henry VII. 's Cope, from Stoneyhurst ; designed by Torrigiano,

the sculptor of his tomb.

Spanish Work. Temp. Henry VIII.

English "Spanish Work." Temp. Henry VIII.

Cushion Cover, Hatfield House. Temp. Elizabeth. Oriental "Tree and Beast" Pattern. Cockayne-Hatley.

Temp. James I.

English Crewel Work. Indian design. Temp. James I.

ERRATA.

Page XV, line 21, for Albert Castet read Albert Castel. ,, 10, ,, 24, read as that of an important factor.

17, ,, 2 2,y27/- slow r^'^z^ swift. ,, 26, ,, 1 6, art r^^i/ artistic. ,, 42, „ 16, for SX& read -vitre. „ 56, ,. 5, read advance of them, in the earliest. ,, 66, ., 21, for we read 1. ,, 75, ,, 20, These mr^/ Those.

,, loi, ,, i?>,for from Cervetri, in Southern Italy, read from a

tomb at Chiusi, in Etruria. „ 156, ., 8,/('/- Chin r^^f^/ Chan.

,1 1955 » 20, for 6, 7. Bone needles from Neolithic cave-man's grave, I'ead 6. Cave-man's needle from the Pinhole, Churchfield, Eresvvell Crag. 7. Bone needle from La Madeleine, Dordogne.

,, 198, ,, 5, footnote, y^r act art.

,, 208, 3, footnote,/^?;- "Arte Pluraarii " mr^/ "Arte Plumaria." >) 237, ,, 8, yi7r which prove proving. „ 239, „ delete" after oi 2iXL"

„ ,, 18, //w;'/* " a/z'^r backwards. ,, 242, ,, c),for'm the Crimea read at Chiusi.

NEEDLEWORK AS ART.

Introduction

The book of the Science of Art has yet to be written. Art has been called the Flower of Life, and also the Consoler ; — adorning the existence of the strong and bright, — sheltering and comforting the sad and solitary ones of the earth. But, rather, it resembles a widespreading tree, covered with varied blossoms — bearing many fruits.

To point out the history and the possibilities in the future of each branch that shades, refreshes, and gives wholesome fruit to the world, would be a task worthy of a master-hand and a pen of gold. But less ambitious labourers in the field of investigation which is only as yet partly cultivated, may each assist, by carefully collecting a little heap of ascertained facts ; and it is, indeed, the duty of each as he passes to add his pebble to the slowly accumulating cairn of recorded human knowledge.