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ART EMBROIDERY 
 
ART EMBROIDERY 
 
 A Treatise on the Revived Practice 
 
 Decorative Needlework 
 
 \ f- BY 
 
 Mf 1 Sf LOCKWOOD and E. GLAISTER 
 
 WITH NINETEEN PLATES PRINTED IN COLOURS 
 FROM DESIGNS BY THOMAS CRANE 
 
 3 onto: 
 
 MARCUS WARD & CO., 67 AND 68, CHANDOS STREET, STRAND 
 
 And ROYAL ULSTER WORKS, BELFAST 
 
 l878 
 

 PUBLISHER'S NOTE. 
 
 The title of this work, as it appears on the headings of the pages, 
 differs from the Title-page, owing to the claim of another publishing 
 house to priority in the title " Art Needlework." This was not dis- 
 covered until it was too late to make the necessary alterations. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. — Introductory, ....... 7 
 
 II. — On Design, . . . ; > . 15 
 
 III. — On Colour, . . . . . 25 
 
 IV. — On Materials and Stitches, . . . 35 
 
 V. — On Methods and Uses, . . . . 47 
 
 VI. — On Church Embroidery, . . . . 55 
 
 VII. — On some kinds of Lace, . . . . .61 
 
 VIII. — On the Study of Old Needlework, ... 69 
 
 IX. — The Plates, . . . . . -79 
 
ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 OT the least important result of the present revival 
 of decorative art is that needlework, so long neglected, 
 is once more practised as an art, properly so called. 
 It is many years since the samplers of our grand- 
 mothers gave place to the " fancy-work " of modern times, and we 
 are only now beginning to perceive all the uselessness and ugliness 
 of those productions which have brought this term into such dis- 
 repute, and have caused the adoption of one of greater refinement, 
 and at the same time of greater pretension, viz., " Art Needlework." 
 In order that we may be justified in the use of such a term, we 
 should be fully aware of all that is implied in it, and, not satisfied 
 with merely following a passing fashion, possess ourselves of lasting 
 principles by which to regulate our work — principles that at the same 
 time may be a growing source of refined pleasure, as leading to the 
 cultivation of the artistic sense. 
 
 If, therefore, needlework is to be raised to the rank. of an art, it 
 
8 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 must be submitted to the laws and restrictions by which all art is 
 governed — such, for instance, as rule the higher art of painting, 
 with which, though confined within narrower limits, it is closely 
 connected. 
 
 The first condition of an ideal work of art is that it should be 
 conceived and carried out by one person ; division of labour is fatal 
 to distinction and individuality — it is good for pins, but bad for 
 works of art. From this we see the first defect of the Berlin-wool 
 fancy-work ; the pattern being drawn by one person, the colours, &c, 
 selected by a second, the pattern worked by a third, and very often 
 " grounded " by a fourth ; whereas in art needlework, that is really 
 worthy of the name, the materials should be chosen, the dimensions 
 fixed, the pattern designed, and the work executed by one and the 
 same person. 
 
 It will be seen at once that to do this the workwoman must 
 have special qualifications ; but as these qualifications are, after all, 
 neither many nor formidable, and quite within the reach of every 
 cultivated person, this work aspires to enumerate, and, as far as 
 possible, to impart them. At the same time, it may be objected that 
 not every one possesses the necessary power of drawing, and that 
 the acquirement of that power is a slow process ; but this is no 
 reason against attempting to represent the simpler forms of nature 
 in accordance with certain rules ; and it will be found that, after the 
 first success, progress is rapid. In the meantime, the plates which 
 form part of this work, being designed to show the various modes 
 of employing natural forms in decoration, may be used as guides or 
 hints by the skilled worker, as well as useful practice for the beginner, 
 who, having as yet everything to learn from experience, should 
 follow them more closely. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 It is true that in modern times, oftener than formerly, it is possible 
 to procure a fine design drawn by a master, or perhaps a good 
 adaptation of an ancient pattern, which it would seem a more 
 rewarding occupation to reproduce than to spend time in designing 
 for ourselves what might be but of moderate merit ; and in such 
 cases there would be so much left to the judgment and taste of the 
 worker as to justify her in calling the result of her labours an Art. 
 
