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Title: Art in Needlework: A Book about Embroidery

Author: Lewis F. Day
active 1900 Mary Buckle

Release date: March 7, 2009 [eBook #28269]

Language: English

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ART IN NEEDLEWORK

TEXT-BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN

ART IN NEEDLEWORK

A BOOK ABOUT EMBROIDERY

BY

LEWIS F. DAY
AUTHOR OF 'WINDOWS,' 'ALPHABETS,'

'NATURE IN ORNAMENT' AND OTHER

TEXT-BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN

& MARY BUCKLE

LONDON:

B. T. BATSFORD 94 HIGH HOLBORN

1900

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS,
LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.

PREFACE.

Embroidery may be looked at from more points of view than it would be
possible in a book like this to take up seriously. Merely to hover round the
subject and glance casually at it would serve no useful purpose. It may be as
well, therefore, to define our standpoint: we look at the art from its practical
side, not, of course, neglecting the artistic, for the practical use of
embroidery is to be beautiful.
The custom has been, since woman learnt to kill time with the needle, to
think of embroidery too much as an idle accomplishment. It is more than
that. At the very least it is a handicraft: at the best it is an art. This
contention may be to take it rather seriously; but if one esteemed it less it
would hardly be worth writing about, and the book, when written, would
not be worth the attention of students of embroidery, needleworkers, and
designers of needlework to whom it is addressed. It sets forth to show what
decorative stitching is, how it is done, and what it can do. It is illustrated by
samplers of stitches; by diagrams, to explain the way stitches are done; and
by examples of old and modern work, to show the artistic application of the
stitches.
A feature in the book is the series of samplers designed to show not only
what are the available stitches, but the groups into which they naturally
gather themselves, as well as the use to which they may be put: and the
back of the sampler is given too: the reader has only to turn the page to see
the other side of the stitching—which to a needlewoman is often the more
helpful. Lest that should not be enough, the stitches are described in the
text, and a marginal note shows at a glance where the description is given.
This should be read needle and thread in hand—or skipped. Samplers and
other examples of needlework are uniformly on a scale large enough to
show the stitch quite plainly. The examples of old work illustrate always, in

the first place, some point of workmanship; still they are chosen with some
view to their artistic interest.
In other respects Art is not overlooked; but it is Art in harness. Design is
discussed with reference to stitch and stuff, and stitch and stuff with
reference to their use in ornament. It has been endeavoured also to show the
effect needlework has had upon pattern, and the ways in which design is
affected by the circumstance that it is to be embroidered.
The joint authorship of the work needs, perhaps, a word of explanation.
This is not just a man's book on a woman's subject. The scheme of it is
mine, and I have written it, but with the co-operation throughout of Miss
Mary Buckle. Our classification of the stitches is the result of many a
conference between us. The description of the way the stitches are worked,
and so forth, is my rendering of her description, supplemented by practical
demonstration with the needle. She has primed me with technical
information, and been always at hand to keep me from technical error. With
reference to design and art I speak for myself.
My thanks are due to the authorities at South Kensington for allowing us to
handle the treasures of the national collection, and to photograph them for
illustration; to Mrs. Walter Crane, Miss Mabel Keighley, and Miss C. P.
Shrewsbury, for permission to reproduce their handiwork; to Miss Argles,
Mrs. Buxton Morrish, Colonel Green, R.E., and Messrs. Morris and Co., for
the loan of work belonging to them; and to Miss Chart for working the
cross-stitch sampler.
I must also acknowledge the part my daughter has had in the production of
this book: without her constant help it could never have been written.
LEWIS F. DAY.
January 1st, 1900.

CONTENTS.

1. EMBROIDERY AND EMBROIDERY STITCHES 1
2. CANVAS STITCHES 12
3. CREWEL-STITCH 26
4. CHAIN-STITCH 38
5. HERRING-BONE-STITCH 47
6. BUTTONHOLE-STITCH 55
7. FEATHER AND ORIENTAL STITCHES 62
8. ROPE AND KNOT STITCHES 71
9. INTERLACINGS, SURFACE STITCHES, AND DIAPERS 83
10. SATIN-STITCH AND ITS OFFSHOOTS 91
11. DARNING 106
12. LAID-WORK 112
13. COUCHING 122
14. COUCHED GOLD 131
15. APPLIQUÉ 144
16. INLAY, MOSAIC, AND CUT-WORK 153
17. EMBROIDERY IN RELIEF 159
18. RAISED GOLD 165
19. QUILTING 172
20. STITCH GROUPS 175
21. ONE STITCH OR MANY? 180
22. OUTLINE 185
23. SHADING 188
24. FIGURE EMBROIDERY 198
25. THE DIRECTION OF THE STITCH 208
26. CHURCH WORK 216
27. A PLEA FOR SIMPLICITY 225
28. EMBROIDERY DESIGN 232
29. EMBROIDERY MATERIALS 242

30. A WORD TO THE WORKER 250

DESCRIPTIVE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. tapestry—to illustrate work on a warp not on a web. From Akhmin in
Upper Egypt. Ancient Coptic. (In the Victoria and Albert Museum.)
2. drawn-work on fine linen, embroidered with gold and colour.
Oriental. (From the collection of Mrs. Lewis F. Day.)
3. darning and satin-stitch on square mesh—The darning leaf, green,
follows the lines of the stuff; outlined with yellow, veined with pink
and white; stem, yellow, its foliation pink, outlined with white, and
ribbed with blue and white. Italian. 17th century. (V. & A. M.)
4. cross-stitch upon linen. Hungarian. Compare Illustration 45.
5. cross-stitch sampler—A and B, solid; C, line work; D, stroke-stitch—
called also Holbein-stitch; E, stroke and cross stitches combined.
6. canvas-stitch in coloured silk upon linen. The band Italian, the
foliated diaper Oriental. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
7. canvas-stitch—Design comparatively free, but showing in its outline
the influence of the rectangular lines of the weaving. Cretan. (Mrs. L.
F. D.)
8. canvas-stitch sampler—A, tent-stitch; B, half-cross-stitch; C,
cushion-stitch; D, Moorish-stitch, so called; E, plait-stitch; F, couching
on canvas.
9. cushion and satin-stitches upon canvas—The Satin-stitches follow the
lines of the stuff, and form a diaper built upon them. Compare
Illustration 71.
10. two varieties of canvas-stitch, the pattern in the bare linen, the
background worked—A, plait-stitch, the ornament outlined; B, stitches

drawn tightly together so as to pull the threads of the linen apart,
giving very much the effect of drawn-work. Compare Illustration 2.
(Mrs. L. F. D.)
11. crewel-stitch sampler—A and C, crewel-stitch; B and D, outline-
stitch; E, back-stitch; F, spots; G and H, stem-stitch; J, crewel and
outline-stitches in combination.
12. back of crewel-stitch sampler.
13. crewel-work—the stem only worked in crewel-stitch. Embroidered in
green, blue, and brown wools upon white cotton. Old English. (Coll. of
Miss Argles.)
14. crewel-work, in which crewel-stitch hardly occurs. Embroidered in
coloured wools upon white cotton. Old English. (Coll. of J. M. Knapp,
Esq.)
15. crewel-stitch in twisted silk. The scroll in green upon a brownish-
purple ground; the smaller leafage upon the scroll in brighter green;
the flowers and butterflies in blue and pink. Modern. (Mrs. L. F. Day.)
16. chain-stitch and knots—Part of the same piece of work as Illustration
24. Indian. (V. & A. M.)
17. chain-stitch sampler—A, chain-stitch solid and in line; B, magic
stitch; C, church chain; D, cable chain; E, Vandyke chain; F,
Mountmellic chain; G, Mountmellic cable—all so called.
18. back of chain-stitch sampler.
19. chain and surface stitches—the latter a kind of buttonholing, only
occasionally worked into the stuff. Part of a lectern cover in white
thread upon a thin, greyish white linen stuff. German, 14th century. (V.
& A. M.)
20. herringbone sampler—A, B, C, varieties of herring-bone; D, a
combination of A and C; E, fishbone; F, a close variety of A; G,
tapestry stitch, so called.
21. back of herringbone sampler.

22. buttonhole sampler—A, B, C, ordinary buttonhole and variations
upon it; D, two rows of buttonhole worked slanting one into the other;
E, crossed buttonhole; F, tailor's buttonhole; G, ladder (called also
Cretan) stitch; H, herringbone buttonhole; J, buttonhole diaper.
23. back of buttonhole sampler.
24. buttonhole, chain, and knot stitches—chiefly in white floss silk on
dark purple satin, with touches of crimson at the points from which the
stitches radiate. The rings on the outer ground are not worked, but
done in the dyeing of the satin. Part of the same piece of work as 16.
Modern Indian from Surat. (V. & A. M.)
25. feather-stitch sampler—A to G, ordinary feather-stitch and its
variations; G G, feather chain.
26. back of feather-stitch sampler.
27. oriental-stitch sampler—A to E, Oriental-stitch and its varieties; F,
Oriental-stitch worked into buttonhole; G, not properly a form of
Oriental-stitch, though bearing some resemblance to it.
28. back of oriental-stitch sampler.
29. rope and knot-stitch sampler—A, rope-stitch; B, open rope-stitch; C,
what is called German knot-stitch; D, open German knot-stitch; E, Old
English knot-stitch, so called; F, bullion-stitch; G, French knots.
30. back of rope and knot-stitch sampler.
31. a tour-de-force in knots—Worked entirely in the one stitch; the
drawing lines expressed by voiding. In white and coloured silks upon a
very dark blue ground. Chinese. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
32. interlacing-stitch sampler—A, Interlaced crewel-stitch; B, interlaced
back-stitch; C, back-stitch twice interlaced; D, interlaced chain-stitch;
E, interlaced darning; F, interlaced herringbone; G, herringbone twice
interlaced; H, an interlaced version of C in Illustration 20; J, interlaced
Oriental-stitch; K, interlaced feather-stitch.
33. back of interlacing sampler.

34. surface-stitch sampler—A, D, G, various surface stitches; B, surface
buttonhole; H and C, surface darning; E, Japanese darning, as it is
called; F, net passing; J, surface buttonhole over bars; K, surface
buttonhole over slanting stitches.
35. lace or surface-stitch and satin-stitch, much of it worn away. In
straw-coloured floss upon pale blue silk. Part of a dress. French. Late
18th century. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
36. satin-stitch sampler—Worked in floss, the stitch in various directions,
to give different effects. Incidentally it shows various ways of breaking
up a surface in satin-stitch. Compare with Illustration 38, which shows
the effect of the stitch in twisted silk.
37. back of satin-stitch sampler.
38. satin-stitch in coarse twisted silk.
39. satin-stitch in twisted silk—Outlines voided. Worked in white and
occasional red and yellow upon black satin. Indian. Modern. (V. & A.
M.)
40. satin-stitch and, on the birds' bodies, plumage-stitch—The ends of
the stalks worked in French knots; the veins of the leaves in fine white
cords laid on to the satin stitch. The outlines voided, and the voiding
occasionally worked across with stitches wide enough apart to show
the ground between. In white and bright-coloured silk floss upon a
black satin ground. Chinese. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
41. sampler—Showing offshoots from satin and crewel stitches, and
incidentally illustrating various ways of shading. A, crewel-stitch; B,
plumage-stitch, worked in the hand; C, split-stitch; D, plumage-stitch,
worked in the frame.
42. back of sampler 41.
43. darning sampler—Except in the background the stitches follow the
lines of the drawing, regardless of the weaving of the stuff. The
customary outlining of the pattern is here omitted, to show how far it
may, or may not, be needful.

44. darning—designed by william morris. In delicate colours upon a sea-
green ground, outlined with black and white. Part of the border of a
table-cloth, the property of Messrs. Morris & Co.
45. flat darning—Solid and open, following the lines of a square mesh,
and stepping in tune with it; the outline voided; all in white thread. Old
German. (Gewerbs Museum, Munich.)
46. laid-work sampler, showing various ways (split-stitch and couching)
in which the sewing down may be done, and the various directions it
may take—vertical, horizontal, following the ornamental forms, or
crossing them.
47. laid-work—The couching crosses the flower forms in straight lines;
and in the eye of the flower where the threads cross, the two are sewn
down at a single stitch. The spiral stems a sort of laid cord. Flower in
blue, sewn with blue and outlined with gold; leaves, a bright fresh
green stitched with olive. Japanese. (V. & A. M.)
48. laid-work. The sewing down of the leaves crosses them in curved
lines which suggest roundness. The stem in gold basket pattern. Part of
a coverlet. Worked upon a cedar-coloured ground chiefly in dark blue
and white, the blue couched with white, the white and other colours
couched with red. Indo-Portuguese. 17th century. (V. & A. M.)
49. laid-work and some surface-stitch. The stitching which sews down
the floss takes the direction of the scroll, &c., and gives drawing. The
surface work in the stems is done upon a ladder of stitches across. Part
of a chalice veil. Italian. Early 17th century. (V. & A. M.)
50. laid-work sampler—The straight lines of laid floss varied in colour to
suggest shading. The stalk padded, and the pattern made by the
stitching upon it thereby emphasised.
51. bullion and couched cord—A, The somewhat loose design of the
border in bullion shows rather plainly the way it is done. B, The solid
discs of spiral cord are unusual, but most characteristic of the method
of couching. The stitches sewing down the cord are not apparent.
Oriental. (Mrs. L. F. D.)

52. sampler of couched silk—The broad central band and the narrow
beaded lines are in floss, and show the effect of sewing it more or less
tightly down. The two intermediate bands are in cord couched with
threads in the direction of its twist, not very easily distinguishable
unless by contrast of colour.
53. couching in looped threads—The effect is not unlike that of chain-
stitch or fine knotting. Rather over actual size. Worked in bright
colours upon a pale green crêpe ground. Chinese. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
54. reverse couching—Showing on the face of it no sign of couching.
(After the manner of the Syon Cope.)
55. back of reverse couching—Showing the parallel lines of couched
linen thread which sew down the silk upon the surface (Illustration
54). The zigzag pattern of the stitching might equally well have taken
other lines.
56. couched gold sampler—A, B, C, D, flat work; E, part flat, part raised;
F, G, H, J, basket and other patterns raised over cords.
57. couching in various diaper patterns, outlined in part with "plate."
Silver on pale pink silk. (Coll. of Mrs. T. Buxton Morrish.)
58. gold couching in open threads—A, The lines of gold which form a
scale pattern on the dragon's body, are wide enough apart to let the red
ground grin through. Elsewhere the couching, contrary to mediæval
practice, follows the shapes, line within line until they are occupied.
The floss embroidery, in white and colours, is in surface-satin-stitch.
Chinese. B, The open lines of gold look somehow richer than if the
metal had been worked solid upon the crimson ground. Old Venetian.
(Mrs. L. F. D.)
59. couched outline work; only an occasional detail worked solid;
suggests damascening. The border is in gold, the filling in silver,
thread on a greyish-green velvet. Part of an Italian housing or
saddlecloth. 16th century. (V. & A. M.)
60. appliqué—Satin upon velvet, outlined with two threads of gold
couching.

61. appliqué panel—Designed and executed by Miss Mabel Keighley,
illustrating a poem by William Morris. (The property of the artist.)
62. a. counter-change pattern, inlay or appliqué.—Yellow satin and
crimson velvet. The outline, which is in gold, falls chiefly upon the
yellow, so as not to disturb the exact balance of light and dark, which it
is essential to preserve in counter-change. Part of a stole. Spanish. 16th
century (V. & A. M.)
b. appliqué, of deep crimson velvet upon white satin, outlined with
paler red cord. The outlines, meeting together, form a stem of double
cord. Italian. 17th century. (V. & A. M.)
63. appliqué, with couched outline, and stitching upon the appliqué band
or ribbon. The dots in the centre of the grapes are French knots. The
pattern is in satin of various colours, upon a figured green silk damask,
outlined with yellow silk sewn down with yellow. Italian. (V. & A. M.)
64. inlay in coloured cloths, outlined with chain stitch. Magic stitch also
occurs. A characteristic example of the kind of work done at Retsht, in
Persia. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
65. cut-work in linen—A fret of this kind was often outlined with
coloured silk, and the detail within the fretted outline further
embroidered in coloured silk. (Coll. of Mrs. Drake.)
66. sampler of raised work, showing underlays: A, of cloth; B, of twisted
cords; C, of parchment; D, of cotton wool; E, first of cotton cord and
then of cotton thread; F, of cord; G, of string; H, of sewing.
67. raised work, showing underlay of linen, and the way it is sewn down
—The work is in flax thread, red, yellow, and white, upon a blue linen
ground. The stem is dotted with white beads, the ground with gold
spangles. Part of an altar frontal. German. 15th century. (V. & A. M.)
68. raised gold basket patterns, &c., upon white satin. The stalk in flat
wire. Spanish. 17th century. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
69. quilt, worked in chain-stitch from the back—which has precisely the
effect of back-stitch. Yellow silk upon white linen. Old English. (V. &

A. M.)
70. raised quilting, in black silk upon pale sea-green satin. Part of the
border of a prayer cushion. Old Persian. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
71. diaper of satin-stitch in the making—Something between canvas-
stitch and satin-stitch. The leafage is in tent-stitch. Compare with
Illustration 9. (V. & A. M.)
72. stitches in combination—Among them Oriental, ladder, buttonhole,
chain, crewel, satin, and herringbone stitches, worked in dark blue silk
upon unbleached linen. Old Cretan, so called. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
73. fine needlework upon cambric—the substance of which is apparent
upon the upper edge of the work. In the ground-work of the pattern
generally the threads are drawn together to form an open net. The
stitches occurring in the collar of which this is part are, buttonhole,
satin, chain, herringbone, cross, and back stitches. The outline is
mostly in fine cross-stitch. Nothing could exceed the delicacy of the
workmanship, which is in its kind perfect. Old English. (Coll. of Col.
Green, R.E.)
74. part of a design by walter crane, cunningly adapted to execution in
needlework. Shows the direction of the stitch, and the part it can be
made to play in expressing form. Worked in coloured silks upon linen
by Mrs. Walter Crane, whose property the work is.
75. shading in chain-stitch in silk and chenille upon a satin ground. The
shading very deliberately schemed by the designer. In natural colours
upon white. French. Louis Seize. (V. & A. M.)
76. shading in short stitches; picturesque to the point of a touch of white
in the glistening yellow of the dove's eye. Chenille, in chain-stitch, is
used for the wreath and in the leaves of the flower sprigs. These are in
colours, the birds are in silvery greys, all on a white satin ground.
French. Louis Seize. (V. & A. M.)
77. shading in long-and-short and split stitches, with more regard to
expression of form than to neatness of execution. German. 16th
century. (V. & A. M.)

78. chain-stitch, showing in the figures of the little men what a
draughtsman can express in a few stitches. Full size. Chinese. (Mrs. L.
F. D.)
79. figure work—The flesh in straight upright stitches, the drapery laid
and couched. English. 15th century. (V. & A. M.)
80. consummate figure embroidery—Canvas ground entirely covered.
Flesh in coloured silks, short-stitch; drapery coloured silks over gold,
which only gleams through in the lighter parts. Architecture closely
couched gold. Part of an orphrey. Florentine. 16th century. (V. & A.
M.)
81. chinese figures—The flesh in short satin-stitches, the rest in chain-
stitch; chiefly in blue and white upon a figured white silk ground.
About actual size. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
82. satin-stitch, showing the influence of its direction upon the tone of
colour. The pattern is all in one shade of yellow-brown floss upon
white linen. The outline steps with the weaving, and so shows
connection between satin and canvas stitches. Italian, 17th century. (V.
& A. M.)
83. meaningless direction of stitch—Satin and herring-bone stitches.
From an altar-cloth. German. 17th century. (V. & A. M.)
84. more expressive lines of stitching—To compare with Illustration 83.
85. satin and plumage stitches chiefly, the bird's crest in French knots, the
clouds about him in knotted braid. The direction of the stitch is most
artfully chosen, and the precision of the work is faultless. The satin
ground is of brilliant orange-red; the crane, white, with black tail
feathers, scarlet crest, and yellow beak and legs; the clouds, black and
white and blue. Japanese. (Mrs. L. F. D.)
86. renaissance church work in gold and silver, partly flat, partly in
relief, upon pale blue satin, with touches of pink and crimson silk to
give emphasis. Spanish. 18th century. Compare the stem with
Illustration 66, B. (V. & A. M.)

87. gothic church work—The flesh, &c., in split-stitch; the vine-leaves
green, getting yellower as it nears the crimson silk ground. Part of a
cope embroidered with a representation of the Tree of Jesse. English.
Ca. 1340. (V. & A. M.)
88. modern church work on linen, in long-and-short stitch. Veins padded
with embroidery cotton and worked over with two threads of filo-floss,
a green and a blue; the rest of the leaves worked in one shade of stout
floss. All this applied to velvet with a couching of brown filoselle, and
the tendrils added. Designed and executed by Miss C. P. Shrewsbury.
(The property of the artist.)
89. simple stitching on linen, the broader bands in a canvas stitch in
yellow, the finer lines in back-stitch in pale grey silk. Italian. (Mrs. L.
F. D.)
90. simple couched outline work, in purplish silk cord upon linen. Part of
an altar-cloth. Italian. 16th century. (V. & A. M.)
91. renaissance ornament—Most gracefully designed arabesque. The
raised outline (couched) has somewhat the effect of cloisons, the satin-
stitch (in colours) of brilliant enamel. It is upon a white satin ground.
The foreshortened face in the picture is painted upon satin. Italian. Ca.
1700. (V. & A. M.)
92. appliqué design, in yellow satin upon crimson velvet—Double outline;
next the red, white, sewn with pale blue; next the yellow, gold. Midrib
of the leaf couched silver. Spanish, 16th century. (V. & A. M.)
93. satin-stitch—except that the heart-shaped features at the base and the
lily-shaped flowers, of which only the tips are shown, are outlined with
fine white cord. Part of a fan, worked by Miss Buckle, from a design
by L. F. D. (The property of the worker.)
94. leather appliqué upon velvet—The stitching well within the edge of
the leather.

Errata.

Page 30. Diagram belongs to G (Stem-Stitch) described on page 32, not C
(Thick Crewel-Stitch).
Page 125, 2nd line. For "lower" read "upper."

ART IN NEEDLEWORK.

EMBROIDERY AND STITCHING.

Embroidery begins with the needle, and the needle (thorn, fish-bone, or
whatever it may have been) came into use so soon as ever savages had the
wit to sew skins and things together to keep themselves warm—modesty,
we may take it, was an afterthought—and if the stitches made any sort of
pattern, as coarse stitching naturally would, that was embroidery.
The term is often vaguely used to denote all kinds of ornamental
needlework, and some with which the needle has nothing to do. That is
misleading; though it is true that embroidery does touch, on the one side,
tapestry, which may be described as a kind of embroidery with the shuttle,
and, on the other, lace, which is needlework pure and simple, construction
"in the air" as the Italian name has it.
The term is used in common parlance to express any kind of superficial or
superfluous ornamentation. A poet is said to embroider the truth. But such
metaphorical use of the word hints at the real nature of the work—
embellishment, enrichment, added. If added, there must first of all be
something it is added to—the material, that is to say, on which the
needlework is done. In weaving (even tapestry weaving) the pattern is got
by the inter-threading of warp and weft. In lace, too, it is got out of the
threads which make the stuff. In embroidery it is got by threads worked on
a fabric first of all woven on the loom, or, it might be, netted.
There is inevitably a certain amount of overlapping of the crafts. For
instance, take a form of embroidery common in all countries, Eastern,
Hungarian, or nearer home, in which certain of the weft threads of the linen
are drawn out, and the needlework is executed upon the warp threads thus
revealed. This is, strictly speaking, a sort of tapestry with the needle, just as,
it was explained, tapestry itself may be described as a sort of embroidery
with the shuttle. That will be clearly seen by reference to Illustration 1,
which shows a fragment of ancient tapestry found in a Coptic tomb in

Upper Egypt. In the lower portion of it the pattern appears light on dark. As
a matter of fact, it was wrought in white and red upon a linen warp; but, as
it happened, only the white threads were of linen, like the warp, the red
were woollen, and in the course of fifteen hundred years or so much of this
red wool has perished, leaving the white pattern intact on the warp, the
threads of which are laid bare in the upper part of the illustration.

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1. TAPESTRY, SHOWING WARP.

It is on just such upright lines of warp that all tapestry, properly so called, is
worked—whether with the shuttle or with the needle makes no matter—and
there is good reason, therefore, for the name of "tapestry stitch" to describe
needlework upon the warp threads only of a material (usually linen) from
which some of the weft threads have been withdrawn.

The only difference between true tapestry and drawn work, an example of
which is here given, is, that the one is done on a warp that has not before
been woven upon, and the other on a warp from which the weft threads
have been drawn. The distinction, therefore, between tapestry and
embroidery is, that, worked on a warp, as in Illustration 1, it is tapestry;
worked on a mesh, as in Illustration 3, it is embroidery.

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2. DRAWN WORK.

With regard, again, to lace. That is itself a web, independent of any
groundwork or foundation to support it. But it is possible to work it over a
silken or other surface; and there is a kind of embroidery which only floats
on the surface of the material without penetrating it. A fragment of last
century silk given in Illustration 35 shows plainly what is meant.

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3. STITCHING ON A SQUARE MESH.

Embroidery is enrichment by means of the needle. To embroider is to work
on something: a groundwork is presupposed. And we usually understand by
embroidery, needlework in thread (it may be wool, cotton, linen, silk, gold,
no matter what) upon a textile material, no matter what. In short, it is the
decoration of a material woven in thread by means still of thread. It is thus
the consistent way of ornamenting stuff—most consistent of all when one
kind of thread is employed throughout, as in the case of linen upon linen,
silk upon silk. The enrichment may, however, rightly be, and oftenest is,
perhaps, in a material nobler than the stuff enriched, in silk upon linen, in
wool upon cotton, in gold upon velvet. The advisability of working upon a

precious stuff in thread less precious is open to question. It does not seem to
have been satisfactorily done; but if it were only the background that was
worked, and the pattern were so schemed as almost to cover it, so that, in
fact, very little of the more beautiful texture was sacrificed, and you had
still a sumptuous pattern on a less attractive background—why not? But
then it would be because you wanted that less precious texture there. The
excuse of economy would scarcely hold good.
In the case of a material in itself unsightly, the one course is to cover it
entirely with stitching, as did the Persian and other untireable people of the
East. But not they only. The famous Syon cope is so covered. Much of the
work so done, all-over work that is to say, competes in effect with tapestry
or other weaving; and its purpose was similar: it is a sort of amateur way of
working your own stuff. But in character it is no more nearly related to the
work of the loom than other needlework—it is still work on stuff. For all-
over embroidery one chooses, naturally, a coarse canvas ground to work on;
but it more often happens that one chooses canvas because one means to
cover it, than that one works all over a ground because it is unpresentable.
Embroidery is merely an affair of stitching; and the first thing needful alike
to the worker in it and the designer for it is, a thorough acquaintance with
the stitches; not, of course, with every modification of a modification of a
stitch which individual ingenuity may have devised—it would need the
space of an encyclopædia to chronicle them all—but with the broadly
marked varieties of stitch which have been employed to best purpose in
ornament.
They are derived, naturally, from the stitches first used for quite practical
and prosaic purposes—buttonhole stitch, for example, to keep the edges of
the stuff from fraying; herring-bone, to strengthen and disguise a seam;
darning, to make good a worn surface; and so on.
The difficulty of discussing them is greatly increased by the haphazard way
in which they are commonly named. A stitch is called Greek, Spanish,
Mexican, or what not, according to the country whence came the work in
which some one first found it. Each names it after his or her individual
discovery, or calls it, perhaps, vaguely Oriental; and so we have any number

of names for the same stitch, names which to different people stand often
for quite different stitches.
When this confusion is complicated by the invention of a new name for
every conceivable combination of thread-strokes, or for each slightest
variation upon an old stitch, and even for a stitch worked from left to right
instead of from right to left, or for a stitch worked rather longer than usual,
the task of reducing them to order seems almost hopeless.
Nor do the quasi-learned descriptions of old stitches help us much. One
reads about opus this and opus that, until one begins to wonder where,
amidst all this parade of science, art comes in. But you have not far to go in
the study of the authorities to discover that, though they may concur in
using certain high-sounding Latin terms, they are not of the same mind as to
their meaning. In one thing they all agree, foreign writers as well as
English, and that is, as to the difficulty of identifying the stitch referred to
by ancient writers, themselves probably not acquainted with the technique
of stitching, and as likely as not to call it by a wrong name. It is easier, for
example, to talk of Opus Anglicanum than to say precisely what it was,
further than that it described work done in England; and for that we have
the simple word—English. There is nothing to show that mediæval English
work contained stitches not used elsewhere. The stitches probably all come
from the East.
Nomenclature, then, is a snare. Why not drop titles, and call stitches by the
plainest and least mistakable names? It will be seen, if we reduce them to
their native simplicity, that they fall into fairly-marked groups, or families,
which can be discussed each under its own head.
Stitches may be grouped in all manner of arbitrary ways—according to their
provenance, according to their effect, according to their use, and so on. The
most natural way of grouping them is according to their structure; not with
regard to whence they came, or what they do, but according to what they
are, the way they are worked. This, at all events, is no arbitrary
classification, and this is the plan it is proposed here to adopt.
The use of such classification hardly needs pointing out.

