Identifier: dictionaryofnee01caul (find matches)
Title: The dictionary of needlework : an encyclopaedia of artistic, plain, and fancy needlework dealing fully with the details of all the stitches employed, the method of working, the materials used, the meaning of technical terms, and, where necessary, tracing the origin and history of the various works described
Year: 1882 (1880s)
Authors: Caulfeild, S. F. A. (Sophia Frances Anne), 1824-1911 Saward, Blanche C
Subjects: Needlework
Publisher: London : A.W. Cowan
Contributing Library: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library

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worker being excellence in execution. Thus, although the figure scenes were varied, and ranged throughincidents in both Old and New Testaments, and throughthe lives of numerous saints and martyrs, the symbolsthat surrounded the subject embroidered as a centre, orthat were scattered separately over the foundation (andcalled powderings in that position), were almost limited tothe following : Angels, with or without wheels, the Star ofBethlehem (the rays of which are waved like flames), fleur-de-lys, winged eagles, leopards, lions, white harts withcrowns and gold chains, griffins, dragons, swans, peacocks,moons, crowns, lilypots, thistles, roses, and black trefoils.Secular subjects were not wholly excluded, and the coatsof arms of the donor of the frontal are occasionally metwith worked upon some part of it. Towards the close of thefifteenth century Church embroidery became, overloadedwith ornaments, and more mixed with secular subjects.The work may be said to have died out in England in
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Fig. 127. Pui.pit Cloth from Forest Hill. the reign of Henry VIII.; and, although it continued foranother century on the Continent, it gradually becameconfined to the nunneries, and was no longer the universallabour of the ladies of the land; whilst, even among thenuns, the embroidery produced was much inferior to thatof earlier times. The taste for it has during the last twentyyears revived, old specimens are eagerly sought for, andthe stitches carefully copied; and the productions ofthe present age can vie in minuteness and beauty withthe most elaborate old work, for, with the exception ofa few alterations, it is identically the same. In modernwork, even the sprays and minor parts are Applique, andlaid upon the material when worked; while in old em-broideries, although the chief parts were worked upondouble flax linen that had been boiled to take out itsstiffness, the lighter were frequently embroidered directly THE DICTIONARY OF NEEDLEWORK. 73 on to the foundation, and the lines la

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