 The earlier workwomen — those who produced the first embroidered 
 quilt or hanging — had plainly no one to design for them, and no one 
 to furnish them with any prescribed materials as in the present day ; 
 their taste, unhampered by fashion, was original and pure ; they 
 followed, unconsciously, those laws which we are now painfully 
 searching out and trying to formulate. 
 
 The desire for ornament arose in the earliest times, from the 
 moment that man found himself provided with the necessaries of life ; 
 and the first makers of weapons, furniture, and stuffs, while adding 
 decoration to please the eye, took care that it should not interfere 
 with use, or disagree with the nature of the material. They carried 
 out unconsciously the maxim, " Nothing can be ornamental that is 
 not also really useful." Flat surfaces were made interesting and 
 pleasing by patterns that neither by their weight, colour, nor pro- 
 jection were a hindrance to usefulness ; objects were in material and 
 construction exactly as they appeared to be, nor did they suggest 
 any use other than was really intended. Thus they ministered to 
 the simple pleasure of the unspoilt eye in harmonious colours and 
 well-arranged lines, instead of gratifying the lower curiosity, the 
 love of surprise, display, and deception characteristic of later times. 
 
 Then came a period of sophistication and debasement in orna- 
 ment, when motives and intentions were confused and exaggerated, 
 
 B 
 
io ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 and a superficial acquaintance with a number of styles and periods 
 led to a mixture of all, and, in the special department of needlework, 
 produced the " fancy-work " which we all abuse. The reasons of its 
 worthlessness were chiefly a thirst for novelty and a taste for display ; 
 the desire of the seller to create a demand for costly materials, and the 
 desire of the buyer to produce the most gay and striking effect with 
 the least possible expenditure of thought, time, or trouble. Thus a 
 debased fancy has run riot among every kind and style of ornament, 
 good and bad, and mingled them with every kind of exaggeration 
 and confusion. The result has been such as we know. 
 
 To see all this clearly is one step towards accomplishing better 
 things, and, though we cannot revive the spontaneous simplicity and 
 freedom of the earlier work, we may, by using our finer perceptions 
 and knowledge, produce admirable and beautiful art, so as to adorn 
 our dwellings in a manner worthy of them and ourselves. 
 
 Enough has been said to suggest the ideas which should govern 
 the planning and carrying-out of a piece of needlework, and it only 
 remains to state clearly and in their proper order the principles most 
 necessary to be borne in mind. 
 
 I. — Needlework should express intelligence, and give evidence of 
 the direct application of the mind to the material. In this lies the 
 superiority of hand-work over loom-work. The latter has, for obvious 
 reasons, superseded the former in every case where large quantities 
 are needed and large spaces have to be covered or filled ; and, indeed, 
 if the pattern be good and the colouring harmonious, for these purposes 
 it leaves nothing to be desired. But machine-made work has of late 
 been wrongly applied in the production of borders or bands of design 
 intended to look like hand embroidery, and in these its inferiority for 
 such a use is apparent in the monotony and tameness of its appearance 
 
IN TROD UCTOR Y. 1 1 
 
 — the very smoothness and perfection of its texture being an additional 
 defect. An intelligent workwoman, especially if she be a designer 
 as well, will feel that perfection of workmanship is by no means to 
 be considered as the most valuable quality of her work ; in fact, that 
 this very perfection has, in much of modern production, been attained 
 at the expense of almost everything else that is desirable, and often 
 betrays a desire to show off dexterity and ingenuity — the surest 
 road to vulgarity and bad' taste. We should desire our needle- 
 work to appeal, like the higher arts, to the finer perceptions ; and 
 to cultivate it as an art must necessarily help to develope powers of 
 different kinds — a sense of harmony, fitness, and symmetry, to say 
 nothing of gifts for colour and form that might never have come to 
 light if not employed in this way. The high culture of the present 
 day will not do away with the need which so many feel for the soothing 
 influence of needlework, but to employ in it a better intelligence will 
 be to enhance its value in every way. We can no longer be satisfied 
 with filling up little squares or diamonds ready traced in certain fixed 
 colours on canvas specially prepared, so that nothing may go wrong 
 with the stitches. 
 