A survey of the stitches is the necessary preliminary, either to the design or
to the execution of needlework. How else suit the design to the stitch, the
stitch to the design? In order to do the one the artist must be quite at home
among the stitches; in order to do the other the embroidress must have
sympathy enough with a design to choose the stitch or stitches which will
best render it. An artist who thinks the working out of his sketch none of his
business is no practical designer; the worker who thinks design a thing apart
from her is only a worker.
This is not the moment to urge upon the needlewoman the study of design,
but to urge upon the designer the study of stitches. Nothing is more
impractical than to make a design without realising the labour involved in
its execution. Any one not in sympathy with stitching may possibly design a
beautiful piece of needlework, but no one will get all that is to be got out of
the needle without knowing all about it. One must understand the ways in
which work can be done in order to determine the way it shall in any
particular case be done.
Certain stitches answer certain purposes, and strictly only those. The
designer must know which stitch answers which purpose, or he will in the
first place waste the labour of the embroidress, and in the second miss his
effect, which is to waste his own pains too. The effective worker (designer
or embroiderer) is the one who works with judgment—and you cannot
judge unless you know. When it is remembered that the character of
needlework, and by rights also the character of its design, depends upon the
stitch, there will be no occasion to insist further upon the necessity of a
comprehensive survey of the stitches.
A stitch may be defined as the thread left on the surface of the cloth or what
not, after each ply of the needle.
And the simple straightforward stitches of this kind are not so many as one
might suppose. They may be reduced indeed to a comparatively few types,
as will be seen in the following chapters.

CANVAS STITCHES.

The simplest, as it is most likely the earliest used, stitch-group is what
might best be called Canvas stitch—of which cross-stitch is perhaps the
most familiar type, the class of stitches which come of following, as it is
only natural to do, the mesh of a coarse canvas, net, or open web upon
which the work is done.
A stitch bears always, or should bear, some relation to the material on which
it is worked; but canvas or very coarse linen almost compels a stitch based
upon the cross lines of its woof, and indeed suggests designs of equally
rigid construction. That is so in embroidery no matter where. In ancient
Byzantine or Coptic work, in modern Cretan work, and in peasant
embroidery all the world over, pattern work on coarse linen has run
persistently into angular lines—in which, because of that very angularity,
the plain outcome of a way of working, we find artistic character. Artistic
design is always expressive of its mode of workmanship.
Work of this kind is not too lightly to be dismissed. There is art in the
rendering of form by means of angular outlines, art in the choice of forms
which can be expressed by such lines. It is not uncharitable to surmise that
one reason why such work (once so universal and now quite out of fashion)
is not popular with needlewomen may be, the demand it makes upon the
designer's draughtmanship: it is much easier, for example, to draw a stag
than to render the creature satisfactorily within jagged lines determined by a
linen mesh.

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4. CROSS-STITCH.

The piquancy about natural or other forms thus reduced to angularity
argues, of course, no affectation of quaintness on the part of the worker, but
was the unavoidable outcome of her way of work. There is a pronounced
and early limit to art of this rather naïve kind, but that there is art in some of
the very simplest and most modest peasant work built up on those lines no
artist will deny. The art in it is usually in proportion to its modesty. Nothing
is more futile than to put it to anything like pictorial purpose. The
wonderfully wrought pictures in tent-stitch, for example, bequeathed to us
by the 17th century, are painful object lessons in what not to do.
The origin of the term cross-stitch is not far to seek: the stitches worked
upon the square mesh do cross. But, falling naturally into the lines of the
mesh which governs them, they present not so much the appearance of
crosses as of squares, reminding one of the tesseræ employed in mosaic.

to work
cross
stitch.

To explain the process of working cross-stitch would be teaching one's
grandmother indeed. It is simply, as its name implies, crossing one stitch by
another, following always the lines of the canvas. But the important thing
about it is that the stitches must cross always in the same way; and, more
than that, they must be worked in the same direction, or the mere fact that

the stitches at the back of the work do not run in the same way will disturb
the evenness of the surface. What looks like a seam on the sampler opposite
is the result of filling up a gap in the ground with stitches necessarily
worked in vertical, whereas the ground generally is in horizontal, lines. On
the face of the work the stitches cross all in the same way.
The common use of cross-stitch and the somewhat geometric kind of
pattern to which it lends itself are shown in the sampler, Illustration 5.
The broad and simple leafage, worked solid (A) or left in the plain canvas
upon a groundwork of solid stitching (B), and the fretted diaper on vertical
and horizontal lines (C), show the most straightforward ways of using it.

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5. CROSS-STITCH SAMPLER.

The criss-cross of alternating cross-stitches and open canvas framed by the
key pattern (C) shows a means of getting something like a tint halfway
between solid work and plain ground. The mere work line—or "stroke-
stitch," not crossed (D), is a perfectly fair way of getting a delicate effect;
but the design has a way of working out rather less happily than it
promised.
The addition of such stroke-stitches to solid cross-stitch (E) is not at best a
very happy device. It strikes one always as a confession of dissatisfaction
on the part of the worker with the simple means of her choice. As a device
for, as it were, correcting the stepped outline it is at its worst. Timid
workers are always afraid of the stepped outline which a coarse mesh gives.
In that they are wrong. One should employ canvas stitch only where there is
no objection to a line which keeps step with the canvas; then there is a
positive charm (for frank people at least) in the frank confession of the way
the work is done.
There are many degrees in the frankness with which this convention has
been accepted, according perhaps to the coarseness of the canvas ground,
perhaps to the personality of the worker. The animal forms at the top of
Illustration 6 are uncompromisingly square; the floral devices on the same
page, though they fall, as it were inevitably, into square lines, are less
rigidly formal. The inevitableness of the square line is apparent in the sprig
below (7). It was evidently meant to be freely drawn, but the influence of
the mesh betrays itself; and the design, if it loses something in grace, gains
also thereby in character.

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6. CANVAS-STITCH.

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7. CANVAS-STITCH.

There is literally no end to the variety of stitches, as they are called,
belonging to this group, and their names are a babel of confusion.
Florentine, Parisian, Hungarian, Spanish, Moorish, Cashmere, Milanese,
Gobelin, are only a few of them; but they stand, as a rule, rather for stitch
arrangements than for stitches. A small selection of them is given in
Illustration 8.

tent-
stitch A.

What is known as tent-stitch (A in the sampler opposite) is a sort of half
cross-stitch; its peculiarity is that it covers only one thread of the canvas at
a stroke, and is therefore on a more minute scale than stitches which are two
or three threads wide, as cross-stitch may, and cushion-stitch must, be. It
derives its name from the old word tenture, or tenter (tendere, to stretch),
the frame on which the embroidress distended her canvas. The word has
gone out of use, but we still speak of tenter-hooks. The stitch is serviceable
enough in its way, but is discredited by the monstrous abuse of it referred to
already. A picture in tent-stitch is even more foolish than a picture in
mosaic. It cannot come anywhere near to pictorial effect; the tesseræ will
pronounce themselves, and spoil it.

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8. CANVAS-STITCH SAMPLER.

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9. CUSHION AND SATIN STITCHES.

cross-
stitch B.

This kind of half cross-stitch worked on the larger scale of ordinary cross-
stitch would look meagre. It is filled out, therefore (B), by horizontal lines
of the thread laid across the canvas, and over these the stitch is worked.

cushion-
stitch C.

Cushion-stitch consists of diagonal lines of upright stitches, measuring in
the sampler (C) six threads of the canvas, so that after each stitch the needle
may be brought out just three threads lower than where it was put in. By
working in zigzag instead of diagonal lines, a familiar pattern is produced,
more often described as "Florentine;" but the stitch is in any case the same.

canvas-
stitch D.

The stitch at D (sometimes called Moorish stitch) is begun by working a
row of short vertical stitches, slightly apart, and completed by diagonal
stitches joining them.
Unless the silk employed is full and soft, this may not completely cover the
canvas, in which case the diagonal stitches must further be crossed as
shown on Illustration 89.
If the linen is loosely woven and the thread is tightly drawn in the working,
the mesh is pulled apart, giving the effect of an open lattice of the kind
shown at B, on Illustration 10, in which the threads of the linen are not
drawn out but drawn together.

canvas-
stitch E.

The way of working the stitch at E is described on page 51, under the name
of "fish-bone." Worked on canvas it has somewhat the effect of plaiting, and
goes by the name of "plait-stitch." It is worked in horizontal rows
alternately from left to right and from right to left.

canvas-
stitch F.

The stitch at F is a sort of couching (see page 124). Diagonal lines of thread
are first laid from edge to edge of the ground space, and these are sewn
down by short overcasting stitches in the cross direction.
Admirable canvas stitch work has been done upon linen in silk of one
colour—red, green, or blue—and it was a common practice to work the
background leaving the pattern in the bare stuff. It prevailed in countries
lying far apart, though probably not without inter-communication. In fact,
the influence of Oriental work upon European has been so great that even
experts hesitate sometimes to say whether a particular piece of work is
Turkish or Italian. In Italian work, at least, it was usual to get over the
angularity of silhouette inherent in canvas stitches by working an outline
separately. When that is thin, the effect is proportionately feeble. The
broader outline (shown at A, Illustration 10) justifies itself, and in the case
of a stitch which falls into horizontal lines, it appears to be necessary. This
is plait stitch, known also by the name of Spanish stitch—not that it is in
any way peculiar to Spain. It is allied to herring-bone-stitch, to which a
special chapter is devoted.

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10. PLAIT AND OPEN CANVAS STITCHES.

Darning is also employed as a canvas stitch. There is beautiful 16th century
Italian work (in coloured silks on dark net of the very open square mesh of
the period), which is most effective, and in which there is no pretence of
disguising the stepped outline; and in the very early days of Christian art in
Egypt and Byzantium, linen was darned in little square tufts of wool
upstanding on its surface, which look so much like the tesseræ of mosaic
that it seems as if they must have been worked in deliberate imitation of it.
Again, in the 15th century satin-stitch was worked on fine linen with strict
regard to the lines of its web; and the Persians, ancient and modern,

embroider white silk upon linen, also in satin-stitch, preserving piously the
rectangular and diagonal lines given by the material. They have their reward
in producing most characteristic needlework. The diapered ground in
Illustration 9 (page 20) is satin-stitch upon coarse linen.
The filling-in patterns used to such delicate and dainty purpose in the
marvellous work on fine cambric (Illustration 73) which competes in effect
with lace, though it is strictly embroidery, all follow in their design the lines
of the fabric, and are worked thread by thread according to its woof: they
afford again instances of perfect adaptation of stitch to material and of
design to stitch.
Satin and other stitches were worked by the old Italians (Illustration 3) on
square-meshed canvas, frankly on the square lines given by it, for the filling
in of ornamental details, though the outline might be much less formal. That
is to say, the surface of freely-drawn leaves, &c., instead of being worked
solid, was diapered over with more or less open pattern work constructed on
the lines of the weaving.
A cunning use of the square mesh of canvas has sometimes been made to
guide the worker upon other fabrics, such as velvet. This was first faced
with net: the design was then worked, over that, on to and into the velvet,
and the threads of the canvas were then drawn out. That is a device which
may serve on occasion. The design may even be traced upon the net.

CREWEL-STITCH.

For work in the hand, Crewel-Stitch is perhaps, on the whole, the easiest
and most useful of stitches; whence it comes that people sometimes vaguely
call all embroidery crewel work; though, as a matter of fact, the stitch
properly so called was never very commonly employed, even when the
work was done in "crewel," the double thread of twisted wool from which it
takes its name.

the working of A on crewel-stitch sampler.

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11. CREWEL-STITCH SAMPLER.

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12. CREWEL-STITCH SAMPLER (BACK).

to work
A.

Crewel-Stitch proper is shown at A on the sampler opposite, where it is
used for line work. It is worked as follows:—Having made a start in the
usual way, keep your thread downwards under your left thumb and below
your needle—that is, to the right; then take up with the needle, say ⅛th of
an inch of the stuff, and bring it out through the hole made in starting the
stitch, taking care not to pierce the thread. This gives the first half stitch. If
you proceed in the same way your next stitch will be full length. The test of

good workmanship is that at the back it should look like back-stitch
(Illustration 12), described on page 30.

the working of B on crewel-stitch sampler.

to work
B.

Outline-Stitch (B on sampler) differs from crewel-stitch only in that the
thread is always kept upwards above the needle, that is to the left. In so
doing the thread is apt to untwist itself, and wants constantly re-twisting.
The stitch is useful for single lines and for outlining solid work. The
muddled effect of much crewel work is due to the confusion of this stitch
with crewel-stitch proper.

to work
C.

Thick Crewel-Stitch (C on sampler) is only a little wider than ordinary
crewel-stitch, but gives a heavier line, in higher relief. In effect it resembles
rope-stitch, but it is more simply worked. You begin as in ordinary crewel-
stitch, but after the first half-stitch you take up ⅛th of an inch of the
material in advance of the last stitch, and bring out your needle at the point
where the first half-stitch began. You proceed, always putting your needle

in ⅛th of an inch in front of, and bringing it out ⅛th of an inch behind, the
last stitch, so as to have always ¼th of an inch of the stuff on your needle.

the working of G on crewel-stitch sampler.

to work
D.

Thick Outline-Stitch (D on sampler) is like thick crewel-stitch with the
exception that, as in ordinary outline-stitch (B), you keep your thread
always above the needle to the left.

to work
E.

In Back-Stitch (E), instead of first bringing the needle out at the point
where the embroidery is to begin, you bring it out ⅛th of an inch in advance
of it. Then, putting your needle back, you take up this ⅛th together with
another ⅛th in advance. For the next stitch you put your needle into the
hole made by the last stitch, and so on, taking care not to split the last
thread in so doing.

to work
F.

To work the Spots (F) on sampler—having made a back-stitch, bring your
needle out through the same hole as before, and make another back-stitch
above it, so that you have, in what appears to be one stitch, two thicknesses
of thread; then bring your needle out some distance in advance of the last

stitch, and proceed as before. The distance between the stitches is
determined by the effect you desire to produce. The thread should not be
drawn too tight.

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13. CREWEL WORK AND CREWEL-STITCH.

to work
G.

You begin Stem-Stitch (G) with the usual half-stitch. Then, holding the
thread downwards, instead of proceeding as in crewel-stitch (A) you slant
your needle so as to bring it out a thread or two higher up than the half-
stitch, but precisely above it. You next put the needle in ⅛th of an inch in

advance of the last stitch, and, as before, bring it out again in a slanting
direction a thread or two higher. At the back of the work (Illustration 12) the
stitches lie in a slanting direction.

to work
H.

To work wider Stem-Stitch (H). After the first two stitches, bring your
needle out precisely above and in a line with them, and put it in again ⅛th
of an inch in advance of the last stitch, producing a longer stroke, which
gives the measure of those following. The slanting stitches at the back
(Illustration 12) are only two-thirds of the length of those on the face.
Crewel and Outline Stitches worked (J) side by side give somewhat the
effect of a braid. The importance of not confusing them, already referred to,
is here apparent.
Crewel-Stitch is worked solid in the heart-shape in the centre of the
sampler. On the left side the rows of stitching follow the outline of the
heart; on the right they are more upright, merely conforming a little to the
shape to be filled. This is the better method.

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14. CREWEL WORK IN VARIOUS STITCHES.

to work
solid
crewel-
stitch.

The way to work solid crewel-stitch will be best explained by an instance.
Suppose a leaf to be worked. You begin by outlining it; if it is a wide leaf,
you further work a centre line where the main rib would be, and then work
row within row of stitches until the space is filled. If on arriving at the point
of your leaf, instead of going round the edge, you work back by the side of
the first row of stitching, there results a streakiness of texture, apparent in

the stem on Illustration 13. What you get is, in effect, a combination of
crewel and outline stitches, as at J, which in the other case only occurs in
the centre of the shape where the files of stitches meet.
To represent shading in crewel-stitch, to which it is admirably suited (A,
Illustration 41), it is well to work from the darkest shadows to the highest
lights. And it is expedient to map out on the stuff the outline of the space to
be covered by each shade of thread. There is no difficulty then in working
round that shape, as above explained.
In solid crewel the stitches should quite cover the ground without pressing
too closely one against the other.

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15. CREWEL-STITCH IN TWISTED SILK.

It does not seem that Englishwomen of the 17th century were ever very
faithful to the stitch we know by the name of crewel. Old examples of work
done entirely in crewel-stitch, as distinguished from what is called crewel
work, are seldom if ever to be met with. The stitch occurs in most of the old
English embroidery in wool; but it is astonishing, when one comes to
examine the quilts and curtains of a couple of hundred years or so ago, how
very little of the woolwork on them is in crewel-stitch. The detail on
Illustration 13 was chosen because it contained more of it than any other
equal portion of a handsome and typical English hanging; but it is only in
the main stem, and in some of the outlines, that the stitch is used. And that
appears to have been the prevailing practice—to use crewel-stitch for stems
and outlines, and for little else but the very simplest forms. The filling in of
the leafage, the diapering within the leaf shapes, and the smaller and more
elaborate details generally were done in long-and-short-stitch, or whatever
came handiest. In fact, the thing to be represented, fruit, berry, flower, or
what not, seems to have suggested the stitch, which it must be confessed
was sometimes only a sort of scramble to get an effect.
Of course the artist always chooses her stitch, and she is free to alter it as
occasion may demand; but a good workwoman (and the embroidress is a
needlewoman first and an artist afterwards, perhaps) adopts in every case a
method, and departs from it only for very good reason. It looks as if our
ancestors had set to work without system or guiding principle at all. No
doubt they got a bold and striking effect in their bed-hangings and the like;
but there is in their work a lack of that conscious aim which goes to make
art. Theirs is art of the rather artless sort which is just now so popular.
Happily it was kept in the way it should go by a strict adherence to
traditional pattern, which for the time being seems to have gone completely
out of fashion.
Quite in the traditional manner is Illustration 14. One would fancy at first
sight that the work was almost entirely in crewel-stitch. As a matter of fact,
there is little which answers to the name, as an examination of the back of
the work shows plainly enough. What the stitches are it is not easy to say.

The mystery of many a stitch is to be unravelled only by literally picking
out the threads, which one is not always at liberty to do, although, in the
ardour of research, a keen embroidress will do it—not without remorse in
the case of beautiful work, but relentlessly all the same.
The only piece of embroidery entirely in crewel-stitch which I could find
for illustration (15) is worked, as it happens, in silk; nor was the worker
aware that in so working she was doing anything out of the common.
Another instance of crewel-stitch is given in the divided skirt, let us call it,
of the personage in Illustration 72.
Beautiful back-stitching occurs in the Italian work on Illustration 89, and
the stitch is used for sewing down the appliqué in Illustration 94.

CHAIN-STITCH.

Chain and Tambour Stitch are in
effect practically the same, and
present the same rather granular
surface. The difference between
them is that chain-stitch is done in
the hand with an ordinary needle,
and tambour-stitch in a frame with
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a hook sharper at the turning point
than an ordinary crochet hook. One
16. CHAIN-STITCH AND KNOTS. takes it rather for granted that work
which was presumably done in the
hand (a large quilt, for example) is
chain-stitch, and that what seems to have been done in a frame is tambour
work, though it is possible, but not advisable of course, to work chain-stitch
in a frame.
Chain-stitch is not to be confounded with split-stitch (see page 105), which
somewhat resembles it.

to work
A.

To work chain-stitch (A on the sampler, Illustration 17) bring the needle
out, hold the thread down with the left thumb, put the needle in again at the
hole through which you brought it out, take up ¼ of an inch of stuff, and
draw the thread through: that gives you the first link of the chain. The back
of the work (18) looks like back-stitch. In fact, in the quilted coverlet,
Illustration 69 (as in much similar work of the period), the outline pattern,
which you might take for back-stitching, proves to have been worked from

the back in chain-stitch. The same thing occurs in the case of the Persian
quilt in Illustration 70.

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17. CHAIN-STITCH SAMPLER.

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18. CHAIN-STITCH SAMPLER (BACK).

to work
B.

A playful variation upon chain-stitch (B on the sampler, Illustration 17) is
effected by the use of two threads of different colour. Take in your needle a
dark and a light thread, say the dark one to the left, and bring them out at
the point at which your work begins. Hold the dark thread under your
thumb, and, keeping the light one to the right, well out of the way, draw
both threads through; this makes a dark link; the light thread disappears,
and comes out again to the left of the dark one, ready to be held under the
thumb while you make a light link. This "magic stitch," as it has been

called, is no new invention. It is to be found in Persian, Indian, and Italian
Renaissance work. An instance of it occurs in Illustration 64.

to work
C.

A variety of chain-stitch (C on the sampler, Illustration 17) used often in
church work, more solid in appearance, the links not being so open, is
rather differently done. Begin a little in advance of the starting point of your
work, hold the thread under your thumb, put the needle in again at the
starting point slightly to the left, bring your needle out about ⅛th of an inch
below where it first went in but precisely on the same line, and you have the
first link of your chain.

to work
D.

To work what is known as cable-chain (D on the sampler, Illustration 17)
keep your thread to the right, put in your needle, pointing downwards, a
little below the starting point, and bring it out about ¼th of an inch below
where you put it in; then put it through the little stitch just formed, from
right to left, hold your thread towards the left under your thumb, put your
needle through the stitch now in process of making from right to left, draw
up the thread, and the first two links of your chain are made.

to work
E.

A zigzag chain, of a rather fancy description, goes by the name of Vandyke
chain (E on the sampler, Illustration 17). To make it, bring your needle out
at a point which is to be the left edge of your work, and make a slanting
chain-stitch from left to right; then, putting your needle into that, make
another slanting stitch, this time from right to left—and so to and fro to the
end.

to work
F.

The braid-stitch shown at F on the sampler (Illustration 17) is worked as
follows, horizontally from right to left. Bring your needle out at a point
which is to be the lower edge of your work, throw your thread round to the
left, and, keeping it all the time loosely under your thumb, put your needle
under the thread and twist it once round to the right. Then, at the upper edge
of your work, put in the needle and slide the thread towards the right, bring
the needle out exactly below where you put it in, carry your thread under
the needle towards the left, draw the thread tight, and your first stitch is
done.

the working of F on chain-stitch sampler.

to work
G.

A yet more fanciful variety of braid-stitch (G on the sampler, Illustration
17) is worked vertically, downwards. Having, as before, put your needle
under the thread and twisted it once round, put it in at a point which is to be
the left edge of your work, and, instead of bringing it out immediately
below that point, slant it to the right, bringing it out on that edge of the
work, and finish your stitch as in the case of F.
These braid-stitches look best worked in stout thread of close texture.

In covering a surface with chain-stitch (needlework or tambour) the usual
plan is to follow the contour of the design, working chain within chain until
the leaf or whatever it may be is filled in. This stitch is rarely worked in
lines across the forms, but it has been effectively used in that way,
following always the lines of the warp and weft of the stuff. Even in that
case the successive lines of stitching should be all in one direction—not
running backwards and forwards—or it will result in a sort of pattern of
braided lines. The reason for the more usual practice of following the
outline of the design is obvious. The stitch lends itself to sweeping, even to
perfectly spiral, lines—such as occur in Greek wave patterns: it was, in fact,
made use of in that way by the Greeks some four or five centuries b.c.

the working of G on chain-stitch sampler.

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19. CHAIN AND SURFACE STITCHES.

We owe the tambour frame, they say, to China; but it has been largely used,
and abused indeed, in England. Tambour work, when once you have the
trick of it, is very quickly done—in about one-sixth of the time it would
take to do it with the needle. It has the further advantage that it serves
equally well for embroidery on a light or on a heavy stuff, and that it is
most lasting. The misfortune is that the sewing machine has learnt to do
something at once so like it and so mechanically even, as to discredit
genuine hand-work, whether tambour work or chain-stitch. For all that,
neither is to be despised. If they have often a mechanical appearance that is
not all the fault of the stitch: the worker is to blame. Indian embroiderers
depart sometimes so far from mechanical precision as to shock the admirers
of monotonously even work. Artistic use of chain stitch is made in many of
our illustrations: for outlines in Illustrations 24 and 72; for surface covering
in Mr. Crane's lion, Illustration 74; to represent landscape in Illustration 78,
where everything except the faces of the little men is in chain-stitch; and
again for figure work in Illustration 81. In Illustration 19 it occurs in
association with a curious surface stitch; in Illustration 64 it is used to
outline and otherwise supplement inlay. The old Italians did not disdain to

use it. In fact, wherever artists have employed it, they show that there is
nothing inherently inartistic about the stitch.

HERRING-BONE STITCH.

Herring-bone is the name by which it is customary to distinguish a variety
of stitches somewhat resembling the spine of a fish such as the herring. It
would be simpler to describe them as "fish-bone;" but that term has been
appropriated to describe a particular variety of it. One would have thought it
more convenient to use fish for the generic term, and a particular fish for
the specific. However, it saves confusion to use names as far as possible in
their accepted sense.
It will be seen from the sampler, Illustration 20, that this stitch may be
worked open or tolerably close; but in the latter case it loses something of
its distinctive character. Fine lines may be worked in it, but it appears most
suited to the working of broadish bands and other more or less even-sided
or, it may be, tapering forms, more feathery in effect than fish-bone-like,
such as are shown at E on sampler.
Ordinary herring-bone is such a familiar stitch that the necessity of
describing it is rather a matter of literary consistency than of practical
importance.
The two simpler forms of herring-bone (it is always worked from left to
right, and begun with a half-stitch) marked A and C on the sampler are
strikingly different in appearance, and are worked in different ways—as
will be seen at once by reference to the back of the sampler (Illustration 21),
where the stitches take in the one case a horizontal and in the other a
vertical direction.
to work
A.

To work A, bring your needle out about the centre of the line to be worked;
put it into the lower edge of the line about ⅛th of an inch further on; take up

this much of the stuff, and, keeping the thread to the right, above the needle,
draw it through. Then, with the thread below it, to the right, put your needle
into the upper edge of the line ¼th of an inch further on, and, turning it
backwards, take up again ⅛th of an inch of stuff, bringing it out
immediately above where it went in on the lower edge.

to work
B.

What is called "Indian Herring-bone" (B) is merely stitch A worked in
longer and more slanting stitches, so that there is room between them for a
second row in another colour, the two colours being, of course, properly
interlaced.

to work
C.

To work C, bring your needle out as for A, and, putting it in at the upper
edge of the line to be worked and pointing it downwards, whilst your thread
lies to the right, take up ever so small a piece of the stuff. Then, slightly in
advance of the last stitch, the thread still to the right, your needle now
pointing upwards, take another similar stitch from the lower edge.

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20. HERRING-BONE SAMPLER.

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21. HERRING-BONE SAMPLER (BACK).

to work
D.

The variety at D is merely a combination of A and C, as may be seen by
reference to the back of the sampler (opposite); though the short horizontal
stitches there seen meet, instead of being wide apart as in the case of A.

the working of E on herring-bone sampler.

to work
E.

