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_"Flowers, Plants and Fishes, Birds, Beasts, Flyes, and Bees,
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").
The Artistic Crafts Series of Technical Handbooks
Edited by W. R. Lethaby
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
Second Edition Revised
(A reprint of the First Edition, with various slight alterations in
text)
Third Edition Revised
(A reprint of the Second Edition)
Published by John Hogg
13 Paternoster Row
London 1912
[Illustration: _Frontispiece See page 249._]
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh
EDITOR'S PREFACE
Needlework, which is still practised traditionally in every house, was
once a splendid art, an art in which English workers were especially
famous, so that, early in the XIIIth century, vestments embroidered in
England were eagerly accepted in Rome, and the kind of work wrought here
was known over Europe as "English Work." Embroideries _façon
d'Angleterre_ often occupy the first place in foreign inventories.
At Durham are preserved some beautiful fragments of embroidery worked in
the Xth century, and many examples, belonging to the great period of the
XIIIth and XIVth centuries, are preserved at the South Kensington
Museum, which is particularly rich in specimens of this art. In order to
judge of what were then its possibilities it is worth while to go and
see there three notable copes, the blue cope, the Sion cope, and the
rose-colour Jesse-tree cope, the last two of which are certainly
English, and the former probably so. The Sion cope bears a remnant of an
inscription 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 men
and women.
That great art patron, Henry the Third, chiefly employed for his
embroideries, 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 her curious performances might be
collected." And I have found a record of an embroidered chasuble made
for the king by "Mabilia" of St. Edmund's in 1242. The most splendid
piece of embroidery produced for this king must have been the altar
frontal of Westminster Abbey, completed about 1269. It was silk,
garnished with pearls, jewels, and translucent enamels. Four
embroideresses worked on it for three years and three-quarters, and it
seems to have cost a sum equal to about £3000 of our money.
"The London Broderers" did not receive a formal charter of incorporation
until 1561, but they must have been a properly organised craft centuries
before. In 2 Henry IV. it was reported to Parliament that divers persons
of the "Craft of Brauderie" made unfit work of inferior materials,
evading the search of "the Wardens of Brauderie" in the said City of
London.
In Paris, in the year 1295, there were ninety-three embroiderers and
embroideresses registered as belonging to the trade. The term of
apprenticeship to the craft was for eight years, and no employer might
take more than one apprentice at a time. In the XVIth century the Guild
was at the height of its power, and embroideries were so much in demand
that the Jardin des Plantes in Paris was established to furnish
flower-subjects for embroidery design. It was founded by the gardener,
Jean Robin, and by Pierre Vallet, "brodeur" to Henry IV. In the XVIIIth
century the company numbered 250 past-masters.
To this craft the present volume forms, I believe, an admirable
introduction and text-book, not only on the side of workmanship, but
also on that difficult subject, "design"--difficult, that is, from its
having been so much discussed in books, yet entirely simple when
approached, as here, as a necessary part of workmanship. It is fortunate
that we have not as yet learned to bother our cooks as to which part of
their work is designing and which is merely mechanical. Of course the
highest things of design, as well as of workmanship, come only after
long practice and to the specially gifted, but none the less every human
creature must in some sort be a designer, and it has caused immense harm
to raise a cloud of what Morris called "sham technical twaddle" between
the worker and what should be the spontaneous inspiration of his work.
What such combination has produced in past times, may perhaps best be
understood by some reading in old church inventories of the simply
infinite store of magnificent embroidered vestments which once adorned
our churches. In an inventory of Westminster Abbey I find mentioned
such patterns as roses and birds, fleur-de-luces and lybardes, angels on
branches of gold, roses and ships, eagles and angels of gold, castles
and lions, white harts, swans, dogs, and antelopes.
W. R. LETHABY.
_September 1906._
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
In the following pages the practical sides of Embroidery and Tapestry
Weaving are discussed, their historical development being only
incidentally touched upon.
The drawings illustrating design and the practical application of
stitches have been taken almost without exception from actual Embroidery
or Tapestry; the exceptions, where it has been impossible to consult
originals, from photographic representations obtained from various
sources, among which the collection of M. Louis de Farcy should be
mentioned.
I have to thank Miss May Morris and Mrs. W. R. Lethaby for permission to
reproduce pieces of their work, and Miss Killick, Colonel J. E.
Butler-Bowdon, the Viscount Falkland, and the Reverend F. J. Brown of
Steeple Aston for permission to reproduce work in their possession. Also
I must thank the authorities of the Victoria and Albert Museum for help
in various ways, and Mr. J. H. Taylor, M.A. Oxf. and Cam., for his
kindness in reading the proofs.
GRACE CHRISTIE.
