STUART EMBROIDERIES
The Stuart period of embroideries is one of great interest to the
collector. A few years ago comparatively little attention was paid to
examples of English embroidered work of the seventeenth century.
Specimens of the sort are now eagerly sought for, not only by private
collectors but by public museums as well. True it is that the English
embroideries of the seventeenth century are not comparable in artistic
quality with those of earlier periods, although the technical skill
displayed therein, particularly in the class known as stump-work, has
not been surpassed in English needle-work of any period since that of
the very early ecclesiastical embroideries. Certain of its
characteristic patterns survived the Elizabethan reign, only to
degenerate, during King James’s time, into what one must confess to be
some of the most uninteresting work in the whole history of English
embroidery. Some quilted work, inspired by Oriental design, and certain
crewels for hangings, were exceptions.
This Oriental influence was due to the rapidly developing intercourse,
through commerce, of England with India and China, which marked the
reign of James I and that of the two Charleses; a proclamation of
Charles I, in 1631, for instance, permitted the importation from the
East Indies of “quilts of China embroidered with gold.” Obelisks and
pyramids were favorite devices with the embroiderers of James I, just as
they were with woodcarvers and silversmiths of the day, a fact
interesting to note, as these devices often aid the collector in fixing
the period of an object he may be studying. Toward the end of this reign
it became fashionable to represent religious subjects in needlework. The
manufacture of tapestry in England flourished side by side with
embroidery throughout the reign of James I and those of Charles I and
Charles II, and it was from tapestry subjects that the needlework
pictures of the Stuart period derived their inspiration. So thoroughly
established had their vogue become, that although the fabrication of
tapestry rapidly declined toward the end of the reign of Charles II,
embroidered pictures still held their own.
The _petit point_ or tent-stitch was effectively employed in the
tapestry embroideries of this period. In its earliest form this stitch
was worked over a single thread and produced a massed effect of very
fine lines. The tapestry embroideries of the Stuart period often
mirrored with extraordinary fidelity the fashions in the dress of the
time.
Among objects in Stuart embroidery I have seen a little jewel-cabinet
carried out mainly in silk flosses and some wool worked on irregularly
woven tawny-white canvas, the material generally in use for petit point
work, though the stitch employed in carrying out the pictorial subjects
which adorned the sections of this cabinet is known as long-stitch.
Almost as precious as some of the jewels which once may have been
treasured in this cabinet are the embroidered sachets, jewel-boxes,
needle-case, pincushion, and two bits of beadwork which were tucked away
in its recesses. Next to the long-stitch work of the cabinet itself, the
stump-work sachet was perhaps the most important of these pieces.
Stump-work consisted of featherstitching (though all other stitches were
also employed) under which a padding was placed to form raised surfaces,
taking this suggestion perhaps from the ancient _opus anglicanum_. These
elevations or “stumps,” as they were called, were of cloth, of hair, of
wool, and sometimes of wood, paper, and parchment. In fact, their
materials were various. These stumps were glued
[Illustration:
_Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_
English 17th Century Stump-work Embroidery. Subject: “Judgment of
Paris.”]
[Illustration:
_Courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art_
Dutch Delft Shelf Ornaments, The Cow by Jacobus Holder, dated 1765
Four Dutch Delft Tiles, 17th Century]
or basted on a ground of (generally) white satin, and the stitching was
then executed to cover the stumping.
Quaint in conceit, though often crude enough in design, are the stitched
emblems in much of this stump-work. The twice-repeated caterpillar was
an emblem of the Stuart dynasty often employed, nor are other emblems
without intended significance. The eyes of the birds, animals, and
insects are often marked by seed-pearls, a practice of even earlier date
in England, as one finds from the inventory of St. James House, 1549,
wherein is mentioned a picture “of needlework, partly garnished with
seed pearl.”
Silver threads are also effectively introduced in Stuart embroideries
and edgings of silver lace surround many of the objects such as the
pincushion. Many Stuart embroidery patterns were copied from the designs
of the richly brocaded silks of the period.