What is known as "fish-bone" is illustrated in the three feathery shapes on
the sampler (E), two of which are worked rather open. It is characteristic of
this stitch that it has a sort of spine up the centre where the threads cross.
Suppose the stitch to be worked horizontally. Bring your needle out on the
under edge of the spine about ¼th of an inch from the starting point of the
work, and put it in on the upper edge of the work at the starting point,
bringing it out immediately below that on the lower edge of the work. Put it
in again on the upper edge of the spine, rather in advance of where it came
out on the lower edge of it before, and bring it out on the lower edge of this
spine immediately below where it entered.

the working of F on herring-bone sampler.

to work
F.

In close herring-bone (F on the sampler, Illustration 20) you have always a
long stitch from left to right, crossed by a shorter stitch which goes from
right to left. Having made a half stitch, bring the needle out at the beginning
of the line to be worked, at the lower edge, and put it in ⅛th of an inch from
the beginning of the upper edge. Bring it out again at the beginning of this
edge and put it in at the lower edge ¼th of an inch from the beginning,
bringing it out on the same edge ⅛th of an inch from the beginning. Put the
needle in again on the upper edge ⅛th of an inch in front of the last stitch
on that edge, and bring it out again, without splitting the thread, on the same
edge as the hole where the last stitch went in.
If you wish to cover a surface with herring-bone-stitch, you work it, of
course, close, so that each successive stitch touches its foregoer at the point
where the needle enters the stuff (F on the sampler, Illustration 20). It will
be seen that at the back (21) this looks like a double row of back-stitching.
Worked straight across a wide leaf, as in the lower half of sampler, it is
naturally very loose. A better method of working is shown in the side
leaves, which are worked in two halves, beginning at the base of a leaf on
one side and working down to it on the other. There is here just the
suggestion of a mid-rib between the two rows.

the working of G on herring-bone sampler.

to work
G.

The stitch at G on sampler, having the effect of higher relief than ordinary
close herring-bone (F), is sometimes misleadingly described as tapestry
stitch. It is worked, as the back of the sampler (21) clearly shows, in quite a
different way. You get there parallel rows of double stitches. Having made a
half-stitch entering the material at the upper edge of the work, bring the
needle out on the lower edge of it immediately opposite. Then, going back,
put it in at the beginning of the upper edge, and bring it out at the beginning
of the lower one. Thence take a long slanting stitch upwards from left to
right, bring the needle out on the lower edge immediately opposite, cross it
by a rather shorter stitch from right to left, entering the stuff at the point
where the first half-stitch ended, bring this out on the lower edge, opposite,
and the stitch is done.
The artistic use of herring-bone-stitch is shown in the leaves of the tulip
(84), and a closer variety of it in the pink, or whatever the flower may be, in
the hand of the little figure on Illustration 72.

BUTTONHOLE-STITCH.

Buttonhole is more useful in ornament than one might expect a stitch with
such a very utilitarian name to be. It is, as its common use would lead one
to suppose, pre-eminently a one-edged stitch, a stitch with which to mark
emphatically the outside edge of a form. There is, however, a two-edged
variety known as ladder-stitch, shown in the two horn shapes on the
sampler, Illustration 22.
By the use of two rows back to back, leaf forms may be fairly expressed. In
the leaves on the sampler, the edge of the stitch is used to emphasise the
mid rib, leaving a serrated edge to the leaves. The character of the stitch
would have been better preserved by working the other way about, and
marking the edge of the leaves by a clear-cut line, as in the case of the solid
leaves in Illustration 73.
The stitch may be used for covering a ground or other broad surface, as in
the pot shape (J) on the sampler, where the diaper pattern produced by its
means explains itself the better for being worked in two shades of colour.
The simpler forms of the stitch are the more useful. Worked in the form of a
wheel, as in the rosettes at the side of the vase shape (A), the ornamental
use of the stitch is obvious.
to work
A.

One need hardly describe Buttonhole Stitch. The simple form of it (A) is
worked by (when you have brought your needle out) keeping the thread
under your thumb to the right, whilst you put the needle in again at a higher
point slightly to the right, and bring it out immediately below, close to
where it came out before. This and other one-edged stitches of the kind are
sometimes called "blanket-stitch."

The only difference between versions such as B and C on the sampler, and
simple buttonhole, is that the stitches vary in length according to the
worker's fancy.

to work
E.

The Crossed Buttonhole Stitch at E is worked by first making a stitch
sloping to the right, and then a smaller buttonhole-stitch across this from the
left.
The border marked D in sampler consists merely of two rows of slanting
buttonhole-stitch worked one into the other. Needlewomen have wilful
ways of making what should be upright stitches slant awkwardly in all
manner of ways, with the result that they look as if they had been pulled out
of the straight.

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22. BUTTONHOLE SAMPLER.

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23. BUTTONHOLE SAMPLER (BACK).

to work
F.

The border at F, known as "Tailor's Buttonhole," is worked with the firm
edge from you, instead of towards you, as you work ordinary buttonhole.

Bringing the thread out at the upper edge of the work to the left, and letting
it lie on that side, you put your needle in again still on the same edge, and
bring it out, immediately below, on the lower one. You then, before drawing
the thread quite through, put your needle into the loop from behind, and
tighten it upwards.

the working of H on buttonhole sampler.

to work
G.

In order to make your ladder-stitch (G) square at the end, you begin by
making a bar of the width the stitch is to be. Then, holding the thread under
your thumb to the right, you put the needle in at the top of the bar and,
slanting it towards the right, bring it out on a level with the other end of the
bar somewhat to the right. This makes a triangle. With the point of your
needle, pull the slanting thread out at the top, to form a square; insert the
needle; slant it again to the right; draw it out as before, and you have your
second triangle.

to work
H.

The difference between the working of the lattice-like band at H, and
ladder-stitch G, is that, having completed your first triangle, you make, by
buttonholing a stitch, a second triangle pointing the other way, which
completes a rectangular shape.

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24. BUTTONHOLE, CHAIN, AND KNOT STITCHES.

In the solid work shown at J, you make five buttonhole-stitches, gathering
them to a point at the base, then another five, and so on. Repeat the process,
this time point upwards, and you have the first band of the pot shape.
Characteristic and most beautiful use is made of buttonhole stitch in the
piece of Indian work in Illustration 24, where it is outlined with chain stitch,
which goes most perfectly with it.

Cut work, such as that on Illustration 65, is strengthened by outlining it in
buttonhole-stitch.
Ladder-stitch occurs in the cusped shapes framing certain flowers in
Illustration 72, embroidered all in blue silk on linen. It is not infrequent in
Oriental work, and, in fact, goes sometimes by the name of Cretan-stitch on
that account.

FEATHER AND ORIENTAL STITCHES.

Feather-stitch is simply buttonholing in a slanting direction, first to the
right side and then to the left, keeping the needle strokes in the centre closer
together or farther apart according to the effect to be produced.
It owes its name, of course, to the more or less feathery effect resulting
from its rather open character. Like buttonhole, it may be worked solid, as
in the leaf and petal forms on the sampler, Illustration 25, but it is better
suited to cover narrow than broad surfaces. The jagged outline which it
gives makes it useful in embroidering plumage, but it is not to be
confounded with what is called "plumage-stitch," which is not feather-stitch
at all, but a version of satin-stitch.
The feathery stem (A) on the sampler is simply a buttonholing worked
alternately from right to left and left to right.
to work
B.

The border line at B requires rather more explanation. Presume it to be
worked vertically. Bring your needle out at the left edge of the band; put it
in at the right edge immediately opposite, keeping your thread under the
needle to the right; bring it out again still on the right edge a little lower
down, and then, keeping your thread to the left, put the needle in on the left
edge, opposite to where you last brought it out, and bring it out again on the
same edge a little lower down.

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25. FEATHER-STITCH SAMPLER.

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26. FEATHER-STITCH SAMPLER (BACK).

The border at C is merely an elaboration of the above, with three slanting
stitches on each edge instead of a single one in the direction of the band.

the working of G G on feather-stitch sampler.

Bands D, E, F, G, are variations of ordinary feather-stitch, requiring no
further explanation than the back view of the work (26) affords. On the face
of the sampler it will be noticed that lines have been drawn for the guidance
of the worker. These are always four in number, indicating at once, that the
stitch is made with four strokes of the needle, and the points at which it is
put in and out of the stuff.

to work
G G.

In working G G, suppose four guiding lines to have been drawn as above—
numbered, 1, 2, 3, 4, from left to right. Bring your needle out at the top of
line 1. Make a chain-stitch slanting downwards from line 1 to line 2. Put
your needle into line 3 about ⅛th of an inch lower down, and, slanting it
upwards, bring it out on line 4 level with the point where you last brought it
out. Make a chain-stitch slanting downwards this time from right to left,
and bring your needle out on line 3. Lastly, put your needle into line 2, ⅛th

of an inch below the last stitch, and, slanting it upwards, bring it out on line
1.
Feather-stitch is not adapted to covering broad surfaces solidly, but may be
used for narrow ones.
Oriental-stitch is the name given to a close kind of feather-stitch much
used in Eastern work. The difference at once apparent to the eye between
the two is that, whereas for the mid-rib of a band or leaf of feather-stitching
(25) you have cross lines, in Oriental-stitch (27) you have a straight line—
longer or shorter as the case may be.
Oriental-stitch, sometimes called "Antique-stitch," is a stitch in three
strokes, just as feather-stitch is a stitch in four. It is usually worked
horizontally, though shown upright on the sampler, Illustration 27. Like
feather-stitch (see diagram), it is worked on four guiding lines, faintly
visible on the sampler.

to work
A, B, C.

Stitches A, B, and C are worked in precisely the same way. Bring your
needle out at the top of line 1. Keep the thread under your thumb to the
right and put your needle in at the top of line 4, bringing it out into line 3 on
the same level. Then put it in again at line 2, just on the other side of the
thread, and bring it out on line 1 ready to begin the next stitch.

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27. ORIENTAL-STITCH SAMPLER.

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28. ORIENTAL-STITCH SAMPLER (BACK).

It will be seen that the length of the central part (or mid-rib, as it was called
above) makes the whole difference between the three varieties of stitch. In
A the three parts are equal: in B the mid-rib is narrow: in C it is broad, as is
most plainly seen on the back of the sampler (28). The difference is only a
difference of proportion.

the working of A, B, C on oriental-stitch sampler.

to work
D.

The sloping stitch at D is worked in the same way as A, B, C, except that
instead of straight strokes with the needle you make slanting ones.

to work
E.

Stitch E differs from D in that the side strokes slant both in the same
direction. It is worked from right to left instead of from left to right.

to work
F.

Stitch F is a combination of buttonhole and Oriental stitches. Between two
rows of buttonholing (dark on sampler) a single row of Oriental-stitch is
worked.
The stitch employed for the central stalk, G, has really no business on this
sampler, except that it has something of the appearance of a continuous
Oriental-stitch.

Oriental-stitch is one of the stitches used in Illustration 72.

ROPE AND KNOT STITCHES.

A single sampler is devoted to Rope and Knotted Stitches, more nearly
akin than they look, for rope-stitch is all but knotted as it is worked.
Rope-stitch is so called because of its appearance. It takes a large amount
of silk or wool to work it, but the effect is correspondingly rich. It is worked
from right to left, and is easier to work in curved lines than in straight.

to work
A, B.

Lines A on the sampler, Illustration 29, represent the ordinary appearance of
the stitch; its construction is more apparent in the central stalk B, which is a
less usual form of the same stitch, worked wider apart.

the working of A, B, on rope-stitch sampler.

Having brought out your needle at the right end of the work, hold part of
the thread towards the left, under the thumb, the rest of it falling to the

right; put your needle in above where it came out, slant it towards you, and
bring it out again a little in advance of where it came out before, and just
below the thread held under your thumb. Draw the thread through, and
there results a stitch which looks rather like a distorted chain stitch (B). The
next step is to make another similar stitch so close to the foregoing one that
it overlaps it partly. It is this overlapping which gives the stitch the raised
and rope-like appearance seen at A.

the working of C on rope-stitch sampler.

to work
C.

A knotted line (C in the sampler, Illustration 29) is produced by what is
known as "German Knot-stitch," effective only in thick soft silk or wool.
Begin as in rope stitch, keeping your thread in the same position. Then put
your needle into the stuff just above the thread stretched under your thumb,
and bring it out just below and in a line with where it went in; lastly, keep
the needle above the loose end of the thread, draw it through, tightening the
thread upwards, and you have the first of your knots: the rest follow at
intervals determined by your wants.

to work
D.

The more open stitch at D is practically the same thing, except that in
crossing the running thread you take up more of the stuff on each side of it.

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29. ROPE-STITCH AND KNOT-STITCH SAMPLER.

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30. ROPE-STITCH AND KNOT-STITCH SAMPLER (BACK).

to work
E.

What is known by the name of "Old English Knot-stitch" (E) is a much
more complicated stitch. Keeping your thread well out of the way to the
right, put your needle in to the left, and take up vertically a piece of the stuff
the width of the line to be worked at its widest, and draw the thread
through. Then, keeping it under the thumb to the left, put your needle, eye
first, downwards, through the slanting stitch just made; draw the thread not
too tight, and, keeping it as before under the thumb, put your needle, eye

first, this time through the upper half only of the slanting stitch, making a
kind of buttonhole-stitch round the last, and draw out your thread.
These knotted rope stitches, call them what you will, are rather ragged and
fussy—not much more than fancy stitches—of no great importance. Knots
used separately are of much more artistic account.

to work
F.

Bullion or Roll-stitch is shown in its simplest form in the petals of the
flowers F on the sampler, Illustration 29. To work one such petal, begin by
attaching the thread very firmly; bring your needle out at the base of the
petal, put it in at the tip, and bring it out once more at the base, only
drawing it partly through. With your right hand wind the thread, say seven
times, round the projecting point of the needle from left to right. Then,
holding the coils under your left thumb, your thread to the right, draw your
needle and thread through; and, dropping the needle, and catching the
thread round your little finger, take hold of the thread with your thumb and
first finger and draw the coiled stitch to the right, tightening it gently until
quite firm. Lastly, put the needle through at the tip of the petal, and the
stitch is complete and ready to be fastened off.

the working of F on knot-stitch sampler.

The leaves of these flowers consist simply of two bullion stitches. The
bullion knots at the side of the central stalk are curled by taking up in the
first instance only the smallest piece of the stuff.

to work
G.

To work French Knots (G), having brought out your needle at the point
where the knot is to be, hold the thread under your thumb, and, letting it lie
to the right, put your needle under the stretched part of it. Turn the needle so
as to twist the thread once round it. That done, put the needle in again about
where it came out, draw it through from the back, and bring it out where the
next knot is to be.
For large knots use two or more threads of silk, and do not twist them more
than once. With a single thread you may twist twice, but the result of
twisting three or four times is never happy.

the working of G on knot-stitch sampler.

The use of knots is shown to perfection in Illustration 24. Worked there in
white silk floss upon a dark purple ground, they are quite pearly in
appearance, whether in rows between the border lines, or scattered over the
ground. They are most useful in holding the design together, giving it mass,

and go admirably with chain-stitching, to which, when close together, they
have at first sight some likeness. A single line of knots may almost be
mistaken for chain-stitch; but of themselves they do not make a good
outline, lacking firmness. A happier use of them is to fringe an outline, as
for example in the peacock's tail on page 38; but this kind of thing must be
used with reticence, or it results in a rather rococo effect. Good use is
sometimes made of knots to pearl the inner edge of a pattern worked in
outline, or to pattern the ornament (instead of the ground) all over.
Differencing of this kind may be an afterthought—and a happy one—
affording as it does a ready means of qualifying the colour or texture of
ground, or pattern, or part of either, which may not have worked out quite to
the embroiderer's liking.
The obvious fitness of knots to represent the stamens of flowers is
exemplified in Illustration 93. Worked close together, they represent
admirably the eyes of composite flowers, as on the sampler; they give,
again, valuable variety of texture to the crest of the stork in Illustration 85.
The effect of knotting in the mass is shown in Illustration 31, embroidered
entirely in knots, contradicting, it might seem, what was said above about
its unfitness for outline work. The lines, even the voided ones, are here as
sharp as could be; but then, it is not many of us who work, knot by knot,
with the marvellous precision of a Chinaman. His knotted texture is not,
however, always what it seems. He has a way of producing a knotted line
by first knotting his thread (it may be done with a netting needle), and then
stitching it down on to the surface of the material, which gives a pearled or
beaded line not readily distinguishable from knot stitch.

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31. A TOUR DE FORCE IN KNOTS.

The Japanese embroiderer, instead of knotting his own thread, employed
very often a crinkled braid. This is shown in the cloud work in Illustration
85. The only true knotting there is in the top-knot of the bird.

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32. INTERLACING-STITCH SAMPLER.

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33. INTERLACING-STITCH SAMPLER (BACK).

INTERLACINGS, SURFACE STITCHES, AND
DIAPERS.

The samplers so far discussed bring us, with the exception of Darning,
Satin-stitch, and some stitches presently to be mentioned, practically to the
end of the stitches, deserving to be so called, generally in use.
By combining two or more stitches endless complications may be made;
and there may be occasions when, for one purpose or another, it may be
necessary, as well as amusing, to invent them. In this way stitches are also
sometimes worked upon stitches, as shown on the sampler, Illustration 32.
You will see, on referring to the back of it (33), that only the white silk is
worked into the stuff: the dark is surface work only. There is no end to such
possible interlacings. Those on the sampler do not need much explanation;
but it may be as well to say that A starts with crewel-stitching; B and C with
back-stitching; D with chain-stitching; E with darning or running; F, G, and
H with varieties of herring-bone-stitch; J with Oriental-stitch; and K with
feather-stitch. The interlacing on the surface of these is shown in darker
silk. C and G undergo a second course of interlacing.
The danger of splitting the first stitches in working the interlacing ones, is
avoided by passing the needle eye-first through them.
Other surface work, sometimes called lace-stitch, is illustrated in the
sampler, Illustration 34. There is really no limit to patterns of this kind.
Some are better worked in a frame, but that is very much a matter of
personal practice.

the working of F on interlacing-stitch sampler.

to work
H, 34.

In the Surface Darning at H (34) long threads are first carried from edge to
edge of the square, there only piercing the stuff, and then darned across by
other stitches, again only piercing it at the edges.
An oblique version of this is given at C (34).

to work
B, 34.

The Lace Buttonholing at B (34) is worked as follows:—Buttonhole three
stitches into the stuff from left to right, not quite close together, and further
on three more; then, working from right to left, make three buttonhole
stitches into the thread connecting the stitch groups; but do not stitch into
the stuff except at the ends of the rows. The last row must, of course, be
worked into the stuff again.

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34. SURFACE-STITCH SAMPLER.

to work
F, 34.

Net Passing, as at F (34), is not very differently worked from A or B. It is
much more open, and the first row of horizontal stitches is crossed by two
opposite rows of oblique stitches, which are made to interlace.

to work
G, 34.

The square at G is worked by first making rows of short upright stitches
worked into the stuff, and then threading loose stitches through them.

to work
D, 34.

The square at D is worked on the open lattice shown; the solid parts are
produced by interlacing stitches from side to side, starting at the angle.
In the square at E (Japanese Darning) horizontal lines are first darned, and
then zigzag lines are worked between them, much as in G; but, as they
penetrate the material, this is scarcely a surface stitch.

to work
A, 34.

The horizontal lines at top and bottom of the square at A are back-stitching,
the intermediate ones simply long threads carried from one side to the
other; they are laced together by lines looped round them.

to work
L, 34.

The band at L is begun by making horizontal bar stitches. A row of crewel-
stitch and one of outline-stitch, worked on to the bars, and not into the stuff,
makes the central chain.

to work
K, 34.

The band at K is merely surface buttonholing over a series of slanting
stitches.

to work
J, 34.

The band at J is buttonhole stitching wide apart, the bars filled in with
surface crewel-stitch.

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35. LACE OR SURFACE STITCH.

Most delicate surface stitching occurs in Illustration 35, the fine net being
worked only from edge to edge of the spaces it fills, and not elsewhere
entering the stuff; which accounts for most of it being worn away. The
flower or scroll-work is bonâ fide embroidery, worked through the stuff.
The delicate network of fine stitching, which once covered the whole of the
background, is for the most part neither more nor less than a floating
gossamer of lacework. One cannot deny that that is embroidery, though it
has to be said that lace-stitches are employed in it.
Stern embroiderers would like to deny it. Of course it is frivolous, and in a
sense flimsy, but it is also delicate and dainty to a degree. It is suited only to

dress, and that of the most exquisite kind. A French marquise of the
Regency might have worn it, and possibly did wear it, with entire propriety
—if the word is not out of keeping with the period.
The frailty of this kind of thing is too obvious to need mention, and that, of
course, is a strong argument against it.
All attempt to give separate names to diapers of this kind, whether worked
upon the surface or into the stuff, is futile. They ought not even to be called
stitches, being, in fact, neither more nor less than stitch patterns, to which
there is no possible limit, unless it be the limit of human invention. Every
ingenious workwoman will find out patterns of her own more or less. They
are very useful for filling in surfaces (pattern or background) which it may
be inexpedient to work more solidly.
The greater part of such patterns are geometric (Illustrations 35 and 73),
following, that is to say, the mesh of the material, and making no secret of
it. On Illustration 3 you see very plainly how the rectangular diaperings are
built up geometrically on the square lines of the mesh, as was practically
inevitable working on such a ground. The relation of stitch to stuff is here
obvious.
The choice of stitch patterns of this kind is invariably left to the
needlewoman. The utmost a designer need do is to indicate on his drawing
that a "full," "open," or "intermediate" diaper is to be used. And the
alternation of lighter and heavier diapers should be planned, and not left
altogether to impulse, though the pattern may be. Moreover, there is room
for the exercise of considerable taste in the choice of simpler or more
elaborate patterns, freer or more geometric. Many a time the shape of the
space to be filled, as well as its extent, will suggest the appropriate
ornament. The diaper design is not, of course, drawn on the stuff, but points
of guidance may be indicated through a kind of fine stencil plate.
The patterns used for background diapering need not, as a rule, be
intrinsically so interesting as those which diaper the design itself, nor are
they usually so full. They take more often the form of spot or sprig patterns,
not continuous, in which the geometric construction is not so obvious, nor
even necessary. In either case the prime object of the stitching is not so
much to make ornamental patterns as to give a tint to the stuff without

entirely hiding it with work; and the worker chooses a lighter or heavier
diaper according to the tint required. If the work is all in white it is texture,
instead of tint, that is aimed at.
For a background, simple darning more or less open, in stitches not too
regular, is often the best solution of the difficulty. The effect of the ground
grinning through is delightful.

SATIN-STITCH AND ITS OFFSHOOTS.

Satin-stitch is par excellence the stitch for fine silkwork. I do not know if
the name of "satin-stitch" comes from its being so largely employed upon
satin, or from the effect of the work itself, which would certainly justify the
title, so smooth and satin-like is its surface. Given a material of which the
texture is quite smooth and even, showing no mesh, satin-stitch seems the
most natural and obvious way of working upon it. In it the embroidress
works with short, straight strokes of the needle, just as a pen draughtsman
lays side by side the strokes of his pen; but, as she cannot, of course, leave
off her stroke as the penman does, she has perforce to bring back the thread
on the under side of the stuff, so that, if very carefully done, the work is the
same on both sides.
Satin-stitch, however, need not be, and never was, confined to work upon
silk or satin. In fact, it was not only worked upon fine linen, but often
followed the lines of its mesh, stepping, as in Illustration 9, to the tune of
the stuff. This may be described as satin-stitch in the making—at any rate, it
is the elementary form of it, its relation to canvas-stitch being apparent on
the face of it. Still, beautiful and most accomplished work has been done in
it alike by Mediæval, Renaissance, and Oriental needleworkers.
to work
A, 36.

To cover a space with regular vertical satin stitches (A on the sampler,
Illustration 36), the best way of proceeding is to begin in the centre of the
space and work from left to right. That half done, begin again in the centre
and work from right to left.
In order to make sure of a crisp and even edge to your forms, always let the
needle enter the stuff there, as it is not easy to find the point you want from
the back.

In working a second row of stitches, proceed as before, only planting your
needle between the stitches already done. Fasten off with a few tiny surface
stitches and cut off the silk on the right side of the stuff: it will be worked
over.

to work
B, 36.

To cover a space with horizontal satin stitches (B on sampler), begin at the
top, and work from left to right. The longer stretches there are not, of
course, crossed at one stitch; they take several stitches, dovetailed, as it
were, so as not to give lines.
The easiest, most satisfactory, and generally most effective way of working
flat satin stitch is in oblique or radiating lines (C, D, E), working in those
instances, as in the case of A, from the centre, first from left to right and
then from right to left.

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36. SATIN-STITCH SAMPLER.

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37. SATIN-STITCH SAMPLER (BACK).

Stems, narrow leaflets, and the like, are best worked always in stitches
which run diagonally and not straight across the form.
In the case of stems or other lines curved and worked obliquely, the stitches
must be very much closer on the inner side of the curve than on the outside:
occasionally a half-stitch may be necessary to keep the direction of the lines
right, in which case the inside end of the half-stitch must be quite covered
by the stitch next following.

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38. SATIN-STITCH IN COARSE TWISTED SILK.

Satin-stitch is seen at its best when worked in floss. Coarse or twisted silk
looks coarse in this stitch, as may be seen by comparing the petal D in the
sampler, Illustration 36, with the petal in twisted silk here given (38).
Marvellously skilful as are the needle-workers of India (Illustration 39),
they get rather broken lines when they work in thick twisted silk. The
precision of line a skilled worker can get in floss is wonderful. An Oriental
will get sweeping lines as clean and firm as if they had been drawn with a
pen, and this not merely in the case of an outline, but in voided lines of
which each side has to be drawn with the needle. The voided outline, by the
way, as on Illustrations 39, 40, is not only the frankest way of defining
form, but seems peculiarly proper to satin-stitch; and it is a test of skill in
workmanship: it is so easy to disguise uneven stitching by an outline in
some other stitch. The voiding in the wings of the birds in Illustration 40 is
perfect; and the softening of the voided line, at the start of the wing in one
case and the tail in the other, by cross stitching in threads comparatively
wide apart, is quite the right thing to do. It would have been more in
keeping to void the veins of the lotus leaves than to plant them on in cord.
Satin-stitch must not be too long, and it is often a serious consideration with
the designer how to break up the surfaces to be covered so that only
shortish stitches need be used. You might follow the veining of a leaf, for

example, and work from vein to vein. But all leaves are not naturally veined
in the most accommodating manner. Treatment is accordingly necessary,
and so we arrive at a convention appropriate to embroidery of this kind. It
takes a draughtsman properly to express form by stitch distribution. The
Chinese convention in the lotus flowers (Illustration 40) is admirable.

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39. SATIN-STITCH IN FINE TWISTED SILK.

It is the rule of the game to lay satin-stitch very evenly. Worked in floss, the
mere surface of satin-stitch is beautiful. A further charm lies in the way it
lends itself to gradation of colour. Beautiful results may be obtained by the

use of perfectly flat tints of colour, as in Illustration 40; but the subtlest as
well as the most deliberate gradation of tint may be most perfectly rendered
in satin-stitch.

to work
surface
satin-
stitch.

Surface Satin-stitch (not the same on both sides), though it looks very
much like ordinary satin-stitch, is worked in another way. The needle, that
is to say, after each stitch is brought immediately up again, and the silk is
carried back on the upper instead of the under side of the stuff.
Considerable economy of silk is effected by thus keeping the thread as
much as possible on the surface, but the effect is apt to be proportionately
poorer. Moreover, the work is not so lasting as when it is solid. The satin-
stitch on Illustration 58 is all surface work. It looks loose, which it is always
apt to do, unless it is kept stretched on the frame, on which, of course, satin-
stitch is for the most part worked. Very effective Indian work is done of this
kind—loose and flimsy, but serving a distinct artistic purpose. It is to
embroidery of more serious kind what scene painting is to mural
decoration.

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40. CHINESE SATIN-STITCH.