_Ewell,
September 1906._
CONTENTS
PAGE
EDITOR'S PREFACE xi
AUTHOR'S PREFACE xvii
PART I
EMBROIDERY
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION 27
CHAPTER II
TOOLS, APPLIANCES, AND MATERIALS
Needles--Scissors--Thimbles--Frames--Stand and Frame combined--Tambour
Frame--Cord-making Appliance--Requisites for Transferring
Patterns--Pricker--Knife--Spindle--Piercer--Materials suitable for
Embroidering upon--Threads of all Kinds--Stones, Beads, &c. 34
CHAPTER III
PATTERN DESIGNING
The Difficulties of Pattern Making--A Stock-in-Trade--Some Principles
upon which Patterns are Built Up--Spacing-Out--Nature and
Convention--Shading--Figure Work--Limitations--Colour 51
CHAPTER IV
STITCHES
Introduction--Chain Stitch--Zigzag Chain--Chequered Chain--Twisted
Chain--Open Chain--Braid Stitch--Cable Chain--Knotted Chain--Split
Stitch 75
CHAPTER V
STITCHES--(_continued_)
Satin Stitch--Long and Short Stitch--Stem Stitch--Overcast Stitch--Back
Stitch--Buttonhole Stitch--Tailor's Buttonhole--Fancy Buttonhole
Edgings--Flower in Open Buttonhole Stitch--Leaf in Close Buttonhole
Stitches--Petal in Solid Buttonholing 95
CHAPTER VI
STITCHES--(_continued_)
Knots and Knot Stitches--Herring-bone Stitch--Feather Stitch--Basket
Stitch--Fishbone Stitch--Cretan Stitch--Roumanian Stitch--Various
Insertion Stitches--Picots 118
CHAPTER VII
CANVAS WORK AND STITCHES
Introduction--Samplers--Petit Point Pictures--Cross Stitch--Tent
Stitch--Gobelin Stitch--Irish Stitch--Plait Stitch--Two-sided Italian
Stitch--Holbein Stitch--Rococo Stitch 147
CHAPTER VIII
METHODS OF WORK
Couching--Braid Work--Laid Work--Applied Work--Inlaid Work--Patch Work
164
CHAPTER IX
METHODS OF WORK--(_continued_)
Quilting--Raised Work--Darning--Open Fillings--Darned Netting 189
CHAPTER X
Methods of work--(_continued_)
Drawn Thread Work--Hem Stitching--Simple Border Patterns--Darned Thread
Patterns--Corners--Cut or Open Work--Various Methods of Refilling the
Open Spaces 213
CHAPTER XI
EMBROIDERY WITH GOLD AND SILVER THREADS
Introduction--Materials--Precautions for the Prevention of
Tarnish--Ancient Method of Couching--Its various Good
Points--Description of Working Diagram--Working a Raised Bar--Examples
of Patterns Employed in Old Work--Illustrations upon Draped
Figures--Usual Method of Couching--Couching Patterns--Outline
Work--Raised Work--The Use of Purls, Bullions, &c. 229
CHAPTER XII
LETTERING, HERALDRY, AND EMBLEMS
The Uses of Lettering--Marking--Monograms--Heraldry--Emblems 259
CHAPTER XIII
THE GARNITURE OF WORK
Finishing off--Making up--Edges--Use of Cord-making Appliance--Cord
Twisted by Hand--Knotted Cord--Fringes--Tassels--Knots 271
CHAPTER XIV
PRACTICAL DIRECTIONS
Transferring Patterns--Paste for Embroidery Purposes--Protection and
Preservation of Work--Washing Embroidery--Prevention and Cure of
Puckered Work--Points about the Thread--Dressing the Frame 292
PART II
TAPESTRY WEAVING
CHAPTER XV
INTRODUCTION 307
CHAPTER XVI
NECESSARY APPLIANCES AND MATERIALS
The Loom--Mirror--Bobbins and Needles--The Comb--Embroidery Frame
treated as a Loom--Warp--Wools--Silk--Gold and Silver Thread 315
CHAPTER XVII
PREPARATIONS FOR WORK
Warping the Loom--Dressing the Coat-Stave--Tracing the Pattern upon the
Threads 328
CHAPTER XVIII
THE TECHNIQUE OF WEAVING
Weaving--Commencing and Fastening Off--The Interlocking Stitch--Fine
Drawing--Shading--Added After-stitches 339
NOTES ON THE COLLOTYPE PLATES 355
THE COLLOTYPE PLATES 369
INDEX 402
PART I--EMBROIDERY
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In the practice of embroidery the needlewoman has an advantage not now
shared by workers in any other craft, in that the technical processes
are almost a matter of inherited skill. Every woman can sew, and it is
with little more than the needle and thread, which she habitually
employs, that the greatest masterpieces of the art have been stitched.
The art of embroidery, however, is not merely an affair of stitches;
they are but the means by which ideas can be expressed in intelligible
form, and memories of all kinds of things be pictured on stuffs.
To laboriously train the hand is scarcely worth while unless it is
capable of expressing something that is at least pretty. Nowadays much
embroidery is done with the evident intent of putting into it the
minimum expenditure of both thought and labour, and such work furnishes
but a poor ideal to fire the enthusiasm of the novice; happily, there
still exist many fine examples showing what splendid results may be
achieved; without some knowledge of this work we cannot obtain a just
idea of the possibilities of the art.