Embroidery is often described as being in "long-and-short-stitch," a term
properly descriptive not of a stitch, but of its dimensions. Whether you use
stitches of equal or of unequal length is a question merely of the adaptation
of the stitch to its use in any given instance; there is nothing gained by
calling an arrangement of alternating stitches, "long and short," or by
calling them "plumage-stitch," or, which is more misleading, "feather-
stitch," when they radiate so as to follow the form, say, of a bird's breast.
The bodies of the birds in Illustrations 40 and 85 are in plumage-stitch so
called. This adaptation of stitch to bird or other forms gives the effect of

fine feathering perfectly. But why apply the term "satin-stitch" exclusively
to parallel lines of stitches all of a length?
"Long-and-short-stitch," then, is a sort of satin-stitch; only, instead of the
stitches being all of equal length, they are worked one into the others or
between them, as in the faces in Illustrations 79 and 80.
A little further removed from satin-stitch is what is known as "split-stitch,"
in which the needle is brought up through the foregoing stitch, and splits it.
The way of working this stitch is more fully given on page 105.
The worker adapts, as a matter of course, the length of the stitch to the work
to be done, directing it also according to the form to be expressed, and so
arrives, almost before he is aware of it, by way of satin-stitch, at what is
called plumage-stitch.

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41. OFFSHOOTS FROM SATIN AND CREWEL STITCHES.

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42. OFFSHOOTS FROM SATIN AND CREWEL STITCHES (BACK).

The distinction between the stitches so far described is plain enough, and an
all-round embroidress learns to work them; but workers end in working
their own way, modifying the stitch according to the work it is put to do,
and produce results which it would be difficult to describe and pedantic to
find fault with. Even short, however, of such individual treatment, the mere
adaptation of the stitch to the lines of the design removes it from the

normal. It makes a difference, too, whether it is worked in a frame or in the
hand: in the one case you see more likeness to one stitch, in the other to
another. The flower at B, for example, and the leaf at D, on the sampler,
Illustration 41, are both worked in what is commonly called "plumage," or
"embroidery" stitch, though the term "dovetail," sometimes used, seems to
describe it better. Instance B, however, is worked in the hand, and D in a
frame—from which very fact it follows that the worker is naturally
disposed to regard B as akin to crewel-stitch and D to satin-stitch, between
which two stitches "dovetail" may be regarded as the connecting link.

the working of B on sampler 41.

to work
B, 41.

The petals at B are worked in the method illustrated in the diagram
overleaf. The first step is to edge the shape with satin-stitches in threes,
successively long, shorter, and quite short. This done, starting at the base
again, you put your needle in on the upper or right side of the first short

stitch, and bring it out through the long stitch (as shown in the diagram).
You then make a short stitch by putting your needle downwards through the
material, and taking up a small piece of it. You have finally only to draw the
needle through, and it is in position to make another long stitch. As the
concentric rings of stitching become smaller, you make, of course, shorter
stitches, and you need no longer pierce the thread of the long stitch.

to work
D, 41.

The working of the scroll at D on the sampler, Illustration 41, needs no
detailed explanation. Anyone who is acquainted with the way satin-stitch is
worked (it has already been sufficiently explained), and has read the above
account of the working of B, will understand at once how that is worked in
the frame.
It will be seen that there is a slight difference in effect between the two,
arising from the fact that work done in the hand is necessarily more loosely
and not quite so evenly done as that on a frame.

to work
split-
stitch C,
41.

Split-stitch (C on the sampler), again, resembles either crewel-stitch or
satin-stitch, according as it is worked in the hand or on a frame. In working
in the hand, you take a rather shorter stitch back than in crewel-stitch,
piercing with the needle the thread which is to form the next stitch. In
working on a frame, you bring your needle always up through the last-made
satin-stitch in order to start the next. Whichever way it is done, split-stitch
is often difficult to distinguish without minute examination from chain-
stitch. Further reference to its use is made in the chapter on shading. It may
be interesting to compare it with crewel-stitch (A on the sampler), which is
also a favourite stitch for shading.

DARNING.

It is the peculiarity of Darning and Running that you make several stitches
at one passing of the needle.
Darning and running amount practically to the same thing. Darning might
be described as consecutive lines of running. The difference is, in the main,
a matter of multiplication; but the distinction is sometimes made that in
running the stitches may be the same length on the face as on the reverse of
the stuff, whereas in darning the thread is mainly on the surface, only
dipping for the space of a single thread or so below it.
It results from the way of working that you get in darning an interrupted
line characteristic of the stitch. What is called "double darning," by which
the breaks in the single darning are made good, has in effect no character of
darning whatever.
Darning has a homely sound, but it is useful for more than mending. In
embroidery you no longer use it to replace threads worn away, but build up
upon the scaffolding of a merely serviceable material what may be a
gorgeous design in silk.

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43. DARNING SAMPLER.

Darning is worked, of course, in rows backwards and forwards; but if the
stitches are long and in the direction of the weft, it is as well not to run the
returning row next to the one just done, but to leave space for a second
course of darning afterwards between the open rows.
The darning of the sampler, Illustration 43, is very simple. The flower is
darned in stitches of fairly equal length, taking up one thread of the
material, and covering a space of almost a quarter of an inch before taking
up the next thread. The outline of a petal is first worked, and successive

rows of darning follow the lines of the flower, expressing to some extent its
form. Much depends upon the direction of the stitch.
The texture of the work depends upon the length of the stitches, and on the
amount of the stuff showing through.
Darning is usually supplemented by outlining. The sampler is designed to
show how far one can dispense with it. The flower stalk is defined by
darning the first row in a darker colour; for the rest, voiding is employed,
but it is not easy to void in darning.
The background is darned diaper fashion. It gives, that is to say, deliberately
diagonal lines. A background irregularly darned should be irregular enough
never to run into lines not contemplated by the worker.

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44. DARNING DESIGNED BY WILLIAM MORRIS.

In the case of large leaves, veined, the veining should be worked first, the
stitches between them radiating outwards to the edge of the leaf.
More accomplished work in darning is shown in the border by William
Morris in Illustration 44, where it appears, however, much flatter than in the
coloured silk. It is worked solid, the radiating stitches accommodating
themselves to the forms of the leaves and petals, which, in fact, are
designed with a view to their execution in this way. They are defined by
outline-stitching—light or dark as occasion seemed to require.
Mention has already been made of darning à propos of canvas-stitch; and
there is a sort of natural correspondence between the mécanique of darning
in its simplest form and the network of open threads which gives to
rectangular darning, like the German work in Illustration 45, character
which more than compensates for its angularity in outline. The darning is
there quite even in workmanship, but it is, as will be seen, of different
degrees of strength—lighter for the surface of the pattern, heavier for the
outline.
You may qualify the colour of a stuff by lightly darning it with silk of
another shade, and very subtle tints may be got by thus, as it were, veiling a
coloured ground with silks of various hues.

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45. FLAT DARNING UPON A SQUARE MESH.

LAID-WORK.

The necessity for something like what is called "Laid-work" is best shown
by reference to satin-stitch. It was said in reference to it that satin-stitches
should not be too long. There is a great deal of Eastern work in which
surface satin-stitch, or its equivalent, floats so loosely upon the face of the
stuff that it can only be described as flimsy. Nothing could be more
beautiful in its way than certain Soudanese embroidery, in which coloured
floss in stitches an inch or more long lies glistening on the stuff without any
interruption of threads to fasten it down.
Embroidery of this kind, however, hardly comes within the scope of
practical work. Long, loose stitches want sewing down. Some compromise
has to be made between art and beauty. The problem is to make the work
strong enough without seriously disturbing its lustrous surface, and the
solution of it is "laid-work," at which we arrive thus almost by necessity.

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46. LAID-WORK SAMPLER.

It involves no new stitch, but is only another way of using stitches already
described. In laid-work, long tresses of silk, as William Morris called them,
floss by preference, are thrown backwards and forwards across the face of
the stuff, only just piercing it at the edges of the forms, and back again.
These silken tresses are then caught down and kept, I will not say close to
the ground, but in their place upon it, by lines of stitching in the cross
direction.
Laid-work is not, at the best, a very strong or lasting kind of embroidery (it
needs to be carefully covered up even as it is worked), but by no other

means is the silky beauty of coloured floss so perfectly set forth. It is hardly
worth doing in anything but floss.
Laid-work lends itself also to gradation of colour within certain limits—the
limits, that is to say, of the straight parallel lines in which the silk is laid: the
direction of these is determined often by the lines of sewing which are to
cross them. In any case the direction of the threads is here more than ever
important. The sewing down must take lines and may form patterns.
The sampler, Illustration 46, wants little or no explanation. It illustrates the
various ways of laying. In the leaf the floss is sewn down with split-stitch,
which forms the veining. Elsewhere it is kept in place by "couching," a
process presently to be described. For the outlines, split-stitch and couching
are employed. The last row of laid work in the grounding is purposely
pulled out of the straight by the couching in order to give a waved edge.
The diaper which represents the seeding of the flower is not, properly
speaking, laid-work: single threads of white purse silk are there couched
down with dark.

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47. JAPANESE LAID-WORK.

For the transverse stitching, for which also it is best to use floss, either split-
stitch may be used, as in the leaf in the sampler, Illustration 46, or a thread
may be laid across and sewn down—couched, as it is called—as in the
flower. The closer the cross lines the stronger the work, but the less lustrous
the effect.
Laid floss may be employed to glorify the entire surface of a linen material,
as in the sampler or for the pattern only upon a ground worth showing, as in
Illustrations 47, 48, 49.

Laid-work will not give anything like modelling, and it is not best suited to
figure design except where it is quite flatly treated. An instance of its use in
figure work occurs on Illustration 79. It is effective when quite naively and
simply used in cross lines which do not appear to take any account of the
forms crossed—as, for example, in Illustration 47, where the stitching does
not pretend to express more than a flat surface. The floss, however, is there
carefully laid at a different angle of inclination in each petal, so as to give
variety of colour. The lines of sewing vary according to the lines of the laid
floss, but do not cross them at right angles. The important thing is, of
course, that they should catch the laid "tresses" at intervals not too far apart.
If the lines which sew down the floss have also to express drawing, as in the
case of the bird's wings in Illustration 48, the underlying floss must be laid
in lines which they will cross. In the case of the leaves in the same piece of
work, the floss is laid in the direction in which the leaf grows, and the
stitching across, which sews it down, is slightly curved so as to suggest
roundness in them.

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48. INDO-PORTUGUESE LAID-WORK.

A more finished piece of work is shown in Illustration 49, where the laid
floss crosses the forms, and the sewing down takes very much the place of
veining in the flower, and of ribs in the scroll, expressing about as much
modelling as can be expressed this way, and more, perhaps, than it is
advisable often to attempt.
The sewing down asserts itself most, of course, when it is in a colour
contrasting with the laid floss, as it does in the leaves in the smaller sampler
overleaf.
The stitching down makes usually a pattern more or less conspicuous. On
this same sampler it does so very deliberately in the case of the broad stalk.
The rather sudden variation of the colour shown there in the leaves is
harmless enough in bold work, to which the process is best suited. One may
be too careful in gradating the tints: timidity in this respect prevails too
much among modern needlewomen: an artist in floss should not want her
work to look like a gradated wash of colour. The Italians of the 16th and
17th centuries (see Illustration 49) were not afraid of rather abrupt transition
in the shades of colour they used for laid-work.

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49. ITALIAN LAID-WORK.

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50. LAID SAMPLER.

When laid floss is kept in place by threads themselves sewn down across it,
such threads are called "couched," and the work itself may be described as
laid and couched. Hence arises some confusion between the two methods of
work—laying and couching. It saves confusion to make a sharp distinction
between the two—using the term "laid" only for stitches (floss) first loosely
laid upon the surface of the stuff and then sewn down by cross lines of
stitching of whatever kind, and "couched" for the sewing down of cords,
&c. (silk or gold), thread by thread or in pairs. Laid floss is sewn down en
masse, couched silk in single or double threads; and accordingly laid
answers best for surface covering, couched for outlining, except in the case
of gold, which even for surface covering is always couched.

COUCHING

Couching is the sewing down of one thread by another—as in the outline of
the flower on the laid sampler, Illustration 46. The stitches with which it is
sewn down, thread by thread, or, in the case of gold, two threads at a time,
are best worked from right to left; or, in outlining, from outside the forms
inwards, and a waxed thread is often used for the purpose. Naturally the
cord to be sewn down should be held fairly tightly in place to keep the line
even.
It is usual in couching to sew down the silk or cord with stitches crossing it
at right angles, except in the case of a twisted cord, which should be sewn
down with stitches in the direction of the twist.
Couching is best done in a frame; but it may be done in the hand by means
of buttonhole-stitch.

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51. A. bullion. B. couched cord.

When a surface is covered with couching, as in the seeding of the flower in
the sampler, Illustration 46, the sewing down stitches make a pattern—all
the plainer there, because the stitching is in a contrasting shade of colour. It
is quite permissible to call attention to the stitching if it suits your artistic
purpose. To disguise it by sewing through the cord is not a workmanlike
practice. A worker should frankly accept a method of work and get
character out of it.
Embroidresses have a clever way of untwisting a cord before each stitch
and twisting it again after stitching through it—between the strands, that is
to say, in which the stitching is lost. The device is rather too clever. It shows

a cord with no visible means of attachment to the ground, which is not
desirable, however much desired. There is no advantage in attaching cords
to the surface of silk so that they look as if they had been glued on to it.
Conjuring tricks are highly amusing, but one does not think very highly of
conjurers. Personally, I would much rather have seen more plainly the way
the cord is sewn down in the graceful cross in Illustration 51, a design
perfectly adapted to couching, and yet unlike the usual thing.
Where it is softish silk which is stitched down, it makes a great difference
whether it is loosely held and tightly sewn, or the contrary. Contrast the
short puffy lines nearest the corners in the sampler, Illustration 52, with the
longer ones between the broad and narrow bands. The broad band is worked
in rows of double filoselle, of various shades, sewn down with single
filoselle. In the narrower bands twisted silk is sewn down with stitches in
the direction of its twist. This is more plainly seen in the upper of the two
bands, where the sloping stitches are lighter in colour than the cord sewn
down.

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52. COUCHING SAMPLER.

Characteristic use is made of rather puffy couching in the ornament of the
lady's dress in Miss Keighley's panel, Illustration 61, where it has very
much the richness of embroidery in seed pearls.

It was a common practice in Germany in the 16th century to work in solid
couching upon cloth, employing a twisted thread and sewing it with stitches
in the direction of the twist, so that at first sight one does not recognise it as
couching. It looks like rather coarse stitching in the direction of the forms,
and expresses shading very well. The cloth ground accounts, perhaps, for
the choice of method: the material is not otherwise a pleasant one to
embroider upon.
A rather earlier German method was to couch in parallel lines of white upon
white linen, and so get relief and texture but no modelling, though the
drawing was helped by varying the direction of the parallel lines.
The entire surface of a linen ground was sometimes covered with couched
threads of silk or fine wool—some of it in vertical and horizontal lines,
some of it in the direction of the pattern. This, again, was a German
practice, as may be seen in the Hildesheim Cope at South Kensington.
All-over couching may be used with advantage to renew the ground of
embroidery so worn as to be unsightly; and is more lasting than laid-work
for the purpose. It is laborious to do, but more satisfactory when done than
remounting; and one or the other is a necessity sometimes. The effect of age
is, up to a certain point, pleasing: rags are not.

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53. COUCHING IN LOOPED THREADS.

Couching, however (except with gold), was more commonly used for
outlining, and is quite peculiarly suited to give a firm line. A beautiful
example of outline work in coloured silk upon white linen is pictured in
Illustration 90, in which the lines of delicate Renaissance arabesque are
perfectly preserved. The rare practice of such work as this, notwithstanding
its distinction, is perhaps sufficiently accounted for by its modesty. It is
true, it wants well-considered and definitely drawn design, and there is no
possible fudging with it.

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54. REVERSE COUCHING.

The value of a couched cord as an outline to stitching (satin-stitch in this
instance) is shown in Illustration 91, in which the singularly well-schemed
and well-drawn lines of the ornament are given with faultless precision.
This is a portion of an altogether admirable frame to an altogether foolish
picture in needlework, of which a fragment only is shown.
The appropriateness of couched cord to the outlining of inlay or of appliqué
is seen in the two examples which form Illustration 62. In the one (A) it
defines the clear-cut counterchange pattern; in the other (B), being of a tint
intermediate between the ground and the ornament, it softens the contrast
between them. An interesting technical point in the design of this last is the
way the cord outlining the leaves makes a sufficiently thick stalk, coming
together, as it naturally does, double at the ends of the leaves.

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55. REVERSE COUCHING (BACK).

This occurs again in Illustration 63, where the double threads which form
the stalks, though separately stitched down, are couched again at intervals
by bands crossing the two—at the springing of the stalks and tendrils, for
example, where joins inevitably occur. The cords forming the central stalk
are in one case looped.
Fantastic use has often been made of the looping of couched cord. The
Spanish embroiderers made most ornamental use of a wee loop at the points
of the leaves where the cord must turn; but the device of looping may easily
be used to frivolous purpose. A regularly looped line at once suggests lace.
A perplexing Chinese practice is to couch fine cord in little loops so close
together that they touch. A surface filled in after this manner, as in the
butterflies on Illustration 53, might pass at first sight for French knots or
chain-stitch: it is really another method of all-over couching.
A double course of couching forms the outline in Illustration 92, one of
filoselle and one of cord, separately sewn; but the tendrils, which are of
silver thread, are sewn down both threads at a time with double stitches,
very obvious in the illustration. Over the couched silver threads which form
the main rib of the leaf a pattern is stitched in silk.
A propos of couching, mention must be made of a way of working used in
the famous Syon Cope by way of background, and figured overleaf

(Illustration 54). The ground stuff is linen, twofold, and it is worked in silk,
which lies nearly all upon the surface. The stitch runs from point to point of
the zigzag pattern; there it penetrates the stuff, is carried round a thread of
flax laid at the back of the material, and is brought to the surface again
through the hole made by the needle in passing down. That is to say, the
silken thread only dips through the linen at the points in the pattern, and is
there caught down by a thread of flax on the under-surface of the linen. The
reverse of the work (Illustration 55) shows a surface of flax threads couched
with silk, for which reason the method may be described as reverse
couching. On the face it gives an admirable surface diaper, flat without
being mechanical. It is easily worked with a blunt needle; with a sharp one
there would be a danger of splitting the stitch. It is a kind of work on which
two persons might be employed, one on either side of the stuff.

COUCHED GOLD.

In olden days silk does not appear to have been couched in the East. On the
other hand, it was the custom to couch gold thread in Europe at least as
early as the twelfth century; so that the method was probably first used for
gold, which, except in the form of thin wire or extraordinarily fine thread, is
not quite the thing to stitch with. Besides, it was natural to wish to keep the
precious metal on the surface, and not waste it at the back of the stuff.
A distinguishing feature about gold is that by common consent it is used
double and sewn down two threads at a time. This is not merely an
economy of work; but, except in the case of thick cords or strips of gold, it
has a more satisfactory effect—why it is not easy to say. Panels A, B, C, in
the sampler, Illustration 56, are couched in double threads, D in single
cords.
Gold couching is there used, as it mostly is, to cover a surface. In doing
that, it is usual to sew the threads firmly down at the edges of the forms and
cut them very sharply off; but they may equally well be carried backwards
and forwards across the face of the stuff. The slight swelling of the gold
thread where it turns gives emphasis to the outline; but the turning wants
carefully doing, and the gold thread must not be too thick. If you use a large
needle (to clear the way for the thread), the turning of the gold may take
place on the back instead of on the face of the material, but only in the case
of very fine thread.
Gold threads often want stroking into position. This may be done with what
is called a "pierce"; but a good stiletto, or even a very large needle, will
answer the purpose. Sharply pointed scissors are indispensable.
In solid couching the stitches run almost inevitably into pattern; and it is
customary, therefore, to start with the assumption that they will, and
deliberately to make them into pattern—to work them, that is to say, in

vertical, diagonal, or cross lines as at A, in zigzags as at B, or in some more
complicated diaper pattern as at C, where the stitching is purposely in
pronounced colour, that the pattern may be quite clearly seen; at D it has
more its proper value, that the effect of it may be better appreciated. The
pattern may, of course, be helped by the colour of the stitching, and there is
some art in making the necessary stitches into appropriate pattern.

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56. COUCHED GOLD SAMPLER.

In fact the ornamentist, being an ornamentist, naturally takes advantage of
the necessity of stitching, to pattern his metallic surfaces with diaper, using
often, as in the scroll in Illustration 57, a diversity of patterns, which gives

at once varied texture and fanciful interest to the surface. There is quite an
epitome of little diapers in that fragment of needlework; and one can hardly
doubt that the embroiderer found it great fun to contrive them. The flat
strips of metal emphasising the backs of the curves are sometimes twisted
as they are sewn.
The other diapers on the sampler, F, G, H, J, 56, are emphasised by the
relief given to them by underlying cords, purposely left bare in parts to
show the structure. These underlying cords must be firmly sewn on to the
linen ground, and if the stitching follows the direction of the twist in them,
the round surface is not so likely to be roughened by it. By rights, the cords
should be laid farther apart than in the sampler, where the attempt to force
the effect (for purposes of explanation) has not proved very successful. An
infinity of basket patterns, as these may be called (basket stitches they are
not), may be devised by varying the intervals at which the gold threads are
sewn down, and the number of cords they cross at a time.

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57. COUCHED SILVER.

The central panel of the sampler (E) shows a combination of flat and raised
gold. The outline of the heart is corded; the centre of it is raised by
stitching, first with crewel wool and then with gold-coloured floss across
that (it is difficult to prevent white stuffing from showing through gold).
This gives only a hint of what may be done in the way of raised ornament
upon a flat gold ground, and was done in mediæval work. A single cord
may be sewn down to make a pattern in relief, leafage, scrollwork, or what
not, which, when the surface is all worked over with gold, has very much
the effect of gilt gesso. If, for any reason, heavy work of this kind is to be
done on silk or satin, that must first be backed with strong linen.

In mediæval and church work generally the double threads are usually laid
close together, forming, as in the diapers on sampler, a solid surface of gold;
and that was largely done in Oriental embroidery too—in Chinese, for
example, where, however, the threads, instead of being couched in straight
lines, follow the outlines of the design, and are worked ring within ring
until the space is filled, as in the dragon's face, A, Illustration 58. There is
here, as in the working of his body, a certain economy of gold; a small
amount of the ground is allowed to show between the lines of double gold
thread—not enough to tell as ground, but enough to give a tint of the
ground colour to the metal. Further, in this more open couching the
direction of the lines of couching goes for more than in solid work. The
pattern made by the gold thread is here not only ornamental but suggestive
of the scaly body of the creature. It will be seen, too, how, in the working of
the legs, the relatively compact gold threads are kept well within the
outline, by which means anything like harshness of silhouette is avoided.

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58. COUCHED GOLD NOT QUITE SOLID.

That this less solid manner was not confined to the far East is shown by the
Venetian valance, B, on the lower part of the page, which has very much the
appearance of gold lace.
A good example of outline (single thread) in gold is given in Illustration 59,
part of an Italian housing, which reminds one both in effect and in design of
damascening, to which it is in some respects equivalent; only, instead of
gold and silver wire beaten into black iron or steel, we have gold and silver
thread sewn on to dark velvet. The design recalls also the French
bookbindings of the period of Henri II., in which the tooled ornament was
precisely of this character. The resemblance is none the less that an
occasional detail is worked more solidly; but, in the main, this is outline
work, and a beautiful example of it. The art in work of that kind is, of
course, largely in the design. Gold thread work in spiral forms has very
much the effect of filagree in gold wire.
The next step is where the cords of gold enclose little touches of
embroidery in coloured floss, as in Illustration 91. These have the value of
so many jewels or bits of bright enamel. In fact, just as outline work in
simple gold thread resembles damascening or filagree, so this outlining of
little spaces of coloured silk suggests enamel. The cord of the embroiderer
answers to the cloisons of the enameller, the surfaces of shining floss to the
films of vitreous enamel.

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59. COUCHED OUTLINE WORK.

Appliqué embroidery is constantly edged with gold or silver thread. An
effective, if rather rude, example of this, the thread here again double, is
given in Illustration 60.
In couching more than one thread at a time there is a difficulty in turning
the angles. The threads give, of necessity, only gently rounded forms. To get
anything like a sharp point, you must stop short with the inner thread before
reaching the extreme turning point, and take it up again on your way back.
What applies to two threads, applies of course still more forcibly to three.

The colour with which gold thread is sewn is a question of considerable
importance. If the stitches are close enough together to make solid work,
they give a flush of colour to the gold. Advantage is commonly taken of this
both in mediæval and Oriental work to warm the tint by sewing it down
with red. The Chinese will even work with a deeper and a paler red to get
two coppery shades. White stitching pales the gold, yellow modifies it least,
green cools it, and blue makes it greener. The closer the stitches, the deeper
the tint, of course.

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60. APPLIQUÉ—SATIN ON VELVET.

You can get thus various shades of gold out of the same thread, and even
gradation from one to another, as may be seen in a great deal of Spanish

work of the 16th century, in which the gold ornament is often quite
delicately shaded from yellowish gold to ruddy copper on the one hand, and
to bronzy green on the other. Similar use may be made of vari-coloured
silks in couching white or other cord; but gold reflects the colour much
better than silk, and gives much more subtle effects.
The Flemings and Italians of the early Renaissance went further. They had a
way of laying threads of gold and sewing them so closely over with
coloured silk that in many parts it quite hid the gold. Only in proportion as
they wanted to lighten the colour of the draperies in their pictorial
embroideries did they space the stitches farther and farther apart, and let the
gold gleam through. Except in the high lights it did not pronounce itself
positively. The effect is not unlike what is seen in paintings of the primitive
school, where the high lights of the red and blue draperies are hatched with
gold. The practice of the embroiderer may be reminiscent of that, or that
may be the origin of the primitive painters' convention. It is more as if the
embroiderer wanted to represent a precious tissue, a stuff shot with gold.
Illustration 80 gives part of a figure worked in this way, relieved against a
more golden architectural background rendered by the very same double
threads of gold which run through the figures. In the architecture, however,
they are couched in stitches which are never so near as to take away from
the effect of the gold. The two degrees of obscuring or clouding gold by
oversewing are here shown in most instructive contrast. The cords, as usual,
are laid in horizontal courses. That was the convenient way of working; but
it resulted in a corded look, which has very much the appearance of
tapestry; and there is no doubt that resemblance to tapestry was in the end
consciously sought. That the method here employed was laborious needs no
saying; but it gave most beautiful, if pictorial, results.

APPLIQUÉ.

Embroidery, it has been shown, is much of it on the surface of the stuff, not
just needle stitches, but the stitching-on of something—cord, gold thread, or
whatever it may be. And instances have been given where the design of
such work was not merely in outline, but where certain details were filled in
with stitching. Yet another practice, and one more strictly in keeping with
the onlaying of cord, was to onlay the solid also, applying, that is to say, the
surface colour also in the form of pieces of silk cut to shape.
Patterns of this kind may be conceived as line work developing into leafy
terminations, the Appliqué only an adjunct to couching (Illustration 63); or
they may be thought of as massive work eked out with line: the appliqué,
that is to say, the main thing, the couching only supplementary (Illustration
92). An intermediate kind is where outline and mass—couching and
appliqué—play parts of equal importance in the scheme of design
(Illustration 60).
Couched cord or filoselle is useful in covering the raw edge of the onlay,
not so much masking the joints as making them sightly.
Appliqué must be carefully and exactly done, and is best worked in a frame.
It is almost as much a man's work as a woman's. Embroidery proper is
properly woman's work; but here, as in the case of tailoring, the man comes
in. The getting ready for appliqué is not the kind of thing a woman can do
best.
The finishing may sometimes be done in the hand, and very bold, coarse
work may possibly be worked throughout in the hand, and outlined with
buttonhole-stitch (chain-stitch is not so appropriate); but when a couched
outline is employed it must be done in a frame, and, indeed, work with any
pretensions to finish is invariably begun and finished in the frame.

TO
WORK
APPLIQ
UÉ

To work appliqué you want, in fact, two frames—one on which to mount
the material to be embroidered, and another on which to mount the material
to be applied. The backing in each case should be of smooth holland. This is
stretched on to the frame, and then pasted with stiff starch or what not; the
silk or velvet is laid on to it and stroked with a soft rag until it adheres, and
is left to dry gently. When dry, the outlines of the complete design are
traced upon the one, and those of the details to be applied upon the other.
(You may paste, of course, silks of two or three colours upon one backing
for this.) The stuff to be applied is then loosened from its frame, the details
are cleanly cut out with scissors, or, better still, a knife (in either case
sharp), and transferred to their place in the design on the other frame. There
they are kept in position by short steel pins planted upright into the stuff
until you are sure they fit, and then tacked firmly down, with care that the
stitches are such as will be quite covered by the final couching, chain stitch,
or whatever is to be your outline.
In the case of silk or other delicate material, peculiar care must be taken that
the paste is not moist enough to penetrate the stuff; but an experienced
worker has no fear of that.
A firm outline is a condition of appliqué, and couched cord fulfils it most
perfectly. Much depends upon a tasteful and tactful choice of colour for it.
You fatten your pattern by outlining it with a colour which goes with it
(Illustration 62, B). You thin it by one which goes into the ground. Very
subtle use may be made of a double outline or of a corded line upon
couched floss. There is a double outline to the ornament in Illustration 92:
the inner one next to the yellow satin appliqué is of gold, the outer one next
the crimson velvet ground is of white sewn with pale blue. This gives
emphasis to the bold forms of the leafage. The mid-rib there is of silver
couching; the minor veinings are stitched in silk, and are rather
insignificant.

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61. APPLIQUÉ PANEL BY MISS KEIGHLEY.

The less there is of extra stitching on appliqué the better as a rule. It
disturbs the breadth, which is so valuable a characteristic of onlay. In no
case is much mixing of methods to be desired; but if appliqué is to be
supplemented, it had best be with couching, which is not so much stitching
as stitched down, itself another form of applied work.
Appliqué of itself is not, of course, adapted to pictorial work, but that in
association with judicious stitching and couching it may be used to
admirable decorative purpose in figure design is shown by Miss Mabel
Keighley's panel, Illustration 61. What an artist may do depends upon the
artist. Miss Keighley's panel indicates the use that may be made of texture
in the stuff onlaid.
Appliqué is especially appropriate to bold church work, fulfilling perfectly
that condition of legibility so desirable in work necessarily seen oftenest
from afar. Broadly designed, it may be as fine in its way as a piece of

mediæval stained glass, and it gives to silk and velvet their true worth. The
pattern may be readable as far off as you can distinguish colour.

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62. A. counterchange. B. appliqué.

Appliqué work is thought by some to be an inferior kind of embroidery,
which it is not. It is not a lower but another kind of needlework, in which
more is made of the stuff than of the stitching. In it the craft of the
needleworker is not carried to its limit; but, on the other hand, it makes
great demands upon design. You cannot begin by just throwing about sprays
of natural flowers. It calls peremptorily for treatment—by which test the
decorative artist stands or falls. Effective it must be; coarse it may be;

vulgar it should not be; trivial it can hardly be; mere prettiness is beyond its
scope; but it lends itself to dignity of design and nobility of treatment. Of
course, it is not popular.
A usual form of appliqué is in satin upon velvet. Velvet on satin (B,
Illustration 62) is comparatively rare; but it may be very beautiful, though
there is a danger that it may look like weaving.
Silk upon silk (figured damask) is shown in Illustration 63, designed to be
seen from a nearer point of view, and less pronounced in pattern
accordingly. The strap work, applied in ribbon, is broken by cross stitches
in couples, which take away from the severity of the lines. The grape
bunches are onlaid, each in one piece of silk, the forms of the separate
grapes expressed by couching. The French knots in the centre of the grapes
add greatly to the richness of the surface. The leaves are in one piece. It
would have been possible to use two or three, joining them at the veins.

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63. APPLIQUÉ—SILK ON SILK DAMASK.

The application of leather to velvet, as in Illustration 94, allows
modification in the way of execution, and of design adapted to it. Leather
does not fray, and needs, therefore, no sewing over at the edge, but only
sewing down, which may be done, as in this case, well within the edge of
the material, giving the effect of a double outline. The Chinese do small
work in linen, making similar use of the stitching within the outline, but
turning the cut edge of the stuff under; it would not do to leave it raw. On a
bolder scale, but in precisely the same manner, is embroidered the
wonderful tent of François Ier., taken at the battle of Pavia, and now in the
Armoury at Madrid—obviously Arab work. Something of the kind was

done also in Morocco, which points to leather work as the possible origin of
this method.
Another ingenious Chinese notion is to sew down little five-petalled
flowers (turned under at the edges) with long stamen stitches radiating from
a central eye of knots.

INLAY, MOSAIC, CUT-WORK.

A step beyond the process of onlaying is Inlay, where one material is not
laid on to the other, but into it, both being perhaps backed by a common
material. The process is, in fact, precisely analogous to that inlay of brass
and tortoiseshell which goes by the name of its inventor, Boule. The work is
difficult, but thorough. It does not recommend itself to those who want to
get effect cheaply. The process is suited only to close-textured stuffs, such
as cloth, which do not fray.
to work
inlay.

The materials are not pasted on to linen, as in the case of appliqué. The
cloth to be inlaid is placed upon the other, and both are cut through with one
action of the knife, so that the parts cannot but fit. The coherent piece of
material (the ground, say, of the pattern) is then laid upon a piece of strong
linen already in a frame; the vacant spaces in it are filled up by pieces of the
other stuff, and all is tacked down in place. That done, the work is taken out
of the frame, and the edges sewn together. The backing can then, if
necessary, be removed; and in Oriental work it generally was.
Inlay lends itself most invitingly to Counterchange in design, as seen in the
stole at A, Illustration 62. Light and dark, ground and pattern, are there
identical. You cannot say either is ground; each forms the ground to the
other. And from the mere fact of the counterchanging you gather that it is
inlaid, and not onlaid.
to work
counterc
hange.

Prior to inlaying in materials which are at all likely to fray, you first back
them with paper, thin but tough, firmly pasted; then, having tacked the two
together, and pinned them with drawing-pins on to a board, you slip
between it and the stuff a sheet of glass, and with a very sharp knife (kept
sharp by an oilstone at hand) cut out the pattern. What was cut out of one
material has only to be fitted into the other, and sewn together as before,
and you have two pieces of inlaid work—what is the ground in one forming
the pattern in the other, and vice versâ. By this ingenious means there is
absolutely no waste of stuff. You get, moreover, almost invariably a broad
and dignified effect: the process does not lend itself to triviality. It was used
by the Italians, and more especially by the Spaniards of the Renaissance,
who borrowed the idea, of course, from the Arabs.

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64. INLAY IN COLOURED CLOTHS.

In India they still inlay in cloth most marvellously, not only
counterchanging the pattern, but inlaying the inlays with smaller
patternwork, thus combining great simplicity of effect with wonderful
minuteness of detail. They mask the joins with chain-stitch, the colour of it

artfully chosen with regard to the two colours of the cloth it divides or joins.
Further, they often patch together pieces of this kind of inlay.
Inlay itself is a sort of Patchwork. You cut pieces out of your cloth, and
patch it with pieces of another colour, covering the joins perhaps, as on
Illustration 64, with chain stitch, which gives it some resemblance to
cloisonné enamel, the cloisons being of chain-stitch.
Where there is no one ground stuff to be patched, but a number of vari-
coloured pieces of stuff are sewn together, they form a veritable Mosaic,
reminding one, in coloured stuffs, of what the mediæval glaziers did in
coloured glass. Admirable heraldic work was done in Germany by this
method; and it is still employed for flag making. The stuffs used should be
as nearly as possible of one substance. In patchwork of loosely-textured
material each separate piece of stuff may be cut large, turned in at the edge,
and oversewn on the wrong side.

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65. CUT-WORK IN LINEN.

The relation of Cut-work to inlay is clear—in fact, the one is the first step
towards the other. You have only to stop short of the actual inlaying, and
you have cut-work. Fill up the parts cut out in Illustration 65 with coloured

stuff, and it would be inlay. The needlewoman has preferred to sew over the
raw edges of the stuff, and give us a perfect piece of Fretwork in linen. It is
part of the game in cut-work to make the fret coherent, whole in itself. The
design should tell its own tale. "Ties" of buttonhole-stitch, or what not, are
not necessary, provided the designer knows how to plan a fret pattern. Their
introduction brings the work nearer to lace than embroidery. The sewing-
over may be in chain-stitch, satin-stitch (as in Illustration 65), or in
buttonhole-stitch—which last is strongest.
As, in the case of appliqué, inlay, and mosaic, an embroidered outline is
usually necessary to cover the join, so in the case of cut-work sewing-over
is necessary to keep the edges from fraying. It may sometimes be advisable
to supplement this outlining by further stitching to express veining, or give
other minute details—just as the glassworker, when he could not get detail
small enough by means of glazing, had recourse to painting to help him out.
But there is danger in calling in auxiliaries. It is best to design with a view
to the method of work to be employed, and to keep within its limits. To
worry the surface of applied, inlaid, or cut stuff with finnikin stitchery, is
practically to confess either the inadequacy of the design or the fidgetiness
of the worker. It should need, as a rule, no such enrichment.

EMBROIDERY IN RELIEF.

Embroidery being work upon a stuff, it is inevitably raised, however
imperceptibly, above the surface of it. But there is a charm in the
unevenness of surface and texture thus produced; and the aim has
consequently often been to make the difference of level between ground-
stuff and embroidery more appreciable by underlay or padding of some
kind. The abuse of this kind of thing need not blind us to the advantages it
offers.
There are various ways of raising embroidery, the principal of which are
illustrated on the sampler overleaf.
to work
A (66).

In sprig A the underlay is of closely-woven cloth, darker in colour than
would be advisable except for the purpose of showing what it is: it is as
well in the ordinary way to choose a cloth more or less of the colour the
embroidery is to be. The cloth is cut with sharp scissors carefully to shape,
but a little within the outline, and pasted on to the linen. When perfectly
dry, it is worked over with thick corded silk couched in the ordinary way.

to work
B.

The raised line at B reveals the way the stem in Illustration 86 was worked.
Two cords of smooth string (macramé, for example) are twisted and tacked
in place. Over this floss is worked in close satin-stitch.
to work
C.

In sprig C the underlay is of parchment, lightly stitched in place. The use of
a double underlay in parts gives additional relief. The embroidery upon this
(in slightly twisted silk) is in satin-stitch.

to work
D.

The leaf shapes at D are padded with cotton wool, cut out as nearly as
possible to the shape required, and tacked down with fine cotton. They are
then worked over with floss in satin-stitch. The stalks are not padded with
cotton wool, but first worked with crewel wool, which, being soft and
elastic, forms an excellent ground for working over in floss silk.

to work
E.

In working a stalk like that at E, you first lay down a double layer of soft,
thick cotton, and then work over it with flatter cotton (made expressly for
padding) in slanting satin-stitch. Three threads of smooth round silk are
then attached to one side of the padding and carried diagonally across to the
other side, where they are sewn down with strong thread of the same colour
close to the underlay, so that the stitches may not show. They are then
brought back to the side from which they started, sewn down, and returned
again, and so backwards and forwards to the end. The crossing threads
make a sort of pattern, and it is a point of good workmanship that they
should cross regularly. Such pattern is more obvious when threads of three
different shades of colour are employed. Threads of twisted silk may, of
course, be equally well used this way without padding underneath.

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66. RAISED WORK SAMPLER.

to work
F.

In sprig F the underlay is of cardboard, pasted on to the linen. It is worked
over with purse silk, to and fro across the forms, and sewn down at the
margin with finer silk. This is a method of work often employed when gold
thread is used.

to work
G.

In sprig G the underlay or stuffing is of string, sewn down with stitches
always in the direction of the twist. It is worked over with floss in satin-
stitch.

to work
H.

In sprig H the underwork consists of stitching in soft cotton, over which
thick silk is embroidered in bullion-stitch. The rule is to work the first
stitching in such a direction that the surface work crosses it at right angles.
The small leaf is worked over with fine purse silk in satin-stitch, which is
used also for the stalk.
In the smaller sampler of laid-work, Illustration 50, the broad stem is twice
underlaid with crewel, excellent for this soft sort of padding, on account of
its elasticity. The leaves have there only one layer of understitching.
Raised work in white upon white is often used for purposes which make it
inevitable that sooner or later the work will be washed. That is a
consideration which the embroidress must not leave out of account. In any
case, work over stitchery is more durable than over loose padding such as
cotton wool.

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67. RAISED WORK SHOWING UNDERLAY.

The 15th century work reproduced in Illustration 67 is in flax thread on
linen, and the underlay (laid bare in the topmost flower) is of stiff linen,
sewn down, not at the margins as in the case of the parchment on the
sampler (Illustration 66), but by a row of stitching up the centre of each
petal. The veins of the leaves in Illustration 88 are padded with embroidery
cotton and worked over with filo-floss. The leaves themselves are not
padded, though the sewing down of the veins upon them, as well as the fact
that they are applied on to the velvet ground, gives some appearance of
relief.

RAISED GOLD.

Our sampler of raised work is done in silk. Underlaying is more often used
to raise work in gold, to which in most respects it is best suited. The
methods shown in the sampler would answer almost equally well for gold,
except that working in gold one would not at H (66) use bullion-stitch, but
bullion, first covering the underlay of stitching with smoothly-laid yellow
floss.
Bullion consists of closely coiled wire. It is made by winding fine wire
tightly and closely round a core of stouter wire. When this central core of
wire is withdrawn, you have a long hollow tube of spirally twisted wire.
This the embroidress cuts into short lengths as required, and sews on to the
silk—as she would a long bead or bugle. Its use is illustrated at A in
Illustration 51, where the stems of triple gold cord are tied down at intervals
by clasps of bullion, and the leaves, again, are filled in with the same.
It was the mediæval fashion to encrust the robes of kings and pontiffs with
pearls and precious stones mounted in gold: the early Byzantine form of
crown was practically a velvet cap, on to which were sewn plaques of
gorgeous enamel and mounted stones. When to such work embroidery was
added, it was not unnatural that it should vie with the gold setting. As a
matter of fact, its design was often only a translation into needlework of the
forms proper to the goldsmith.
Yet more openly in rivalry with goldsmiths' work was some of the
embroidery of the Renaissance, in which the idea—a most mistaken one, of
course—seems to have been to imitate beaten metal. This led inevitably to
excessively high relief in gold embroidery. You may see in 17th century
church work the height to which relief can be carried, and the depth to
which ecclesiastical taste can sink.

The Spaniards were, perhaps, the greatest sinners in this respect, seeking, as
they did, richness at all cost; but it must be confessed that, in the 16th
century at least, they produced most gorgeous results: there is in the
treasury of the cathedral at Toledo an altar frontal in gold, silver, and coral,
and a yet more beautiful mantle of the Virgin in silver and pearls upon a
gold ground, which make one loth to dogmatise.

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68. RAISED GOLD.

The preciousness of gold and silver, points, in the nature of things, to their
use for church vestments and the like; and high relief gives, no doubt, value
to the metal; but the consideration of its intrinsic value leads quickly to

display. The artistic value of gold is not so much that it looks gorgeous as
that it glorifies the colour caught, so to speak, in its meshes.
Admitting that there is reason for relief in gold embroidery—it catches the
light as flat gold does not—one feels that the very slightest modelling is
usually enough. Reference was made (page 136) to the effect of gilt gesso
obtained in raised gold thread: that really is about the degree of relief it is
safe to adopt in gold embroidery, the relief that is readily got by laying on
gesso with a brush, not carving or modelling it; and the characteristically
blunt forms got by that means repeat themselves when you work with the
needle.
There is ample relief in the gold embroidery on Illustrations 68 and 86. The
first of these shows both flat and raised work: the latter illustrates not only
various degrees of relief, but several ways of underlaying. It scarcely needs
pointing out that the flatter serrated leaves are worked over parchment or
paper, and the puffy parts of the flowers over softer padding. Allusion has
already been made (page 159) to the way the stalk is worked over twisted
cords, as on the sampler, Illustration 66. The patterns in which the gold is
worked do not tell quite so plainly here as on Illustration 68, where the
basket pattern is more pronounced. In the stalk there flat gold wire is used,
and again in the broken surface towards the top of the plate.
Spangles of gold may be used with admirable effect, at the risk, perhaps, of
a rather tinselly look; but that has been often most skilfully avoided both in
mediæval work and in Oriental. In India great and very cunning use is made
of spangles, by the Parsees in particular, who, by the way, embroider with
gold wire.
Gold foil may be cut to any shape and sewn on to embroidery, but spangles
take mainly one of two shapes, best distinguished as disc-like and ring-like.
The discs are flat, pierced in the centre, and sewn down usually with two or
three radiating stitches (A, Illustration 51, and Illustration 67). The rings
may be attached by a single thread. They can easily be made to overlap like
fish scales, and most elaborately embossed pictures have been worked in
this way. There is a vestment in the cathedral at Granada which is a marvel
to see; but not the thing to do, surely.

Relief is easily overdone, in figure work so easily that one may say safety is
to be found only in the most delicate relief. To make figures look round is to
make them look stuffed. That stuffy images are to be found in mediæval
church work is only too true. In Gothic art one finds this quaint, perhaps,
but it is perilously near the laughable. The point of the ridiculous is plainly
overpassed in English work of the 17th century, which degenerates at last
into mere doll work—the dolls duly stuffed and dressed in most childish
fashion, their drapery, in actual folds, projecting. Some really admirable
needlework was wasted upon this kind of thing, which has absolutely no
value, except as an object-lesson in the frivolity of the Stuarts and their on-
hangers.

QUILTING.

A most legitimate use of padding is in the form of Quilting, where it serves
a useful as well as an ornamental purpose. To quilt is to stitch one cloth
upon another with something soft between (or without anything between).
Our word "counterpane" is derived from "contre-poinct," a corruption of the
French word for back-stitch, or "quilting" stitch, as it was called.
If you merely stitch two thicknesses of stuff together in a pattern, such as
that on Illustration 69, the stuff between the stitches has a tendency to rise:
the two layers of stuff do not lie close except where they are held together
by the stitching, and a very pleasantly uneven surface results. This effect is
enhanced if between the two stuffs there is a layer of something soft. If,
now, you keep down the groundwork of your design by comparatively
frequent stitches diapering it, you get a pattern in relief, more or less,
according to the substance of your padding.
Another way is to pad the pattern only, as in Illustration 70, where the
padding is of soft cord.

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69. QUILTING, DONE IN CHAIN-STITCH FROM THE BACK.

A cunning way of padding is first to stitch the outline of the design, and
then from the back to insert the stuffing. You first pierce the stuff with a
stiletto, and, having pushed in the cord, cotton, or what not, efface as far as
possible the piercing: the stuffing has then not much temptation to escape
from its confinement.
The Persians do most elaborate quilting on fine white linen, which they sew
with yellow silk; but the pattern is stuffed with cords of blue cotton, the
colour of which just grins through the white sufficiently to cool it, and to

distinguish it from the creamy white ground made warmer by the yellow
stitching.
Quilting is most often done in white upon colour, or in one colour upon
white. Yellow silk on white linen (as in the case of Illustration 69) was a
favourite combination, and is always a delicate one. But there is no reason
why a variety of colours should not be used in a counterpane. When you
stitch down the ground with coloured silk you give it, of course, colour as
well as flatness.

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70. RAISED QUILTING.

STITCH GROUPS.

There are all sorts of ways in which stitches might be grouped:—according
to the order of time in which historically they came into use; according as
they are worked through and through the stuff or lie mostly on its surface;
according as they are conveniently worked in the hand or necessitate the
use of a frame; and in other ways too many to mention. It is not difficult, for
example, to imagine a classification according to which the satin-stitch in
Illustration 71 would figure as a canvas stitch.
In the Samplers they are grouped according to their construction, that
seeming to us the most practical for purposes of description. They might for
other purposes more conveniently be classed some other way. At all events,
it is helpful to group them. Designer and worker alike will go straighter to
the point if once they get clearly into their minds the stitches and their use,
and the range of each—what it can do, what it can best do, what it can ill
do, what it cannot do at all.
Anyone, having mastered the stitches and grasped their scope, can group
them for herself, say, into stitches suited (1) to line work, (2) to all-over
work, (3) to shading, and so on.
These she might again subdivide. Of line stitches, for example, some are
best suited for straight lines, others for curved; some for broad lines, others
for narrow; some for even lines, others for unequal; some for outlining,
others for veining.
And, further, of all-over stitches some give a plain surface, others a
patterned one; some do best for flat surfaces, others for modelled; some
look best in big patches, some answer only for small spaces.
With regard to shading stitches, there are various ways (see the chapter on
shading) of giving gradation of colour and of indicating relief or modelling.

Some stitches, of course, are adapted to various uses, as crewel, chain, and
satin stitches—naturally the most in use. Workers generally end in adopting
certain stitches as their own. That is all right, so long as they do not forget
that there are other stitches which might on occasion serve their purpose.
Anyway, they should begin by knowing what stitches there are. Until they
know, and know too what each can do, they are hardly in a position to
determine which of them will best do what they want.
Our Samplers show the use to which the stitches on them may be put.

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71. SATIN-STITCH IN THE MAKING.

By way of résumé, it may be added that for line work, more or less fine,
crewel, chain, back and rope stitches, and couched cord are most suitable;
crewel for long lines especially, and rope stitch for both curved and straight
lines; for a boundary line, buttonhole is most emphatic; for broader lines,
herring-bone, feather, and Oriental stitches answer better; ladder-stitch has
the advantage of a firm edge on both sides of it. Satin and chain stitches,
couching and laying, and basket work make good bands, but are not
peculiarly adapted to that purpose.
For covering broad surfaces, crewel, chain, and satin stitches (including, of
course, what are called long-and-short and plumage stitches) serve

admirably, as does also darning and laid-work; and for gold thread,
couching. French knots do best for small surfaces only. The stitches most
useful for purposes of shading are mentioned later on.
No sort of classification is possible until the number of stitches has been
reduced to the necessary few, and all fancy stitches struck out of the list.
Enquiry should also be made into the title of each stitch to the name by
which it is known; and the names themselves should be brought down to a
minimum.
Reduce them to the fewest any needlewoman will allow, and they are still,
if not too many, more than are logically required. Some of them, too,
describe not stitches, but ways of using a stitch. The term long-and-short, it
has already been explained (page 100), has less to do with a particular stitch
than its proportion, and the term plumage-stitch refers more to the direction
of the stitch than to the stitch itself. And so with other stitches. It is its
oblique direction only which distinguishes stem-stitch from other short
stitches of the kind. Running, again, amounts to no more than proportioning
stitches to the mesh of the stuff, and taking several of them at one passing
of the needle; and darning is but rows of running side by side. The term
split-stitch describes no new stitch, but a particular treatment to which a
crewel or a satin stitch is submitted.
The foregoing summaries of stitches are only by way of suggestion,
something to set the embroidress thinking for herself. She must choose her
own method; but it would help her, I think, to schedule the stitches for
herself according to her own ways and wants. The most suitable stitch may
not suit every one. Individual preference and individual aptitude count for
something. It is not a question of what is demonstrably best, but of what
best suits you.

ONE STITCH, OR MANY?

The first thing to be settled with regard to the choice of stitch is whether to
employ one stitch throughout, or a variety of stitches. Much will depend
upon the effect desired. Good work has been done in either way; but one
may safely say, in the first place, that it is as well not to introduce variety of
stitch without good cause—there is safety in simplicity—and in the second,
that stitches should be chosen to go together, in order that the work may
look all of a piece. When the various stitches are well chosen, it is difficult
at a glance to distinguish one from another.
A great variety of stitches in one piece of work is worrying, if not
bewildering. It is as well not to use too many, to keep in the main to one or
two, but not to be afraid of using a third, or a fourth, to do what the stitch or
stitches mainly relied upon cannot do.

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72. STITCHES IN COMBINATION.

It tends also towards simplicity of effect if you use your stitches with some
system, not haphazard, and in subordination one to the other; there must be
no quarrelling among them for superiority. You should determine, that is to
say, at the outset, which stitch shall be employed for filling, which for
outline; or which for stalks, which for leaves, and which for flowers. Or,
supposing you adopt one general stitch throughout, and introduce others,
you should know why, and make up your mind to employ your second for
emphasis of form, your third for contrast of texture, or for some other quite
definite purpose.

It is not possible here to point out in detail the system on which the various
examples illustrated have been worked; the reader must worry that out for
herself. But one may just point out in passing how well the various stitches
go together in some few instances.
Nothing could be more harmonious, for example, than the combination of
knot, chain, and buttonhole stitches in Illustration 24; or of ladder, Oriental,
herring-bone, and other stitches in Illustration 72. Again, in Illustration 85
the contrast between satin-stitch in the bird and couched cord for the
clouding is most judicious, as is the knotting of the bird's crest. Laid floss
contrasts, again, admirably with couched gold in Illustrations 47, 48, 49,
and satin-stitch with couching in Illustration 91, where the gold is reserved
mainly for outline, but on occasion serves to emphasise a detail.

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73. FINE NEEDLEWORK UPON LINEN.

Couched gold and surface satin-stitch are used together again in Illustration
58, each for its specific purpose. The harmony between appliqué work and
couching or chain-stitch outline has been alluded to already.

A danger to be kept in view when working in one stitch only is, lest it
should look like a woven textile, as it might if very evenly worked. Some
kinds of embroidery seem hardly worth doing nowadays, because they
suggest the loom. That may be a reason for some complexity of stitch, in
which lurks that other danger of losing simplicity and breadth. The lace-like
appearance of the needlework upon fine linen in Illustration 73, results
chiefly from the extraordinary delicacy with which it is done, but it owes
something also to the variety of stitch and of stitch-pattern employed in it.

OUTLINE.

The use of outline in embroidery hardly needs pointing out. It is often the
obvious way of defining a pattern, as, for example, where there is only a
faint difference in depth of tint between the pattern and its background; in
appliqué work it is necessary to mask the joins; and it is by itself a
delightful means of diapering a surface with not too obtrusive pattern.
Allusion to the stitches suitable to outline has been made already (see
stitch-groups), as well as to the colour of outlining, à propos of appliqué. It
is difficult to overrate the importance of this question of colour in the case
of outline; but there are no rules to be laid down, except that a coloured
outline is nearly always preferable to a black one. The Germans of the 16th
century were given to indulging in black outlines, and you may see in their
work how it hardened the effect, whereas a coloured outline may define
without harshness. The Spaniards, on the other hand, realised the value of
colour, and would, for example, outline gold and silver upon a dark green
ground in red, with admirable effect. A double outline, for which there is
often opportunity in bold work, may be turned to good account. Among the
successful combinations which come to mind is an appliqué pattern in
yellow and white upon dark green, outlined first with gold cord, and then,
next the green, with a paler and brighter green. Another is a pattern chiefly
in yellow upon purple, outlined first with yellow couched with gold, and
next the ground with silver. In the case of couched cord or gold, the colour
of the stitching counts also.
Stitches from the edge of a leaf or what not, inwards, alternately long and
short, though they form an edge to the leaf, are not properly outlining. This
is rather a stopping short of solid work than outlining, though it often goes
by that name.
The first condition of a good outline stitch is that it should be, as it were,
supple, so as to follow the flow of the form. At the same time it should be

firm. Fancy stitches look fussy; and a spikey outline is worse than none at
all.
There is absolutely no substantial ground for the theory that outlines should
be worked in a stitch not used elsewhere in the work. On the contrary, it is a
good rule not to introduce extra stitches into the work unless they give
something which the stitches already employed will not give. The simplest
way is always safest.
An outline affords a ready means of clearing up edges; but it should not be
looked upon merely as a device for the disguise of slovenliness. Unless the
colour scheme should necessitate an outline, an embroidress, sure of her
skill, will often prefer not to outline her work, and to get even the drawing
lines within the pattern, by voiding. She will leave, that is to say, a line of
ground-stuff clear between the petals of her flowers, or what not; which
line, by the way, should be narrower than it is meant to appear, as it looks
always broader than it is. It is more difficult, it must be owned, thus to work
along two sides of a line of ground-stuff than to work a single line of
stitching, but it is within the compass of any skilled worker; and skilled
workers have delighted in voiding even when their work was on a small
scale necessitating fine lines of voiding (Illustrations 39 and 40).
In work on a bold scale there is no difficulty about it; and it would be
remarkable that it is so seldom used, were it not that the uncertain worker
likes to have a chance of clearing up ragged edges, and that voiding implies
a broader and more dignified treatment of design than it is the fashion to
affect.