It is obvious that much advantage can be gained from studying the
accumulated experience of the past in addition to that current in our
own day. To do this intelligently, the history of embroidery must be
followed in order that the periods richest in the various kinds of work
may be ascertained. Museums afford useful hunting-grounds for the study
of past work; other sources are private collections, churches, costume
in pictures or on engraved brasses, and manuscript inventories such as
those of cathedral treasuries, which sometimes contain interesting
detailed descriptions of their embroidered vestments and hangings.
Blind copying of old work is not of much value; it is not possible or
desirable to imitate XIIIth century work now, but much can be learned
by examining fine examples in an appreciative and analytical spirit. In
what way the design has been built up can be discovered; the most
complicated result may often be resolved into quite elementary lines.
The student must find out wherein lie the attraction and interest, note
good schemes of colour, and learn about stitches and methods of work by
close examination of the embroidery, both front and back.
Every one knows what embroidery is, and a formal definition seems
unnecessary. As a matter of fact, it would be a difficult task to give
one, since weaving, lace-making, and embroidery are but subtle
variations of the same art.
This art may be of the highest or the most homely character, and the
latter is by no means to be despised. Simple unaffected work decorating
the things of every-day use can give a great deal of pleasure in its
way. This should surely be the accomplishment of every woman, for though
she may not have the skill to attain to the highest branches, it would
at least enable her to decorate her home with such things as the
counterpanes, curtains, and other objects that set such a personal
stamp upon the English domestic work of several centuries, and which
nowadays can hardly be found except stored up in museums.
It is advisable as a general rule that the design be both made and
carried out by the same person. From the worker's own point of view the
interest must be much greater when working out her own ideas than when
merely acting as amanuensis to another. The idea is more likely to be
expressed with spirit; further there is the possibility of adding to or
altering, and thereby improving, the work as it progresses. The designer
must in any case be well acquainted with stitches and materials, for
they play an important part in achieving good results. The individuality
of the worker should be evident in her work; indeed it generally is, for
even plain hems by two people bear quite different characters; the
degree of individuality present, varies with each one, but in any case
it will be much more marked if the design and stitching bear the stamp
of the same personality.
The difference between good and unsatisfactory results should be
carefully thought out, for it is often but a small matter. The best
kind of work is that which appeals to the intelligence as well as to the
eye, which is another way of saying there should be evidence of mind
upon the material. Work must be interesting in some way if it is to be
attractive; it had better almost be faulty and interesting than dull,
dry, and correct. It can interest by reminding us of pleasant things,
such as familiar flowers, shady woods, or green lawns; birds, beasts,
and so forth can be depicted in their characteristic attitudes, or a
story can be told; in fact, work can be made attractive in a hundred
different ways. It must not show signs of having wearied the worker in
the doing; variety and evidence of thought lavishly expended upon it
will prevent this, and enthusiasm will quicken it with life.
The selection of the object to work comes at an early stage, and is a
matter to be well considered, for it is a pity to spend time and labour
upon unsuitable objects when there are many excellent ones to choose
from. In thinking over what to work it should be realised that it takes
no longer to execute one rather important piece than several of a less
ambitious character, and that the former is generally more worth the
doing. Whether the subject is a suitable one for embroidery or not
sometimes depends upon the method chosen for carrying it out; for
instance, anything that has to endure hard wear must be treated in such
a way as to stand it well.
Dress is a fine subject for embroidery; but, for the decoration to be
satisfactory, the art of designing dress must be understood, and the
dress must also be well cut, or the embroidery will be quite wasted upon
it. What is termed "art dress," proverbially bad, well deserves its
reputation. There is a great difference in the quantity of work that may
be put into dress decoration; this may be simply an embroidered vest,
collar, and cuffs, or it may be actually an integral part of the
costume, which as a much bigger and more difficult undertaking is
correspondingly finer in effect when successfully carried out.
Amongst larger objects that well repay the labour of embroidery,
hangings of various kinds, quilts, screens, furniture coverings, altar
frontals, church vestments, may be mentioned; amongst smaller, are bags,
boxes, book-covers, gloves or mittens, bell-pulls, cushions, mirror
frames, all kinds of household linen, infants' robes, and so on, and for
church use such things as alms-bags, book-markers, stoles, pulpit and
lectern frontals. Then a panel may be worked with the deliberate
intention of framing it to hang on a wall. There is no reason why the
painter should have the monopoly of all the available wall space, for
decorative work is undoubtedly in place there; a piece of embroidered
work might well fill a panel over a mantel-piece. There is no need to
discuss what not to do, but, if the attraction to embroider a tea-cosy
is too strong to resist, it should surely be of washable materials.
Embroidery has distinct practical advantages over some other crafts
practised nowadays--no special studio need be devoted to its use, for
most work can be done in any well-lighted room, which indeed will be
rendered more attractive by the presence of an embroidery frame, for
this is in itself a characteristic and dainty piece of furniture. It
need but seldom interfere with one of our pleasant traditions, genial
converse with, and about, our neighbours, for it is a distinctly
sociable occupation. Work of this kind can be put down and taken up at
leisure; the necessary outlay in materials need not be extravagant, and
so on. Many other points might be thought of, but the claims of the art
do not demand any special pleading, for it is pleasant in the actual
working, and can produce an infinite variety of most interesting
results.