SHADING.

One arrives inevitably at gradation of colour in embroidery; the question is
how best to get it. But, before mentioning the ways in which it may be got,
it seems necessary to protest that shading is not a matter of course. Perfectly
beautiful work may be done, and ought more often to be done, in merely
flat needlework; the gloss of the silk and its varying colour as it catches the
light according to the direction of the stitching, are quite enough to prevent
a monotonously flat effect.
Still, embroidery affords such scope for gradation of colour, not, practically,
to be got by any process of weaving, that a colourist may well revel in the
delights of colour which silks of various dyes allow. And so long as colour
is the end in view there is not much danger that a colourist will go wrong.

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74. PART OF A DESIGN BY WALTER CRANE.

The use of shading in embroidery is rather to get gradation of colour than
relief of form. As to the stitch to be employed, that is partly a personal
matter, partly a question of what is to be done. The stitch must be adapted to
the kind of shading, or the shading must be designed to suit the stitch. It
makes all the difference in the world, whether your shading is deliberately
done, or whether one shade is meant to merge into another. In the best work
it is always done with decision. There is nothing vague or casual, for
example, about the shading of Mr. Crane's animals on Illustration 74.
Everywhere the shading is drawn, either in lines or as a sharply defined
mass. Given a drawing in which the shadows are properly planned and
crisply drawn like that, and you may use what stitch you please.

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75. SHADING IN CHAIN-STITCH.

The more natural way of shading is to let the stitches follow the lines of the
drawing, and so make use of them to express form, as with the strokes of
the pen or pencil upon paper. Thus, in mediæval figurework prior to the
15th century, the faces were usually done in split stitch, worked
concentrically from the middle of the cheek outward, and so suggesting the
roundness of the face (Illustration 87). But just as there is a system of
shading according to which the draughtsman makes all his strokes in one
direction (slanting usually), so the embroidress may, if she prefer, take her
stitches all one way; and in the 15th and 16th centuries the fashion was to
work flesh in short-satin stitches always in the vertical direction
(Illustration 79). The term "long-and-short-stitch" is frequently used by way
of describing the stitch. It does not, as I have said, help us much. The
stitches are in the first place only satin-stitches worked not in even rows, as
in Illustration 40, but so that there is no line of demarcation between one
row and another. And this, in the case of gradated colour, makes the shading
softer. The words long-and-short apply strictly only to the outer row of
stitches. You begin, that is to say, with alternately long and short stitches. If
you work after that with stitches of equal length, they necessarily alternate
or dovetail. If the form to be worked necessitates radiation in the stitching,
there results a texture something like the feathering of a bird's breast
(Illustration 85), whence the name plumage-stitch, another term describing
not so much a stitch as the use of a stitch.
No matter what the stitch, one must be able to draw in order to express
form: it is rather more difficult to draw with a needle than with a pen, that is
all. True, the designer may do that for you, and make such a workmanlike
drawing that there is no mistaking it; but it takes a skilled draughtsman to
do it.

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76. SHADING IN SHORT STITCHES.

In flattish decorative work, where the drawing is in firm lines, as in
Illustration 87, the task of the embroidress is relatively easy—there is not
much shading, for example, in the drapery of King Abias, and the vine
leaves are merely worked with yellower green towards the edges. Even
where there is strong shading, a draughtsman who knows his business may
make shading easy by drawing his shadows with firm outlines. The taste of
the artist who designed the roses in Illustration 75 is too pictorial to win the
heart of any one with a leaning towards severity of design; too much relief
is sought; but the way he has got it shows the master workman; he has
deliberately laid in flat washes of colour, each with its precise outline,
which the worker had only to follow faithfully with flat tambour work. A
design like that, given the working drawing, asks little of the worker
beyond patient care: of the designer it asks considerable knowledge.

A yet more pictorial effect is produced in much the same way, this time in
satin stitch, in Illustration 76. The artist has for the most part drawn his
shadows with crisp brush strokes, which the worker had no difficulty in
following; but there is some rounding of the birds' bodies which a merely
mechanical worker could not have got. In fact, there are indications that this
is the work more of a painter than of an embroidress, who would have
acknowledged by her stitches the feathering of the birds' necks as well as
their roundness.

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77. SHADING IN LONG-AND-SHORT AND SPLIT STITCHES.

You can embroider, of course, without knowing much about drawing; but
you cannot go far in the direction of shading (not drawn for you, or only

vaguely drawn) without the appreciation of form which comes only of
knowing and understanding. There is evidence of such knowledge and
understanding in the working of the lion in Illustration 77. That is not a
triumph of even stitching; but it is a triumph of drawing with the needle.
The short satin and split stitches are not placed with the regularity so dear to
the human machine, but they express the design perfectly. The embroiderer
of that lion was an artist, perhaps the artist who designed it. "It might be a
man's work," was the verdict of an embroidress. At all events it is the work
of some one who could draw, and only a draughtsman or draughtswoman
could have worked it.
This is not said wholly in praise of shading. Embroidery ought, for the most
part, to do very well without it. The point to insist upon is that, if shading is
employed at all, it should mean something, and not be mere fumbling after
form.
The charm of shading in embroidery is not the roundness of form which
you get, but the gradation of colour which it gives. This may be very
delicately and subtly got by split-stitch, which renders that stitch so
valuable in the rendering of flesh tints. But the blending of colour into
colour which is universally admired is not quite so admirable as people
think. One may easily employ too many shades of colour, easily merge
them too imperceptibly one into the other, getting only unmeaning softness.
An artist prefers to see few shades employed, and those chosen with
judgment and placed with deliberate intention. If they mean something,
there is no harm in letting it be seen where they meet: broad masses give
breadth: vagueness generally means ignorance. That is, perhaps, why one
dislikes it, and why it is so common.

FIGURE EMBROIDERY.

To an accomplished needlewoman embroidery offers every scope for art,
short of the pictorial; and the artist is not only justified in lavishing work
upon it, but often bound to do so, more especially when it comes to working
with materials in themselves rich and costly. A beautiful material, if you are
to better it (and if not why work upon it at all?), must be beautifully
worked. Costly material is worth precious work; and there should be by
rights a preciousness about the needlework employed upon it, preciousness
of design and of execution. To put the value into the material is mere
vulgarity.
It seems to an artist almost to go without saying, that the labour on work
claiming to be art should be in excess of the value of the stuff which goes to
make it. What we really prize is the hand work and the brain work of the
artist; and the more precious the stuff he employs, the more strictly he is
bound to make artistic use of it. I do not mean by that pictorial use. You can
get, no doubt, with the needle effects more or less pictorial—most often
less; but, when got, they are usually at the best rather inferior to the picture
of which they are a copy.
Work done should be better always than the design for it, which was a
project only, a promise. The fulfilment should be something more. A design
of which the promise is not likely to be fulfilled in the working-out is, for
its purpose, ill-designed. To say that you would rather have the drawing
from which it was done (and that is what you feel about "needle pictures")
is most severely to condemn either the designer or the worker, or perhaps
both. Only a competent figure painter, for example, can be trusted to render
flesh with the needle; her success is in proportion to her skill with the
implement, but in any case less than what might be achieved in painting:
then why choose the needle?

Admitting that a painter who by choice or chance takes to the needle may
paint with it satisfactorily enough, that does not go to prove the needle a
likely tool to paint with. It is anything but that. There was never a greater
mistake than to suppose, as some do who should know better, that, to raise
embroidery to the rank of art, figure work is necessary. The truth is that
only by rare exception does embroidered figure work rise to the rank of art:
the rule is that it is degraded, the more surely as it aims at picture. And that
is why, for all that has been done in the way of wonderful picture work, say
by the Italians and the Flemings of the Early Renaissance, the pictorial is
not the form of design best suited to embroidery.
Needlework, like any other decorative craft, demands treatment in the
design, and the human figure submits less humbly to the necessary
modification than other forms of life. Animals, for instance, lend
themselves more readily to it, and so do birds; fur and feathers are
obviously translatable into stitches. Leaves and flowers accommodate
themselves perhaps better still; but each is best when it is only the motive,
not the model, of design. If only, then, on account of the greater difficulty in
treating it, the figure is not the form of design most likely to do credit to the
needle, and it is absurd to argue that, figure work being the noblest form of
design, therefore the noblest form of embroidery must include it.
The embroidress entirely in sympathy with her materials will not want
telling that the needle lends itself better to forms less fixed in their
proportions than the human figure; the decorator will feel that there is about
fine ornament a nobility of its own which stands in need of no pictorial
support; the unbiassed critic will admit that figure design of any but the
most severely decorative kind is really outside the scope of needle and
thread; and that the desire to introduce it arises, not out of
craftsmanlikeness, but out of an ambition which does not pay much regard
to the conditions proper to needlework. Those conditions should be a law to
the needlewoman. What though she be a painter too? She is painting now
with a needle. It is futile to attempt what could be better done with a brush.
She should be content to work the way of the needle. Common sense asks
that much at least of loyalty to the art she has chosen to adopt.
Wonderful and almost incredibly pictorial effects have been obtained with
the needle; but that does not mean to say it was a wise thing to attempt

them. The result may be astonishing and yet not worth the pains. The pains
of flesh-painting with the needle (if not the impossibility of it for all
practical purposes) is confessed by the habit which arose of actually
painting the flesh in water colour upon satin. Paint on satin, if you like.
There may be occasions when there is no time to stitch, and it is necessary
for some ceremonial and more or less theatric purpose to paint what had
better have been worked. The more frankly such work acknowledges its
temporary and makeshift character the better. Scene painting is art, until
you are asked to take it for landscape painting. Anyway, the mixture of
painting and embroidery is not to be endured; and it is a poor-spirited
embroidress who will thus confess her weakness and call on painting to
help her out. It does not even do that, it fails absolutely to produce the
desired effect. The painting quarrels with the stitching, and there is after all
no semblance of that unity which is the very essence of picture.

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78. CHINESE CHAIN-STITCHING.

An instance of painted flesh occurs upon Illustration 91. Can any one, in
view of the bordering to the picture, doubt that the worker had much better
have kept to what she could do, and do perfectly, ornament? An example,
on the other hand, of what may be done in the way of expressing action in
the fewest and simplest chain stitches (if only you know the form you want
to represent and can manage your needle) is given in the wee figures in the
landscape above (78).

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79. FIFTEENTH CENTURY FIGURE WORK.

In speaking of the necessary treatment of the human figure (as of other
natural form) in needlework, it is not meant to contend that there is one only
way of treating it consistently, or that there are no more than two or three
ways. There are various ways, some no doubt yet to be devised, but they
must be the ways of the needle. The flesh, of course, is the main difficulty.
A Gothic practice, and not the least happy one, was to show the flesh in the
naked linen of the ground, only just working the outlines of the features in
black or brown. Another way was to work the face in split stitch, as already
explained, and over that the markings of the features, the fine lines in short

satin-stitches, the broader in split-stitch, as shown in the figure of King
Abias in Illustration 87.
The general treatment of the figure there is of course in the manner of the
14th century, better suited, from its severe simplicity, for rendering in
needlework than later and more pictorial forms of composition. That
needlework can, however, in capable hands, go farther than that is shown in
Illustration 79, a rather threadbare specimen of 15th century work, in which
the character of the man's face is admirably expressed. It is first worked in
short, straight stitches, all of white, and over that the drawing lines are
worked in brown. The artist gets her effect in the simplest possible way, and
apparently with the greatest ease.

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80. SIXTEENTH CENTURY ITALIAN FIGURE WORK.

More like painting is the head in Illustration 80, worked in short stitches of
various shades, which give something of the colour as well as the modelling
of flesh. This is a triumph in its way. It goes about as far as the needle can
go, and further than, except under rare conditions, it ought to go. But it may
do that and yet be needlework.
Equally wonderful in their miniature way are the faces of the little people
on Illustration 81, about the size of your finger nail. They are worked in
solid satin-stitch, and the two layers of silk (back and front) give a
substance fairly thick but at the same time yielding, so that when the
stitches for the mouth and eyes are sewn tightly over it they sink in, and, as
it were, push up the floss between and give relief. The nose is worked in
extra satin-stitch over the other, and the slight depression at the end of the
stitch gives lines of drawing. This trenches upon modelling, but, on such a
minute scale, does not amount to very pronounced departure from the flat.
The method employed does not lend itself to larger work.
The last word on the question as to what one may do with the needle is, that
you may do what you can; but it is best to seek by means of it what it can
best do, and always to make much of the texture of silk, and of the quality
of pure and lustrous colour which it gives—in short, to work with your
materials.

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81. CHINESE FIGURES.

THE DIRECTION OF THE STITCH.

The effect of any stitch is vastly varied, according to the use made of it.
Satin-stitch, it was shown (38), worked in twisted silk, ceases to have any
appearance of satin; and it makes all the difference whether the stitches are
long or short, close together or wide apart. More important than all is the
direction of the stitch. By that alone you can recognise the artist in
needlework.
The direction of the stitch deserves consideration from two points of view
—that of colour and that of form. First as to colour. It is not sufficiently
realised that every alteration in the direction of the stitch means variety of
tone, if not of tint. Take a feather in your hand, and turn it about, so that
now one side of the quill now the other catches the light; or notice the
alternate stripes of brighter and greyer green on a fresh-trimmed lawn,
where the roller has bent the blades of grass first this way and then that. So
it is with the colour of silken stitches. The pattern opposite (82) looks as if it
had been embroidered in two shades of silk; in the work itself it has still
more that appearance; but it is all in one shade of brownish gold: the
difference which you see is merely the effect of light upon it. The horizontal
stitches, as it happens, catch the light; the vertical ones do not. Had the light
come from a different point, the effect might have been reversed. If there
had been diagonal stitches from right to left, they would have given a third
tint; and, if there had been others from left to right, they would have given a
fourth.

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82. INFLUENCE OF STITCH-DIRECTION UPON COLOUR.

Suppose a pattern in which the leaves were worked horizontally, the flowers
vertically, and the stalks in the direction of their growth, all in one stitch
and in one colour, there would be a very appreciable difference in tone
between leaves, flowers, and stalks. In gold, the difference would be yet
more striking. And that is one reason why gold backgrounds are worked in
diapers; not so much for the sake of pattern as to get variety of broken tint.
In the famous Syon Cope the direction of the stitching is frankly
independent of the design. That is to say, that, while the pattern radiates
naturally from the neck, the stitches do not follow suit, but go all one way
—the way of the stuff. This, though rather a brutal solution of the difficulty,
saves all afterthought as to what direction the stitches shall take; but it has
very much the effect of weaving. The embroiderer of the 13th century was
not afraid of that (aimed at it, perhaps?), and was, apparently, afraid of
letting go the leading strings of warp and weft.
When stitches follow the direction of the form embroidered,
accommodating themselves to it, all manner of subtle change of tone

results. You get, not only variety of colour, but more than a suggestion of
form.
That is the second point to be considered.

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83. MEANINGLESS DIRECTION OF STITCH.

The direction taken by the stitch always helps to explain the drawing; or, if
the needlewoman cannot draw, to show that she cannot—as, for example, in
the tulip herewith (83). A less intelligent management of the stitch it would
be hard to find. The needlestrokes, far from helping in the very slightest
degree to explain the folding over of the petals, directly contradict the
drawing. The flower might almost have been designed to show how not to
do it; but it is a piece of old work, quite seriously done, only without
knowing. The embroidress is free, of course, to work her stitches in a
direction which does not express form at all, so as to give a flat tint, in
which is no hint of modelling; but the intention is here quite obviously
naturalistic. The rendering below (84) shows the direction the stitches
should have taken. The turn-over of the petals is even there not very clearly
expressed, but that is the fault of the drawing (very much on a par with the
workmanship), from which it would not have been fair to depart.

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84. MORE EXPRESSIVE LINES OF STITCHING.

A more clever fulfilment of the naturalistic intention is to be seen in
Illustration 76. The drawing of the doves is in the rather loose manner of the
period of Marie Antoinette; but the treatment of the stitch is clever in its
way—the way, as I have said, rather of painting than of embroidery, giving
as it does the roundness of the birds' bodies but no hint of actual feathering,
such as you find in the bird in Illustration 85. There, every stitch helps to
explain the feathering. By a discreet use of what I must persist in calling the
same stitch (that is, satin-stitch and the variety of it called plumage-stitch)
the embroiderer has rendered with equal perfection the sweep of the broad
wing feathers and the fluffy feathering of the breast. It is by means of the
direction of the stitch, too, that the drawing of the neck is so perfectly
rendered.

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85. SATIN AND PLUMAGE STITCHES.

The direction of the stitch is varied to some purpose in the head in
Illustration 80, where the flesh is all in straight upright stitches, whilst the
hair is stitched in the direction of its growth.
The five petals on the satin-stitch sampler (Illustration 36)—to descend
from the masterly to the elementary—show something of the difference it
makes in what direction the stitch is worked. It matters more, of course, in
some stitches than in others; but in most cases the direction of the stitch
suggests form, and needs accordingly to be considered.
It scarcely needs further pointing out how the direction of the stitch may
help to explain the construction of the form, as in the case of leaves, for
example, where the veining may be suggested; or of stalks, where the fibre
may be indicated. There is no law as to the direction of stitch, except that it
should be considered. You may follow the direction of the forms, you may
cross them, you may deliberately lay your stitches in the most arbitrary
manner; but, whatever you do, you must do it with intelligent purpose. An
artist or a workwoman can tell at once whether your stitch was laid just so
because you meant it or because you knew no better.

Having laid your stitches deliberately, it is best to leave them, and not to
work over them with other stitching. Stitching over stitching was resorted to
whenever elaboration was the fashion; but the simpler and more direct
method is the best. The way the veins are laid in cord over the satin-stitch in
the lotus leaves in Illustration 40 is the one fault to be found with an all but
perfect piece of work.
The stitching over the laid silver mid-rib in Illustration 92 is better judged.
It may be said, generally speaking, that except where, as in the case of laid-
work, the first stitching was done in anticipation of a second, and the work
would be incomplete without it, stitching over stitches should be indulged
in only with moderation.
Stitching is sometimes done not merely over stitches, but upon the surface
of them, not penetrating the ground-stuff. Unless, in such a case, the first
stitching is of such compact character as to want no strengthening, it
amounts almost to a sin against practicality not to take advantage of the
second stitching to make it firmer.

CHURCH WORK.

It is customary to draw a distinction between church, or ecclesiastical as it
is called, and other embroidery; but it is a distinction without much
difference. Certain kinds of work are doubtless best suited to the dignity of
church ceremonial, and to the breadth of architectural decoration;
accordingly, certain processes of work have been adopted for church
purposes, and are taken as a matter of course—too much as a matter of
course. The fact is, work precisely like that employed on vestments and the
like (Illustration 86) was used also for the caparison of horses and other
equally profane purposes.

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86. RENAISSANCE CHURCH WORK.

Practical considerations, alike of ceremonial and decoration, make it
imperative that church work should be effective: religious sentiment insists
that it should be of the best and richest, unsparingly, and even lavishly
given; common sense dictates that the loving labour spent upon it should
not be lost. And these and other such considerations involve methods of
work which, by constant use for church purposes, have come to be classed
as ecclesiastical embroidery. But there is no consecrated stitch, no stitch
exclusively belonging to the church, none probably invented by it. For
embroidery is a primitive art—clothes were stitched before ever churches
were furnished; and European methods of embroidery are all derived from
Oriental work, which found its way westwards at a very early date. Phrygia
(sometimes credited with the invention of embroidery) passed it on to
Greece, and Greece to Italy, the gate of European art.
Christianity produced new forms of design, but not new ways of work. The
methods adopted in the nunneries of the West were those which had already
been perfected in the harems of the East.
Embroidery for the church must naturally take count of the church, both as
a building and as a place of worship; but, as apart from all other
needlework, there is no such thing as church embroidery; and the branding
of one very dull kind of thing with that name is in the interest neither of art
nor of the church, but only of business. "Ecclesiastical art" is just a trade-
term, covering a vast amount of soulless work. There is in the nature of
things no reason why art should be reserved for secular purposes, and only
manufacture be encouraged by the clergy. The test of fitness for religious
service is religious feeling; but that is hardly more likely to be found in the
output of the church furnisher (trade patterns overladen with stock
symbols), than in the stitching of the devout needlewoman, working for the
glory of God, in whose service of old the best work was done.
Many of the examples of old work given on these pages are from church
vestments, altar furniture, and the like; information on that point will be

found in the descriptive index of illustrations at the beginning of the book;
but they are here discussed from the point of view of workmanship, with as
little reference as possible to religious or other use: that is a question apart
from art.
The distinguishing features of church work should be, in the first place, its
devotional spirit, and, in the second, its consummate workmanship. In it,
indeed, we might expect to find work beyond the rivalry of trade controlled
by conditions of time and money. Even then it would be but the more
perfect expression of the same art which in its degree ennobled things of
civic and domestic use.
Church embroidery, as usually practised in these days, is not only the most
frigid and rigid in design, but the hardest and most mechanical in execution
—which last arises in great part from the way it is done. It is not
embroidered straight upon the silk or velvet which forms the groundwork of
the design, but separately on linen. The pattern thus worked is cut out, and
either pasted straight on to the ground-stuff, or, if the linen is at all loose,
first mounted on thin paper and then cut out and pasted on to the velvet,
where it is kept under pressure until it is dry. In either case the edges have
eventually to be worked over.
This habit of working on linen or canvas and applying the embroidery ready
worked on to the richer stuff, though early used on occasion, does not seem
to have been common until a period when manufacture generally usurped
the place of art. The work in Illustration 87 was done directly on to the silk.
In the latter half of the 18th century there was a regular trade in embroidery
ready to sew on, by which means purveyors could turn out in a day or two
what would have taken months to embroider.
Even if it had been the invariable mediæval practice to work sprays or what
not upon canvas and apply them bodily to the velvet, that would not make it
the more workmanlike or straightforward way of working. If needle stitches
are the ostensible means of getting an effect upon a stuff, it seems only right
they should be stitched upon that stuff. To work the details apart and then
clap them on to it, stands to embroidery very much in the relation of hedge-
carpentering to joinery. Nor is it usually happy in result. Occasionally, as in
the case of Miss C. P. Shrewsbury's vine-leaf pattern (Illustration 88), it

disarms criticism. More often it looks stuck-on. A way of avoiding that look
is to add judicious after-stitching on the stuff itself; and this must not be
confined to the sewing on or outlining merely, but allowed to wander
playfully over the field, so as to draw your eye away from the margin of the
applied patch, and lead you to infer that, some of the needlework being
obviously done on the velvet, all of it is. But to disguise in this way the line
of demarcation, even if you succeed in doing it, is at best the art of
prevarication.

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87. GOTHIC CHURCH WORK.

No doubt it is difficult to work upon velvet. The stuff is not very
sympathetic, and the stitching has a way of sinking into the pile, and being,
as it were, drowned in it. But the trailing spirals of split-stitch which play

about the applied spots in many a mediæval altar cloth hold their own quite
well enough to show that silk can be worked straight on to the velvet.
That gold may be equally well worked straight on to velvet may be seen in
any Indian saddle cloth. Heavy work of this kind may be rather man's work
than woman's; but that is not the point. The question is, how to get the best
results; and the answer is, by working on the stuff.
It may be argued that in this way you cannot get very high relief; but the
occasions for high relief are, at the best, rare. If you want actual modelling,
as in the Spanish work referred to in a previous chapter, that must, of
course, be worked separately, built up, as it were, upon the canvas and
worked over. And there is no reason why it should not, for in no case does it
appear to be stitching. In fact, it aims deliberately at the effect of chased and
beaten metal.

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88. MODERN CHURCH WORK BY MISS SHREWSBURY.

Heavy appliqué of any kind affects, of course, not only the thickness but the
flexibility of the material thus enriched—an important consideration if it is
meant to hang in folds.

A PLEA FOR SIMPLICITY.

The simplest patterns are by no means the least beautiful. It is too much the
fashion to underrate the artistic value of the less pretentious forms of
needlework, and especially of flat ornament, which has, nevertheless, its
own very important place in decoration. As for geometric pattern, that is
quite beneath consideration—it is so mechanical! Mechanical is a word as
easily spoken as another; but if needlework is mechanical, that is more
often the fault of the needlewoman than of the mechanism she employs.
The Orientals, who indulged so freely in geometric device, were the least
mechanical of workers. It is our rigid way of working it which robs
geometric ornament of its charm. The needleworker has less than ever
occasion to be afraid of geometric pattern; for it is peculiarly difficult to get
in it that appearance of rule-and-compass-work which makes ornament so
dull.
The one real objection to geometric pattern is that it is nowadays so cheaply
and so mechanically got by weaving that, however freely it may be
rendered, there is a danger of its suggesting mechanical production, which
embroidery emphatically ought not to do. There is a similar objection
nowadays to some stitches, such, for example, as chain-stitch and back-
stitch, which suggest the sewing-machine.
Embroidery does not to-day take quite the place it once did. It was used, for
example, by the early Coptic Christians to supplement tapestry. That is to
say, what they could not weave they stitched; it was only to get more
delicate detail than their tapestry loom would allow, that they had recourse
to the needle. Needlework was, in fact, an adjunct to weaving. Later, in
mediæval times, the Germans of Cologne, for their church vestments and
the like, wove what they could, and enriched their woven figures with
embroidery.

Again, a great deal of Oriental embroidery, and of peasant work
everywhere, is merely the result of circumstances. Where money is scarce
and time is of no account, it answers a woman's purpose to do for herself
with her needle what might in some respects be even better done on the
loom. Her preference for handwork is not that it has artistic possibilities,
but that it costs her less. She would in many cases prefer the more
mechanically produced fabric, if she could get it at the same price. We do
not find that Orientals reject the productions of the power-loom—which
they would do if they had the artistic instincts with which we credit them.

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89. SIMPLE STITCHING ON LINEN.

It results from our conditions of to-day that there are some kinds of
needlework we admire, which yet are not worth our doing, such, for

example, as the all-over work, which does not amount to more than simple
diaper, and which really is not so much embroidering on a textile as
converting it into one of another kind. Glorified instances of this kind of
work occur in the shawl work of Cashmere, and in those beautiful bits of
Persian stitching which remind one of carpet-work in miniature, if they are
not in fact related to carpet-weaving.
Embroidery was at one time the readiest, and practically the only, means of
getting enrichment of certain kinds. To-day we get machine embroidery. As
machinery is perfected, and learns to do what formerly could be done only
by the needle, hand-workers get pushed aside and fall out of work. Their
chance is, in keeping always in advance of the machine. There is this hope
for them, that the monotony of machine-made things produces in the end a
reaction in favour of handwork—provided always it gives us something
which manufacture cannot. Possibly also there is scope for amateurs and
home-artists in that combination of embroidery and hand-weaving with
which the power-loom, though it has superseded it, does not enter into
competition.

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90. SIMPLE COUCHING ON LINEN.

It is not so much for geometric ornament as for simple pattern that I here
make my plea, for that reticent work of which so much was at one time
done in this country—mere back-stitching, for example, or what looks like
it, in yellow silk upon white linen; or the modest diaper, archaic, if you like,
but inevitably characteristic, in which the naïveté of the sampler seems
always to linger; or again, the admirably simple work in Illustration 89.
This last does not show so delicately in the photographic reproduction as it
should, because, being in grey and yellow on white linen, the relative value
of the two shades of colour is lost in the process. In the original the broader
yellow bands are much more in tone with the ground, and do not assert

themselves so much. Such as it is, only an artist could have designed that
border-work, and any neat-handed woman could have embroidered it.
Think again of the delicate work in white on white, too familiar to need
illustration, which makes no loud claim to be art, but is content to be
beautiful! Is that to be a thing altogether of the past now that we have Art
Needlework? Art needlework! It has helped put an end to the patience of the
modern worker, and to inspire her too often with ambitions quite beyond
her powers of fulfilment.
What one misses in the work of the present day is that reticent and
unpretending stitchery, which, thinking to be no more than a labour of
loving patience, is really a work of art, better deserving the title than a
flaunting floral quilt which goes by the name of "art needlework"—
designed apparently to worry the eye by day and to give bad dreams by
night to whoever may have the misfortune to sleep under it. Is anyone
nowadays modest enough to do work such as the couching in outline in
Illustration 90? Yet what distinction there is about it!

EMBROIDERY DESIGN.

Perfect art results only when designer and worker are entirely in sympathy,
when the designer knows quite what the worker can do with her materials,
and when the worker not only understands what the designer meant, but
feels with him. And it is the test of a practical designer that he not only
knows the conditions under which his design is to be carried out, but is
ready to submit to them.
The distinction here made between designer and embroiderer is not casual,
but afore-thought, notwithstanding the division of labour it implies.
Enthusiasm has a habit of outrunning reason. Because in some branches of
industry subdivision of labour has been carried to absurd excess, it is the
fashion to demand in all branches of it the autograph work of one person,
which is no less absurd. To try and link together faculties which Nature has
for the most part put asunder, is futile.
That designer and worker should be one and the same person is an ideal, but
one only very occasionally fulfilled. When that happens (Illustrations 61
and 88) it is well. But the attempt to realise it commonly works out in one
of two ways: either a good design is spoilt in the working for want of
executive skill on the part of the designer, or good workmanship is spent on
poor design, as good, perhaps, as one has any right to expect of a skilled
needleworker.
The fact is, you can only make out all the world to be designers by reducing
design to what all the world can do. And that is not much. There is a point
of view from which it does not amount to design at all.
The study of design forms part of the education of an embroidress, not so
much that she may design what she works, but that she may know in the
first place what good design is, and, in the second, be equal to the ever-
recurring occasion when a design has to be modified or adapted. If, in thus

manipulating design not hers, she should discover a faculty of invention,
she will want no telling to exercise it. A designer wants no encouragement
to design—she designs.
There would be no occasion to insist upon this, were it not for the
prevalence at the present moment of the idea that a worker, in whatever art
or handicraft, is in artistic duty bound to design whatever she puts hand to
do. That is a theory as false as it is unkind; let no embroidress be
discouraged by it. Let her, unless she is inwardly impelled to invent, remain
content to do good needlework. That is her art. Her business as an artist is
to make beautiful things. Co-operation in the making of them is no crime.
And what, then, about originality? Originality is a gift beyond price. But it
is not a thing which even the designer should struggle after. It comes, if it is
there. There is a revengeful consolation for the pain we suffer from design
about us writhing to be up-to-date, in the thought that its contortions tell
what pain it cost to do. The birth of beauty is a less agonising travail; and
the thing to seek is beauty, not novelty. Whoever planned the lines of the
border in Illustration 91, or treated the leafage in Illustration 92, was not
trying to be original, but determined to do his best. Artists and workers of
individuality and character are themselves, without being so much as aware
that originality has gone out of them.

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91. RENAISSANCE ORNAMENT.

To assume, then, that every needlewoman is, or can ever be, competent to
design what she embroiders, is to make very small account of design. How
is it possible to take design seriously and yet think it is to be mastered
without years of patient study, which few workwomen can or will devote to
it? Any cultivated woman may for herself invent (if it is to be called
invention) something better worth working than is to be bought ready to
work. And that may do for many purposes, so long as it does not claim to be
more than it is; but in the case of really important work, to be executed at
considerable cost not only of material, but of patient labour, surely it is
worth giving serious thought to its design. The scant consideration

commonly given to it shows how little the worker is in earnest. Or has she
thought? And is she persuaded that her artless spray of flowers, or the
ironed-off pattern she has bought, is all that art could be? It would be rude
to tell her she was wasting silk! How should she know?
The only way of knowing is to study, to look at good work, old work by
preference; it is worth no one's while to praise that unduly. And if in all that
is now so readily accessible she finds nothing to admire, nothing which
appeals to her, nothing which inspires her, then her case is hopeless. If, on
the other hand, she finds only so much as one style of work sympathetic to
her, studies that, lets its spirit sink into her, tries to do something worthy of
it, then she is on the right road. Measure yourself with the best, not with the
common run of work; and if that should put you out of conceit with your
own work, no great harm is done; sooner or later you have got to come to a
modest opinion of yourself, if ever you are to do even moderate things.

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92. LEAF TREATMENT IN APPLIQUÉ.

But the "best" above referred to does not necessarily mean the most
masterly. The best of a simple kind is not calculated to discourage anyone—
rather, it looks as if it must be easy to do that; and in trying to do it you
learn how much goes to the doing it. Good design need not be of any great
importance or pretensions. It may be quite simple, if only it is right; if the
lines are true, the colour harmonious; if it is adapted to its place, to its use
and purpose, to execution not only with the needle but in the particular kind
of needlework to be employed.
There has of late years been something of a revival of needlework design in
schools of art, and some very promising and even most accomplished work
has been done; but in many instances, as it seems to me, it is rather design
which has been translated into needlework, than design clearly made for
execution with the needle. A really appropriate and practical design for
embroidery should be schemed not merely with a view to its execution with
the needle, but with a view to its execution in a particular stitch or stitches
—and possibly by a particular embroidress. To be safe in designing work so
minute as that on Illustration 93, one must be sure of the needlewoman who
is to execute it.

larger image

93. DELICATE SATIN-STITCH—WORKED BY MISS BUCKLE.

My reference to old work must not be taken to imply that design should be
in imitation of what has been done, or that it should follow on those lines.
Design was once upon a time traditional; but the chain of tradition has
snapped, and now conscious design must be eclectic—that is to say, one
must study old work to see what has been done, and how it has been done,
and then do one's own in one's own way. It is at least as foolish to break
quite away from what has been done as to tether yourself to it. And in what
has been done you will see, not only what is worth doing, but what is not.
That, each must judge for herself. For my part, it seems to me the thing best
worth doing is ornament. Any way, this much is certain (and you have only
to go to a museum to prove it), that there is no need for needleworkers,

unless their instinct draws them that way, to take to needle painting, to
pictures in silk, or even to flower stitching.
The limitations of embroidery are not so rigidly marked as the boundaries
of many another craft. There is little technical difficulty in representing
flowers, for example, very naturally—too naturally for any dignified
decorative purpose. Embroiderer or embroidery designer will, as a matter of
fact, be constantly inspired by flower forms, and silk gives the pure colour
of their petals as nearly as may be. But, though the pattern be a veritable
flower garden, the embroidress will not forget, to use the happy phrase of
William Morris, that she is gardening with silks and gold threads.
Let the needleworker study the work of the needle in preference to that of
the brush; let her aim at what stuff and threads will give her, and give more
readily than would something else. Let her work according to the needle:
take that for her guide, not be misled by what some other tool can do better;
do what the needle can do best, and be content with that. That is the way to
Art in Needlework, and the surest way.

EMBROIDERY MATERIALS.

Embroidery is not among the things which have to be done, and must be
done, therefore, as best one can do them. It is in the nature of a superfluity:
the excuse for it is that it is beautiful. It is not worth doing unless it is done
well, and in material worth the work done on it. If you are going to spend
the time you must spend to do good work, it is worth while using good
stuff, foolish to use anything else. The stuff need not be costly, but it should
be the best of its kind; and it should be chosen with reference to the work to
be done on it, and vice versâ. A mean ground-stuff suggests, if it does not
necessitate, its being embroidered all over, ground-work as well as pattern;
a worthier one, that it should not be hidden altogether from view; a really
beautiful one, that enough of it should be left bare of ornament that its
quality may be appreciated.
stuffs.

It goes without saying, that for big, bold stitching a proportionately coarse
ground-stuff should be used, and for delicate work, one of finer texture;
whether it be linen, woollen cloth, or silk, your purpose will determine.
Linen is a worthy ground-stuff, which may be worked on with flax thread,
crewel, or silk, but they should not be mixed. Cotton is hardly worth
embroidering. Of woollen stuffs, good plain cloth is an excellent ground for
work in wool or silk, but it is not pleasant to the touch in working. Serge, if
not too loose, may serve for curtains and the like, but it is not so well worth
working upon. Felt is beneath contempt.
The nobler the material, the more essential it is that it should be of the best.
Poor satin is not "good enough to work on;" it looks poorer than ever when
it is embroidered.

Satin should be stretched upon the frame the way of the stuff, and it should
not be forgotten that it has a right and a wrong way up. If it is backed, the
linen should be fine and smooth: on a coarse backing, the satin gets quickly
worn away, as you may see in many a piece of old work that has gone
ragged.
"Roman satin" and what is called "satin de luxe" (perhaps because it is not
so luxurious as it pretends to be) are effective ground-stuffs easy to work
upon; but there is an odour of pretence about satin-faced cotton.
A corded silk is not good to embroider; the work on it looks hard; but a
close twill answers very well. Silk damask makes an admirable ground
beautifully broken in colour, if only it is simple and broad enough in
pattern. Generally speaking, you can hardly choose a design too big and
flat; but something depends upon the work to be done on it. In any case, the
pattern of the damask ought not to assert itself, and if you can't make out its
details, so much the better.
Brocade asserts itself too much to form a good background. There is a
practice of embroidering the outlines, or certain details only, of damask and
brocade patterns. That is a fair way of further enriching a rich stuff; but it is
embroidery merely in the sense that it is literally embroidered: the
needlework is only supplementary to weaving.
Tussah silk of the finer sort is easy to work in the hand. The thinner and
looser quality needs to be worked in a frame, and with smooth silk not
tightly twisted.

thread.

With regard to the thread to work with: The coarser kinds of flax are best
waxed before using. The crewel to be preferred is that not too tightly
twisted. Filoselle is well adapted to couching, and may be laid double (24
threads). French floss is smooth, and does well for laid work; for fine work
bobbin floss, or what is called "church floss," is better; the slight twist in
filo-floss is against it; very thick floss may be used for French knots.
For couching gold, a very fine twisted silk does well. Purse silk, thick and
twisted, lends itself perfectly to basket work. Working in coloured silks, one

should take advantage of the quality of pure transparent colour which silk
takes in the dyeing. The palette of the embroiderer in silk is superlatively
rich.

gold.

The purest gold is generally made on a foundation of red silk. Japanese gold
does not tarnish so readily as "passing," which is in some respects superior
to it. For stitching through, there is a finer thread, called "tambour." Flat
gold wire is known by the name of "plate," and various twisted threads by
the name of "purl."

chenille.

A not very promising substance to embroider with is chenille. It came into
use in the latter half of the 17th century, and was still in fashion in the time
of Marie Antoinette. The use of it is shown in Illustration 75, where the
darker touches of the roses are worked in it. Chenille seems to have been
used instead of smooth silk, much as in certain old-fashioned water-colour
paintings gum was used with the paint, or over it, to deepen the shadows.
The material is used again in the wreath on Illustration 76. It is worked
there in chain-stitch with the tambour needle: it may also be worked in
satin-stitch; but the more obvious way of using it is to couch it, cord by
cord, with fine silk thread. There is this against chenille, that its texture is
not sympathetic to the touch, and that there is a stuffy look about it always.
Nor does it seem ever quite to belong to the smooth satin ground on which
it is worked.

ribbon.

shaded
silk.

There is less objection to embroidery in ribbon, which also had its day in
the 18th century. It was very much the fashion for court dresses under Louis
Seize—"Broderie de faveur," as it was called, whence our "lady's favour"—
faveur being a narrow ribbon. Some beautiful work of its kind was done in
ribbon, sometimes shaded. Shaded silk, by the way, may be used to artistic
purpose. There is, for example, in the treasury of Seville Cathedral a piece

of work on velvet, 13th century, it is said, rather Persian in character, in
which the forms of certain nondescript animals are at first sight puzzlingly
prismatic in colour. They turn out to be roughly worked in short stitches of
parti-coloured silk thread. The result is not altogether beautiful, but it is
extremely suggestive.

ribbon.

The effect of ribbon work is happiest when it is not sewn through the stuff
after the manner of satin stitch, but lies on the surface of the satin ground,
and is only just caught down at the ends of the loops which go to make
leaves and petals. The twist of the ribbon where it turns gives interest to the
surface of the embroidery, which is always more or less in relief upon the
stuff, easy to crush, and of limited use therefore.

larger image

94. LEATHER APPLIQUÉ UPON VELVET.

An effect of ribbon work, but of a harder kind, was produced by onlaying
narrow strips of card or parchment upon a silken ground, twisted about after
the fashion of ribbon. These, having been stitched in place, were worked
over in satin-stitch. The work has the merit of looking just like what it is.
But neither it nor ribbon embroidery is of any very serious account.
Passing reference has been made to other materials to embroider with than
thread. Gold wire, for example, and spangles, coral and pearls, which have
been used with admirable discretion, as well as to vulgar purpose. Jewels
also were lavished upon the embroidery of bishops' mitres, gloves and other
significant apparel, and in default of real stones, imitations in glass, and
eventually beads (or pearls) of glass, in which we have possibly the origin
of knots. Bead embroidery is at least as old as ancient Egypt. Even atoms of
looking-glass, sewn round with silk, have been used to really beautiful
effect (barbaric though it may be) in Indian work. The question almost
occurs: with what can one not embroider? In Madras they produce most
brilliant embroidery upon muslin with the cases of beetles' wings. In the
Mauritius they use fish-scales; in North America, porcupine quills; and
everywhere savage tribes use seeds, shells, feathers, and the teeth and claws
of animals.
To return to more civilised work, there is embroidery in gold and silver
wire, allied to the art of the goldsmith, and on leather (Illustration 94),
allied to the art of the saddler. It would be difficult to set any limit to the
directions in which embroidery may branch out, impossible to describe
them all. Happily, it is not necessary. A skilled worker adapts herself to new
conditions, and the conditions themselves dictate the necessary
modification of the familiar way.

A WORD TO THE WORKER.

A good workwoman will not encumber herself with too many tools; but she
will not shirk the expense of necessary implements, the simplest by
preference, and the best that are made.

needles.

Embroidery needles should have large eyes; the silk is not rubbed in
threading them, and they make way for the thread to pass smoothly through
the stuff. For working in twisted silk, the eye should be roundish; for flat
silk, long; for surface stitching or interlacing, a blunt "tapestry needle" is
best; for carrying cord or gold thread through the stuff, a "rug needle."
thimble.

For a thimble, choose an old one that has been worn quite smooth.

scissors.

For scissors, be sure and have a strong, short, sharp and pointed pair—the
surgical instrument, not the fancy article. Nail scissors would not be amiss
but for the roughness of the file on the blades.
pins.

For pins, use always steel ones; and for tacks, those which have been
tinned; or they will leave their mark behind them.
frames.

For a frame, get the best you can afford; a cheap one is no economy; but a
stand for it is not always necessary. It should be rather wider than might

seem necessary, as the work should never extend to the full width of the
webbing. A tambour frame is also useful, though you have no intention of
doing tambour work.

to
stretch
silk.

In stretching silk (not backed with linen) upon a frame, some preliminary
care is necessary. The stuff should first be bordered with strips of linen or
strong tape, and into the two sides of this border which are to be laced up a
stout string should be tacked, to prevent it from giving when the work is
drawn tight.

framing.

The way to put embroidery material (thus bordered or not) into a frame is:
first to sew it to the webbing (top and bottom), then to put the laths or
screws into the bars, tightening them evenly, and lastly to lace it to the sides
with fine string and a packing needle.

transfer
ring.

The ordinary ways of transferring a design to embroidery material are well
known: the outline may be traced down with a point over transfer paper; it
may be pricked upon paper and pounced upon the stuff in chalk or charcoal,
and then traced in with a brush or pen; or it (still the outline only) may be
stencilled. In any case, the outline marked upon the stuff should be well
within what is to be the actual outline of the embroidery when worked.
Another way, more peculiarly adapted to needlework, is to trace the outline
in ink upon fine tarlatan (leno muslin will do for very coarse work), and,
having laid this down upon the stuff, to go over the lines again with a ruling
pen and Indian ink or colour. On a light stuff it is possible to use, instead of
a pen, a hard pencil. On a dark material one must use Chinese white, to
which it is well to add, not only a little gum (arabic), but a trace of ox-gall,
to make it work easily. One gets by this method naturally rather a rotten line
upon the ground-stuff, but it is enough for all practical purposes.

keeping
clean.

Delicate work is easily rubbed and soiled in the working. It is only
reasonable precaution to protect it by a veil or covering of thin, soft, white
glazed lining, tacked round the edges on to the stuff. On this you mark the
four lines inclosing the actual embroidery, and, cutting through three of
them, you have a flap of lining, which you raise and turn back when you are
at work. If the work is very delicate, you may make instead of one flap a
succession of little ones; but you see then only a portion of your work at a
time, and cannot so well judge its effect.

starting
and
finishing.

In starting work, do not begin by making a knot in your thread; run a few
stitches (presently to be worked over) on the right side of the stuff. In
finishing, you run them at the back of the stuff; for greater security still, one
may end with a buttonhole-stitch.

puckerin
g.

There is less danger of puckering the stuff if you hold it over two fingers (at
least), keeping it taut and the thread loose.
Working without a frame, it often comes handiest to hold the stuff askew,
and there is a natural inclination to pull it in that direction. This temptation
must be resisted, or puckering is sure to result.

double
thread.

In working with double silk or wool, it is better not to double back a single
thread, but to pass two separate threads through the eye of the needle. The
four threads (where these are turned back near the eye) make way through
the stuff for the double thread, which passes easily; moreover, the thread by
this means is not pulled too tight, and the effect is richer.

The stitch wants always adaptation to the work it has to do. In working a
curved line, for example, say in herring-bone-stitch, one is bound always to
take up a larger piece of stuff on its outside than on its inner edge.
When a thread runs short, it is better not to go on working with it, but to
take another; and in finishing off, remember to run the thread in the
direction opposite to that from which you are going to run the new one. In
starting the new stitch, you naturally bring your needle out as if it were a
continuation of that last made.

undoing.

If your work is faulty, cut it out and do it again. Unpicking is not so
satisfactory: it loosens the stuff to drag the thread back through it, and the
thread saved is of no further use. Beginners find it hard to undo work once
done; but a really good needlewoman never hesitates about it—her one
thought is to get the thing right. Don't break your thread ever: that pulls it
out of condition: cut it always.
In working, it is well to keep strictly to the stitch you have chosen, but not
to the point of bigotry. One may finish off darning, for example, at the
edges with a satin stitch. The thing to avoid is fudging. Moreover, stitches
should be laid right at once; there should be no boggling and botching, no
working-over with stitches to make good—that is not playing fair.

smoothin
g.

When the needlework is done, do not finish it with a flat iron. That finishes
it in more senses than one. But suppose it is puckered? In that case, stretch
it and damp it. To do this, first tack on to it (as explained on page 251) a
frame of strong tape. Then, on a drawing-board or other even wooden
surface, lay a piece of clean calico, and on that, face downwards, the
embroidery, and, slightly stretching it, nail it down by the tape with tin-
tacks rather close together. If now you lay upon it a damp cloth, the
embroidery will absorb the moisture from it, and when that is removed,
should dry as flat as it is possible to get it.

A rather more daring plan is to damp the back of the stuff with a wet
sponge. The work, instead of being nailed on to a board, may just as well be
laced to a frame by the tape. In the case of raised embroidery there must be
between it and the wood, not a cloth merely, but a layer of wadding.
The damping above described may take the form of a thin paste or
stiffening, but upon silk or other such material this wants tenderly doing.
One last word as to thoroughness in needlework. Those who have really not
time to do much, should be satisfied with simple work. The desire to make a
great show with little work is a snare. Ladies make protest always, "There is
too much work in that." Well, if they are not prepared to work, they may as
well give themselves up to their play. There was no labour shirked in the
old work illustrated in these pages; and nothing much worth doing was ever
done without work, hard work, and plenty of it. Should that thought frighten
folk away, they may as well be scared off at once. Art can do very well
without them.

INDEX.

Adaptation of stitch, 103, 188, 253
Antique stitch, 66 (See also Oriental-stitch)
Appliqué, 140, 144 et seq., 220, 222, 224
Arab work, 152
Artless art, 37, 236
Attachment of cord, 124

Backstitch, 30, 37, 41, 53, 83, 86, 172, 226, 230
Basket patterns, 134
Beads, 248
Beginning & finishing, 252
Blanket-stitch, 56
Braid-stitch, 42, 43
Broad surfaces (covering), 178
Brocade, 244
Bullion, 165
Bullion-stitch, 75, 76, 162, 165
Buttonhole-stitch, 8, 55 et seq., 69, 122, 145, 158, 178, 182
Buttonholing (lace), 84, 86
Byzantine embroidery, 12, 24

Cable-chain, 42
Canvas, 7, 25
Canvas stitches, 12 et seq.
Canvas-stitch embroidery, 22
Card underlay, 162, 246
Cashmere embroidery, 228
Cashmere-stitch, 18
Chain-stitch, 38 et seq., 61, 83, 129, 145, 156, 158, 178, 182, 202,
226, 245

Chenille, 245
Chinese embroidery, 78, 96, 129, 136, 140, 152
Church work, 41, 136, 148, 166, 216 et seq.
Classification of stitches, 9, 175 et seq.
Cloth, 125, 126, 159, 243
Colour, 110, 208
Colour gradation, 98, 114, 118
Colour and outline, 146, 185
Combination of stitches, 182
Coptic embroidery, 12, 226
Coptic tapestry, 2
Coral, 166, 248
Cord, 122
Cord (couched), 128, 144, 178, 182
Cord (attachment of), 124
Cotton, 243
Couched cord, 128, 144, 178, 182
Couched gold, 131 et seq., 182
Couched outline, 146
Couching, 22, 114, 120, 121, 122 et seq., 244
Couching (reverse), 130
Counterchange, 154
Cretan embroidery, 12
Cretan-stitch, 61 (See also Ladder-stitch)
Crewel, 244
Crewel-stitch, 26 et seq., 83, 86, 103, 105, 178
Crewel-stitch (surface), 86
Crewel work, 26, 36, 37
Cross-stitch, 12, 14, 16
Crossed buttonhole-stitch, 56
Cushion-stitch, 20, 21
Cut-work, 156

Damask, 243, 244
Damping, 254, 255
Darning, 8, 22, 83, 90, 106 et seq., 178, 179
Darning (Japanese), 86

Darning (surface), 84
Design, 150, 219, 233 et seq.
Design, traditional, 238, 240
Design and stitch, 10, 238
Designer and embroiderer, 232, 233
Diapers, 87, 88, 108, 132, 134, 210
Direction of stitch, 92, 95, 108, 114, 136, 190, 208 et seq.
Double darning, 106
Double thread, 253
Dovetail-stitch, 103, 104 (See also Embroidery and Plumage
Stitches)
Drawing with the needle, 192, 194, 196, 199, 211
Drawn work, 2, 4

Eastern embroidery. (See Oriental)
Effect and stitch, 36, 78
Eighteenth century embroidery, 220, 246
Embroidery and painting, 201, 202
Embroidery-stitch, 103 (See also Plumage-stitch)
English embroidery, 34, 36, 169

Feather-stitch, 62 et seq., 83, 100, 178
Felt, 243
Fifteenth century embroidery, 24, 164
Figure work, 116, 169, 190, 198 et seq.
Filling-in patterns, 24
Filo-floss, 164, 244
Filoselle, 124, 144, 244
Fishbone, 21, 47, 51
Flax thread, 164, 244
Flemish embroidery, 142, 200
Flesh, 204, 206
Florentine-stitch, 18, 21 (See also Cushion stitch)
Floss, 95, 114, 116, 118, 120, 244
Form and stitch, 44, 47, 100, 118, 176, 211, 253
Framing work, 251
French embroidery, 88, 245

French floss, 244
French knots, 77, 129, 150, 178, 244

Geometric pattern, 225
German embroidery, 110, 125, 126, 156, 185, 226
German knot-stitch, 72
Gobelin-stitch, 18
Gold, 210, 222, 245
Gold (couched), 131 et seq., 182
Gold (raised), 134, 136, 165
Gold thread, 131, 245
Gold tinted by couching stitches, 142
Gold wire, 169, 248

Half-cross-stitch, 20
Heraldic embroidery, 156
Herringbone-stitch, 8, 22, 47 et seq., 83, 178, 182
Hildesheim cope (the), 126
Hungarian embroidery, 2
Hungarian stitch, 18

Indian embroidery, 41, 46, 61, 95, 98, 154, 169, 222, 248
Indian herring-bone, 48
Inlay, 153
Interlacing stitches, 83
Italian embroidery, 22, 24, 37, 46, 138
Italian embroidery (Renaissance), 22, 41, 120, 142, 154, 199

Japanese darning, 86, 87
Japanese embroidery, 80
Japanese gold, 245
Jewels, 165, 248

Knot stitches, 72 et seq., 182

Lace, 1, 2
Lace stitches, 84 et seq.
Ladder-stitch, 59, 61, 182

Laid-work, 112 et seq., 162, 178
Leather, 248
Leather on velvet, 150
Length of stitch, 96, 100
Limitations of embroidery, 240
Line work, 176, 178
Linen, 164, 243
Linen (embroidery on), 24
Long-and-short-stitch, 36, 98, 100, 178, 190, 192

Magic-stitch, 41
Material (influence of on stitch), 12, 13, 16, 18, 24, 88, 91
Materials, 242 et seq.
Mechanical embroidery, 225
Mediæval work, 92, 136, 140, 190
Milanese-stitch, 18
Modelling, 222
Modest work, 230, 231
Moorish-stitch, 18, 21
Morocco embroidery, 152

Needle (tambour), 38, 245
Needle pictures, 201
Needles, 250
Net passing, 86

Old English Knot-stitch, 75
Opus Anglicanum, 9
Oriental embroidery, 2, 22, 61, 92, 112, 136, 140, 153, 226
Oriental stitch, 66 et seq., 83, 178, 182
Originality, 234
Outline, 22, 77, 108, 146, 158, 178, 184, 185 et seq.
Outline (couched), 126, 128, 146
Outline (double), 146, 185, 186
Outline (stepped), 16, 24
Outline (voided), 96, 187
Outline embroidery, 138

Outline stitch, 29, 30, 32, 86

Padding, 159, 172
Painting, 201, 202
Parchment, 160, 168, 246
Parisian-stitch, 18
Patchwork, 156
Pearls, 165, 166, 248
Peasant work, 12, 13, 226
Persian embroidery, 7, 24, 41, 174, 228
Pictorial effect, 198, 199, 201
Pictures (tent-stitch), 14, 20
Pierce, 132
Pins, 146, 250
Plait-stitch, 21
Plate, 245
Plumage-stitch, 62, 100, 103, 178, 179, 192, 212
Preciousness, 198
Purl, 245
Purse silk, 116, 162

Quilting, 172 et seq.

Raised gold, 134, 136, 165 et seq.
Raised work, 134, 136, 159 et seq.
Relief, 159 et seq., 166, 168, 169, 172, 222
Renaissance embroidery, 41, 92, 142, 154, 166
Renewing ground, 126
Reverse-couching, 130
Ribbon, 150, 246
Ribbon work, 246
Roll-stitch, 75 (See also Bullion-stitch)
Roman satin, 243
Rope-stitch, 71 et seq., 178
Running, 83, 106, 179

Satin, 243
Satin "de luxe", 243

Satin on velvet, 150
Satin-stitch, 24, 91 et seq., 103, 112, 128, 158, 160, 162, 175, 178,
182, 192, 206, 212, 245
Satin-stitch (surface), 98, 182
Satin-stitch in the making, 91
Scissors, 250
Serge, 243
Seventeenth century embroidery, 14, 166
Shaded silk, 246
Shading, 34, 176, 188 et seq.
Silk, 146, 243
Silk (tussah), 244
Silk (twisted), 95, 124, 125
Silk on silk, 150
Silks, 244
Silver, 135, 138, 166
Simplicity, 180, 236, 238
Simplicity (a plea for), 225 et seq.
Sixteenth century embroidery, 22, 120, 125, 142, 185, 199
Solid chain-stitch, 43, 44
Solid crewel-stitch, 32, 34
Soudanese embroidery, 112
Spangles, 169, 248
Spanish embroidery, 129, 142, 154, 166, 185
Spanish-stitch, 18, 22 (See also Plait-stitch)
Split-stitch, 38, 100, 105, 114, 179, 190, 196, 222
Spot-stitch, 30
Stem-stitch, 32
Stems, 95
Stepped outline, 16, 24
Stiletto, 174
Stitch (definition of), 11
Stitch adaptation, 103, 188, 253
Stitch and effect, 36, 78
Stitch and form, 44, 47, 100, 118, 176, 211, 253
Stitch and stuff, 12, 13, 16, 18, 24, 88, 91
Stitch groups, 9, 175 et seq.

Stitch names, 8, 9
Stitch patterns, 87, 88
Stitch and design, 10, 238
Stitches, 7
Stitching over stitching, 215
Stretching work, 251, 254
String, 159, 160, 162
Stroke-stitch, 16
Stuffs, 242
Surface crewel-stitch, 86
Surface darning, 84
Surface satin-stitch, 98, 182
Surface stitches, 84
Syon cope (the), 7, 130, 210

Tailors' buttonhole, 56
Tambour, 245
Tambour frame, 44
Tambour needle, 38, 245
Tambour stitch, 38
Tambour work, 44, 194
Tapestry, 1, 2, 4, 143, 220
Tapestry-stitch, 53
Tendrils, 130
Tent-stitch, 14, 18
Thimble, 250
Thread, 244
Traditional design, 238, 240
Transferring design, 251
Turkish embroidery, 22
Tussah silk, 244
Twisted silk, 95, 124, 125

Underlay, 159, 160, 165
Unpicking, 253

Vandyke chain, 42

Variety of method, 148, 158
Variety of stitch, 180 et seq.
Velvet, 150, 222
Venetian embroidery, 138
Voiding, 96, 187

Weaving, 2
White on white, 162, 230
Wool. (See Crewel)
Woollen stuffs, 243

THE END.

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, LONDON AND
TONBRIDGE.

A LIST OF STANDARD BOOKS
ON
ORNAMENT & DECORATION,
INCLUDING
FURNITURE, WOOD-CARVING, METAL
WORK, &c.,
PUBLISHED BY
B. T. BATSFORD,
94, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON, W.C.

WINDOWS.—A BOOK ABOUT STAINED AND PAINTED GLASS. By
Lewis F. Day. Containing 410 pages, including 50 full-page Plates, and
upwards of 200 Illustrations in the text, all of Old Examples. Large 8vo,
cloth gilt. Price 21s. net.

"Contains a more complete popular account—technical and
historical—of stained and painted glass than has previously
appeared in this country."—The Times.
"The book is a masterpiece in its way ... amply illustrated and
carefully printed; it will long remain an authority on its
subject."—The Art Journal.
"All for whom the subject of stained glass possesses an interest
and a charm, will peruse these pages with pleasure and
profit."—The Morning Post.
"Mr. Day has done a worthy piece of work in more than his
usual admirable manner ... the illustrations are all good and
some the best black-and-white drawings of stained glass yet
produced."—The Studio.
Now Published, the most handy, useful, and comprehensive work on the
subject.

ALPHABETS, OLD AND NEW. Containing 150 complete Alphabets, 30
Series of Numerals, Numerous Facsimiles of Ancient Dates. Selected and
arranged by Lewis F. Day. Preceded by a short account of the Development
of the Alphabet. With Modern Examples specially Designed by Walter
Crane, Patten Wilson, A. Beresford Pite, the Author, and others. Crown 8vo,
art linen. Price 3s. 6d. net.
"Mr. Day's explanation of the growth of form in letters is
particularly valuable.... Many excellent alphabets are given in
illustration of his remarks."—The Studio.
"Everyone who employs practical lettering will be grateful for
'Alphabets, Old and New.' Mr. Day has written a scholarly and
pithy introduction, and contributes some beautiful alphabets of
his own design."—The Art Journal.

"A practical resumé of all that is to be known on the subject,
concisely and clearly stated."—St. James' Gazette.
"It goes without saying that whatever Mr. Batsford publishes
and Mr. Day has to do with is presented in a good artistic form,
complete, and wherever that is possible, graceful."—The
Athenæum.

ARCHITECTURE AMONG THE POETS. By H. Heathcote Statham.
With 13 Illustrations. Square 8vo, artistically bound. Price 3s. 6d. net.
"This little work does for architecture in relation to English
poetry what Mr. Phil Robinson has done for the birds and beasts.
The poet's appreciation of architecture is a delightful subject
with which Mr. Statham has become infected, not only
illustrating his points with quotations and his judgments with his
reasons, but the whole with a series of fanciful or suggestive
sketches which add considerably to the attractiveness of the
book."—The Magazine of Art.

THE DECORATION OF HOUSES. By Edith Wharton and Ogden
Codman, Architect. 204 pages of text, with 56 full-page Photographic Plates
of Views of Rooms, Doors, Ceilings, Fireplaces, various pieces of
Furniture, &c., from the Renaissance period. Large square 8vo, cloth gilt,
price 12s. 6d. net.
This volume, written by an American Lady Artist, and an Architect,
describes and illustrates in a very interesting way the Decorative treatment
of Rooms during the Renaissance period, and deduces principles for the
decoration, furnishing, and arrangements of Modern Houses.
"... has illustrations which are beautiful ... because they illustrate
the sound and simple principle of decoration which the authors
put forward.... The book is one which should be in the library of
every man and woman of means, for its advice is characterised

by so much common sense as well as by the best of taste."—The
Queen.

THE HISTORIC STYLES OF ORNAMENT. Containing 1,500 examples
from all countries and all periods, exhibited on 100 Plates, mostly printed in
gold and colours. With historical and descriptive text translated from the
German of H. Dolmetsch. Folio, handsomely bound in cloth, gilt, price £1
5s. net.
This work has been designed to serve as a practical guide for the purpose of
showing the development of Ornament, and the application of colour to it in
various countries through the epochs of history. The work illustrates not
only Flat Ornament, but also many Decorative Objects, such as Metal-
Work, Pottery and Porcelain, Lace, Enamel, Mosaic, Illumination,
Stained Glass, Jewellery, Bookbinding, &c., showing the application of
Ornament to Industrial Art.

Just Published.

A MANUAL OF HISTORIC ORNAMENT, being an Account of the
Development of Architecture and the Historic Arts, for the use of Students
and Craftsmen. By Richard Glazier, A.R.I.B.A., Headmaster of the
Manchester School of Art. Containing 42 Plates and 100 Illustrations in the
text. Demy 8vo, cloth. Price 5s.
The object of this book is to furnish students with a concise account of
Historic Ornament, in which the rise of each style is noted, and its
characteristic features illustrated. It contains upwards of 400 subjects drawn
by the author, and includes examples of Architectural Detail and Plastic
Ornament, Pottery, Textile Fabrics, Glass, Metal-work, Mosaic, Painted
Faïence, &c., &c. of various countries.

A MANUAL OF PRACTICAL INSTRUCTION IN THE ART OF BRASS
REPOUSSÉ FOR AMATEURS. By Gawthorp (Art Metal Worker to
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales). Second and enlarged Edition. With 32
Illustrations, many from photographs of executed designs. Crown 8vo, in
wrapper. Price 1s. net.

OLD CLOCKS AND WATCHES AND THEIR MAKERS. By F. J.
Britten, Secretary of the Horological Institute. Being an Account of the
History of Clocks and Watches, their Mechanism and Ornamentation, to
which is appended a List of 8,000 Old Makers, with descriptive Notes.
Containing over 400 Illustrations, many reproduced from photographs, of
choice and curious examples, of Clocks and Watches of the past in England
and abroad, including the finely-ornamented Bracket Clocks of the XVIIth
Century, with their ingenious mechanism, and the tall and elegant cases of
the XVIIIth Century, also a selection of Portraits of the most renowned
Masters of the Clockmaker's Art. 512 pages. Demy 8vo, cloth, gilt. Price
10s. net.

KING RENÉ'S HONEYMOON CABINET. A Monograph. By John P.
Seddon, Architect. Illustrated by 10 photographic reproductions of the
Cabinet, and the Panels, painted by the late Sir E. Burne Jones, Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, and Ford Madox Brown. With a chapter on the Hereditary
Earls of Anjou, by G. H. Birch, F.S.A. Large 8vo, cloth, price 5s. net.
This interesting little work has been issued by the author to make known
and commemorate some early designs by the celebrated artists. Very few
copies are printed for sale.

A small remainder, just reduced in price.

ANIMALS IN ORNAMENT. By Professor G. Sturm. Containing 30 large
collotype plates, printed in tint, of designs suitable for Friezes, Panels,
Borders, Wall-papers, Carving, and all kinds of Surface Decoration, &c.
Large folio in portfolio, price 18s. net (published £1 10s.).
A new and useful series of clever designs, showing how animal forms may
be adapted to decorative purposes with good effect.

A HISTORY OF DESIGN IN PAINTED GLASS.—From the Earliest
Times to the end of the Seventeenth Century. By N. H. J. Westlake, F.S.A.
Containing 467 illustrations with historical text. Four volumes, small folio,
cloth, price £5 10s., net £4 8s.
Very few copies remain for sale of this valuable work.

MR. LEWIS F. DAY'S TEXT BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.

SOME PRINCIPLES OF EVERY-DAY ART.—Introductory Chapters on
the Arts not Fine. Forming a Prefatory Volume to the Series of Text Books.
Second Edition, revised, containing 70 Illustrations (Third Thousand).
Crown 8vo, art linen, price 3s. 6d., net 3s.
"Authoritative as coming from a writer whose mastery of the
subjects is not to be disputed, and who is generous in imparting
the knowledge he acquired with difficulty. Mr. Day has taken
much trouble with the new edition."—Architect.
"A good artist, and a sound thinker, Mr. Day has produced a
book of sterling value."—Magazine of Art.

THE ANATOMY OF PATTERN.—Containing: I. Introductory. II. Pattern
Dissections. III. Practical Pattern Planning. IV. The "Drop" Pattern. V.

Skeleton Plans. VI. Appropriate Pattern. Fourth Edition (Ninth Thousand),
revised, with 41 full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo, art linen, price 3s. 6d.,
net 3s.
"... There are few men who know the science of their profession
better or can teach it as well as Mr. Lewis Day; few also who are
more gifted as practical decorators; and in anatomising pattern
in the way he has done in this manual—a way beautiful as well
as useful—he has performed a service not only to the students of
his profession, but also to the public."—Academy.

THE PLANNING OF ORNAMENT.—Containing: I. Introductory. II. The
Use of the Border. III. Within the Border. IV. Some Alternatives in Design.
V. On the Filling of the Circle and other Shapes. VI. Order and Accident.
Third Edition (Fifth Thousand), further revised, with 41 full-page
Illustrations, many of which have been re-drawn. Crown 8vo, art linen,
price 3s. 6d., net 3s.
"Contains many apt and well-drawn illustrations; it is a highly
comprehensive, compact, and intelligent treatise on a subject
which is more difficult to treat than outsiders are likely to think.
It is a capital little book, from which no tyro (it is addressed to
improvable minds) can avoid gaining a good deal."—Athenæum.

THE APPLICATION OF ORNAMENT.—Containing: I. The Rationale of
the Conventional. II. What is Implied by Repetition. III. Where to Stop in
Ornament. IV. Style and Handicraft. V. The Teaching of the Tool. VI. Some
Superstitions. Third Edition (Sixth Thousand), further revised, with 48 full-
page Illustrations and 7 Woodcuts in the text. Crown 8vo, art linen, price 3s.
6d., net 3s.
"A most worthy supplement to the former work, and a distinct
gain to the art student who has already applied his art
knowledge in a practical manner, or who hopes yet to do so."—
Science and Art.

ORNAMENTAL DESIGN.—Comprising the above Three Books,
"Anatomy of Pattern," "Planning of Ornament," and "Application of
Ornament," handsomely bound in one volume, cloth gilt, price 10s. 6d., net
8s. 6d.

NATURE IN ORNAMENT.—With 123 full-page Plates and 192
Illustrations in the text. Third Edition (Fifth Thousand). Thick crown 8vo,
in handsome cloth binding, richly gilt, price 12s. 6d., net 10s.
Contents: I. Introductory. II. Ornament in Nature. III. Nature in Ornament.
IV. The Simplification of Natural Forms. V. The Elaboration of Natural
Forms. VI. Consistency in the Modification of Nature. VII. Parallel
Renderings. VIII. More Parallels. IX. Tradition in Design. X. Treatment. XI.
Animals in Ornament. XII. The Element of the Grotesque. XIII. Still Life in
Ornament. XIV. Symbolic Ornament.
"Amongst the best of our few good ornamental designers is Mr.
Lewis F. Day, who is the author of several books on ornamental
art. 'Nature in Ornament' is the latest of these, and is probably
the best. The treatise should be in the hands of every student of
ornamental design. It is profusely and admirably illustrated, and
well printed."—Magazine of Art.
"A book more beautiful for its illustrations, or one more helpful
to Students of Art, can hardly be imagined."—Queen.

A HANDBOOK OF ORNAMENT.—With 300 Plates, containing about
3,000 Illustrations of the Elements and Application of Decoration to
Objects. By F. S. Meyer, Professor at the School of Applied Art, Karlsruhe.
Third English Edition, revised by Hugh Stannus, Lecturer on Applied Art at
the Royal College of Art, South Kensington. Thick 8vo, cloth gilt, gilt top,
price 12s. 6d., net 10s.
"A Library, a Museum, an Encyclopædia and an Art School in
one. To rival it as a book of reference, one must fill a bookcase.

The quality of the drawings is unusually high, the choice of
examples is singularly good.... The work is practically an
epitome of a hundred Works on Design."—Studio.
"The author's acquaintance with ornament amazes, and his three
thousand subjects are gleaned from the finest which the world
affords. As a treasury of ornament drawn to scale in all styles,
and derived from genuine concrete objects, we have nothing in
England which will not appear as poverty-stricken as compared
with Professor Meyer's book."—Architect.
"The book is a mine of wealth even to an ordinary reader, while
to the Student of Art and Archæology it is simply indispensable
as a reference book. We know of no one work of its kind that
approaches it for comprehensiveness and historical accuracy."—
Science and Art.

A HANDBOOK OF ART SMITHING.—For the use of Practical Smiths,
Designers and others, and in Art and Technical Schools. By F. S. Meyer,
Author of "A Handbook of Ornament." Translated from the Second German
Edition. With an Introduction by J. Starkie Gardner. Containing 214
Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth, price 6s., net 5s.
Both the Artistic and Practical Branches of the subject are dealt with, and
the Illustrations give selected Examples of Ancient and Modern Ironwork.
The Volume thus fills the long-existing want of a Manual on Ornamental
Ironwork, and it is hoped will prove of value to all interested in the subject.
"Charmingly produced.... It is really a most excellent manual,
crowded with examples of ancient work, for the most part
extremely well selected."—The Studio.
"Professor Meyer's work is a useful historical manual on art
smithing, based on a scientific classification of the subject, that
will be of service to all smiths, designers, and students of
technical and art schools. The illustrations are well drawn and
numerous."—Building News.

Published with the Sanction of the Science and Art Department.
FRENCH WOOD CARVINGS FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUMS.—A
Series of Examples printed in Collotype from Photographs specially taken
from the Carvings direct. Edited by Eleanor Rowe. Part I.: Late 15th and
Early 16th Century Examples; Part II.: 16th Century Work; Part III.: 17th
and 18th Centuries. The Three Series Complete, each containing 18 large
folio Plates, with descriptive letterpress. Folio, in portfolios, price 12s. each
net; or handsomely bound in one volume, £2 5s. net.
"Students of the Art of Wood Carving will find a mine of
inexhaustible treasures in this series of illustrations of French
Wood Carvings.... Each plate is a work of art in itself; the
distribution of light and shade is admirably managed, and the
differences in relief are faithfully indicated, while every detail is
reproduced with a clearness that will prove invaluable to the
student. Sections are given with several of the plates."—The
Queen.
"Needs only to be seen to be purchased by all interested in the
craft, whether archæologically or practically."—The Studio.

HINTS ON WOOD CARVING FOR BEGINNERS.—By Eleanor Rowe.
Fourth Edition, revised and enlarged, Illustrated. 8vo, sewed, price 1s. in
paper covers, or bound in cloth, price 1s. 6d.
"The most useful and practical small book on wood-carving we
know of."—Builder.
"... Is a useful little book, full of sound directions and good
suggestions."—Magazine of Art.

HINTS ON CHIP CARVING.—(Class Teaching and other Northern
Styles.) By Eleanor Rowe. 40 Illustrations. 8vo, sewed, price 1s. in paper
covers, or in cloth, price 1s. 6d.

"A capital manual of instruction in a craft that ought to be most
popular."—Saturday Review.

DETAILS OF GOTHIC WOOD CARVING.—Being a Series of Drawings
from original work of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. By Franklyn
A. Crallan. Containing 34 large Photo-lithographic Plates, with
introductory and descriptive text. Large 4to, in handsome cloth portfolio, or
bound in cloth gilt, price 28s., net 22s.
"The examples are carefully drawn to a large size ... well
selected and very well executed."—The Builder.

PROGRESSIVE STUDIES AND DESIGNS FOR WOOD-CARVERS. By
Miss E. R. Plowden. With a Preface by Miss Rowe. Consisting of five large
folding sheets of Illustrations (drawn full size), of a variety of objects
suitable for Wood Carving. With descriptive text. Second Edition, enlarged.
4to, in portfolio. Price 5s. net.

ANCIENT WOOD AND IRONWORK IN CAMBRIDGE.—By W. B.
Redfarn, the Letterpress by John Willis Clark. 29 folio Lithographed
Plates drawn to a good scale. Cloth gilt, a handsome volume, price 10s. 6d.,
net 8s. 6d.
This Work, giving an interesting and useful series of Examples, is but little
known. Very few copies remain.

HEPPLEWHITE'S CABINET-MAKER AND UPHOLSTERER'S GUIDE;
or Repository of Designs for every article of Household Furniture in the
newest and most approved taste. A complete facsimile reproduction of this
rare work, containing nearly 300 charming Designs on 128 Plates. Small

folio, bound in speckled cloth, gilt, old style, price £2 10s. net. (1794.)
Original copies when met with fetch from £17 to £18.
"A beautiful replica, which every admirer of the author and
period should possess."—Building News.

CHIPPENDALE'S THE GENTLEMAN AND CABINET-MAKER'S
DIRECTOR.—A complete facsimile of the 3rd and rarest Edition,
containing 200 Plates of Designs of Chairs, Sofas, Beds and Couches,
Tables, Library Book Cases, Clock Cases, Stove Grates, &c., &c. Folio,
strongly bound in half-cloth, price £3 15s. net. (1762.)

SHERATON'S CABINET-MAKER And UPHOLSTERER'S DRAWING-
BOOK.—A complete Facsimile Reproduction of the scarce Third Edition.
With the rare Appendix and Accompaniment complete. Containing in all
434 pages and 122 Plates. 4to, cloth, price £2 10s. net.

EXAMPLES OF OLD FURNITURE, English and Foreign. Drawn and
described by Alfred Ernest Chancellor. Containing 40 Photo-lithographic
Plates exhibiting some 100 examples of Elizabethan, Stuart, Queen Anne,
Georgian and Chippendale furniture; and an interesting variety of
Continental work. With historical and descriptive notes. Large 4to, gilt,
price £1 5s., net £1 1s.
"In publishing his admirable collection of drawings of old
furniture, Mr. Chancellor secures the gratitude of all admirers of
the consummate craftsmanship of the past. His examples are
selected from a variety of sources with fine discrimination, all
having an expression and individuality of their own—qualities
that are so conspicuously lacking in the furniture of our own
day. It forms a very acceptable work."—The Morning Post.

FURNITURE AND DECORATION IN ENGLAND DURING THE
XVIIIth CENTURY.—By J. Aldam Heaton. Two volumes, each of two
parts, bound in four, large folio, cloth, price £7 net. Containing upwards of
150 plates of photographic reproductions from the published designs of R.
& J. Adam, Chippendale, Hepplewhite, Sheraton, Shearer, Pergolesi,
Cipriani, Darly, Johnson, Richardson, and all great English designers and
cabinet-makers of the period.
This work forms an encyclopædic and almost inexhaustible treasury of
reference for all Furniture Designers, Painters, Interior Decorators, Cabinet-
makers, &c., since no artist of importance is unrepresented, and a fair
selection is in every case given of his work.

REMAINS OF ECCLESIASTICAL WOOD-WORK.—A Series of
Examples of Stalls, Screens, Book-Boards, Roofs, Pulpits, &c., containing
21 Plates beautifully engraved on Copper, from drawings by T. Talbot
Bury, Archt. 4to, half-bound, price 10s. 6d., net 8s. 6d.

FLAT ORNAMENT: A Pattern Book for Designers of Textiles,
Embroideries, Wall Papers, Inlays, &c., &c.—150 Plates, some printed in
Colours, exhibiting upwards of 500 Historical Examples of Textiles,
Embroideries, Paper Hangings, Tile Pavements, Intarsia Work, &c. With
some Designs by Dr. Fischbach. Imperial 4to boards, cloth back, price £1
5s., net 20s.

EXAMPLES OF ENGLISH MEDIÆVAL FOLIAGE AND COLOURED
DECORATION.—By Jas. K. Colling, Architect, F.R.I.B.A. Taken from
Buildings of the XIIth to the XVth Century. Containing 76 Lithographic
Plates, and 79 Woodcut Illustrations, with Text. Royal 4to, cloth, gilt top,
price 18s., net 15s. (published at £2 2s.)

PLASTERING—PLAIN AND DECORATIVE. A Practical Treatise on the
Art and Craft of Plastering and Modelling. Including full descriptions of the
various Tools, Materials, Processes and Appliances employed. With over 50
full-page Plates, and about 500 smaller Illustrations in the Text. By William
Millar. With an Introduction, treating of the History of the Art, by G. T.
Robinson, F.S.A. Thick 4to, cloth, containing 600 pages of text, price 18s.
net.
"This new and in many senses remarkable treatise ...
unquestionably contains an immense amount of valuable first-
hand information.... 'Millar on Plastering' may be expected to be
the standard authority on the subject for many years to come....
A truly monumental work."—The Builder.

A GRAMMAR OF JAPANESE ORNAMENT AND DESIGN.—Illustrated
by 65 Plates, many in Gold and Colours, representing all Classes of Natural
and Conventional Forms, drawn from the Originals, with introductory,
descriptive, and analytical text. By T. W. Cutler, F.R.I.B.A. Imperial 4to, in
elegant cloth binding, price £2 6s., £1 18s. net.

DECORATIVE WROUGHT IRONWORK OF THE 17th AND 18th
CENTURIES.—By D. J. Ebbetts. Containing 16 large Lithographic Plates,
illustrating 70 English examples of Screens, Grilles, Panels, Balustrades,
&c. Folio, boards, cloth back, price 12s. 6d., net 10s.

A Facsimile reproduction of one of the rarest and most remarkable Books of
Designs ever published in England.
A NEW BOOKE OF DRAWINGS OF IRONWORKE.—Invented and
Desined by John Tijou. Containing severall sortes of Iron Worke, as Gates,
Frontispieces, Balconies, Staircases, Pannells, &c., of which the most part
hath been wrought at the Royall Building of Hampton Court, &c. All for
the use of them that worke iron in perfection and with art. (Sold by the

author in London, 1693.) Containing 20 folio Plates. With Introductory
Note and Descriptions of the Plates by J. Starkie Gardner. Folio, bound in
boards, old style, price 25s. net.
Only 150 copies were printed for England, and very few now remain. An
original copy is priced at £48 by Mr. Quaritch, the renowned bookseller.

JAPANESE ENCYCLOPÆDIA OF DESIGN.
Book I.—Containing over 1,500 engraved curios, and most ingenious
Geometric Patterns of Circles, Medallions, &c., comprising Conventional
Details of Plants, Flowers, Leaves, Petals, also Birds, Fans, Animals, Key
Patterns, &c., &c. Oblong 12mo, fancy covers, price 2s. net.
Book II.—Containing over 600 most original and effective Designs for
Diaper Ornament, giving the base lines to the design, also artistic Miniature
Picturesque Sketches. Oblong 12mo, price 2s. net.
These books exhibit the varied charm and originality of conception of
Japanese Ornament, and form an inexhaustible field of design.

A DELIGHTFUL SERIES OF STUDIES OF BIRDS, in most
Characteristic and Life-like Attitudes, surrounded with appropriate
Foliage and Flowers.—By the celebrated Japanese Artist, Bairei Kono. In
three Books, 8vo, each containing 36 pages of highly artistic and decorative
Illustrations, printed in tints. Bound in fancy paper covers, price 10s. net.
"In attitude and gesture and expression, these Birds, whether
perching or soaring, swooping or brooding, are admirable."—
Magazine of Art.

A NEW SERIES OF BIRD AND FLOWER STUDIES. BY Watanabe
Sietei, the acknowledged leading living Artist in Japan. In 3 Books,

containing numerous exceedingly Artistic Sketches in various tints, 8vo,
fancy covers. Price 10s. net.

ARTISTS' SKETCH BOOKS.—A SERIES OF FIVE VOLUMES.—Vol. I.:
Birds, Flowers, and Plants, drawn in a Decorative Spirit. Vol. II.: Sketches
of Insects, Plants, &c., drawn for Designers. Vol. III.: Drawings of Fishes
and Marine Animals. Vol. IV.: Natural Scenery, Landscapes, &c. Vol. V.:
Scenes from Japanese Life, &c. 8vo, fancy covers. 7s. 6d. net.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY.—A General
View for the Use of Students and Others. By W. J. Anderson, A.R.I.B.A.,
Director of Architecture, Glasgow School of Art. Second Edition, revised
and enlarged. Containing 64 full-page Plates, mostly reproduced from
Photographs, and 100 Illustrations in text. Large 8vo, cloth gilt, price 12s.
6d. net.
"A delightful and scholarly work ... very fully illustrated."—
Journal R.I.B.A.
"It is the work of a scholar taking a large view of his subject....
The book affords easy and intelligible reading, and the
arrangement of the subject is excellent, though this was a matter
of no small difficulty."—The Times.
"Should rank amongst the best architectural writings of the
day."—The Edinburgh Review.
"We know of no book which furnishes such information and
such illustrations in so compact and attractive a form. For
greater excellence with the object in hand there is not one more
perspicuous."—The Building News.

A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE for the Student, Craftsman and
Amateur.—Being a Comparative View of the Historical Styles from the

Earliest Period. By Banister Fletcher, F.R.I.B.A., Professor of
Architecture in King's College, London, and B. F. Fletcher, A.R.I.B.A.
Containing 300 pages, with 115 Collotype Plates, mostly from large
Photographs, and other Illustrations in the text. Third Edition, revised. Cr.
8vo, cloth gilt, price 12s. 6d., net 10s.
"We shall be amazed if it is not immediately recognised and
adopted as par excellence the student's manual of the history of
architecture."—The Architect.
"The general reader will read the book with not less profit than
the student, and will find in it quite as much as he is likely to
retain in his memory, and the architectural student in search of
any particular fact will readily find it in this most methodical
work.... As complete as it well can be."—The Times.
"As a synopsis of architectural dates and styles, Professor
Banister Fletcher's work will fill a void in our literature, and
become a most useful manual."—The Building News.

THE ORDERS OF ARCHITECTURE: GREEK, ROMAN AND ITALIAN.
—Edited with Notes by R. Phené Spiers, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. Third Edition,
revised and enlarged, containing 26 Plates. 4to, cloth, price 10s. 6d., net 8s.
6d.
"A most useful work for architectural students.... Mr. Spiers has
done excellent service in editing this work, and his notes on the
plates are very appropriate and useful."—British Architect.

RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE AND ORNAMENT IN SPAIN.—A
Series of Examples selected from the purest executed between the years
1500-1560. By Andrew N. Prentice, A.R.I.B.A. Containing 60 beautiful
Plates, reproduced by Photo-lithography and Photo Process from the
author's drawings, of Perspective Views and Geometrical Drawings, and

details, in Stone, Wood, and Metal. With short descriptive text. Folio,
handsomely bound in cloth gilt, price £2 10s., net £2 2s.
"For the drawing and production of this book one can have no
words but praise.... It is a pleasure to have so good a record of
such admirable Architectural Drawing, free, firm and
delicate."—British Architect.

B. T. BATSFORD, 94, HIGH HOLBORN, LONDON.

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