 II. — Needlework should be in every way adapted to the materials 
 used. As the sculptor's chisel and the painter's brush have each 
 their separate function and domain, so has the needle of the 
 embroideress ; nor should anything lying beyond its proper powers 
 be attempted by its means. Flowers and foliage being the 
 decorative part of nature, we instinctively choose them for repro- 
 duction in needlework. The grand productions of ancient tapestry, 
 containing whole histories of wars and sieges, are never likely to be 
 repeated in our days, in which leisure and industry are both lacking, 
 and we must content ourselves, at least for the moment, with speaking 
 
12 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 of the lighter works which lie within the ordinary compass of time 
 and patience. 
 
 With regard, then, to the imitation of flowers in needle- 
 work, it is evident that the imitation must be incomplete, and that 
 less must be attempted than in painting. It is as impossible to 
 reproduce the odour of flowers as it is to imitate the bloom of 
 their texture, the delicacy and evanescence of their more brilliant 
 tints, or the minute details of their form. The attempt must, 
 once for all, be abandoned, and only those aspects of form and 
 colour be chosen which are capable of being adapted and combined 
 so as to produce a satisfactory result in the manner called conventional. 
 This limitation is imposed on our art by the nature of its materials, 
 and follows from a just appreciation of what may be successfully 
 accomplished with those materials. 
 
 The gaudy obtrusiveness of the Berlin-wool flower-groups is owing 
 to a mistaken apprehension of this very thing, and a desire to 
 imitate natural appearances which are not capable of imitation. Such 
 attempts are at best but coarse and clumsy, and their greatest success 
 is gained when, by means of laborious shading, the flowers appear to 
 stand out from the canvas, so that the cushion or stool seems intended 
 for anything rather than resting a weary head or foot. Ours must be 
 a very different choice. " Realisation to the mind does not necessitate 
 deception to the eye." We must not expect, nor seem to wish others 
 to expect, what is at variance with the nature of things. If we 
 decorate a flat surface, let us be satisfied that the surface should still 
 seem flat ; and as curtai,ns, cushions, chair-covers, are intended to be 
 touched or handled, it is false taste and art to try to make them 
 resemble water-colour paintings. To produce an appearance of 
 •projection when the surface is flat, or of roughness when it is in 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 13 
 
 reality smooth, is to make one sense contradict another — a poor 
 sort of deception, which involves a great deal of wasted time and 
 ingenuity. 
 
 III. — Needlework should satisfy requirements both of use and 
 beauty. We must start with the idea of beautifying what is already 
 useful, and rather convey a -new sense of repose and ease in the 
 decorative furniture of our rooms than deprive them of their expres- 
 sion of use and comfort. The work should be executed so as to be 
 lasting ; it must be of good and genuine materials, well and solidly 
 worked, and have at the same time an appearance of ease in the 
 working. Work that shows great elaboration of design and labori- 
 ousness of execution, is seldom beautiful in proportion to the pains 
 expended upon it. Slight irregularities of form and inequalities of 
 stitch often lend a beauty to work, but they are generally happiest 
 when unpremeditated. The larger the surface to be covered with 
 embroidery, the more evenly the colour and pattern should be dis- 
 tributed, so as to enrich the general effect without disturbing the 
 eye. In a piece of work, for whatever use it may be destined, 
 delicacy, simplicity, and repose should be the qualities at which 
 the worker aims, in opposition to extravagance, garishness, and 
 exaggeration. 
 
 " Good art is inseparable from delicacy, as bad art is from coarse- 
 ness." A piece of needlework was lately shown to one of the writers 
 by an aged lady, in whose youth it was not new. It is a piece of 
 cambric, covered with a delicate design of branching flowers and leaves, 
 in gold-coloured silk. It has been washed, worn, and mended till 
 hardly four inches remain without a darn ; yet the fragment is still 
 beautiful and interesting. The cambric is genuine and well woven, 
 the silk well dyed and of the best quality — so that its gloss and 
 
i 4 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 colour are just what they were nearly a hundred years ago — and the 
 design being exactly suited to the materials, the result still shows 
 the refined and just perceptions of the worker and of the age in 
 which she lived. 
 
 It is with a view to the production of such work as this that 
 these hints are intended — work which, to recapitulate, must (i) express 
 intelligence, (2) be adapted to the materials used, and (3) satisfy the 
 requirements both of use and beauty. 
 
CH A PTER I I. 
 
 ON DESIGN. 
 
 E have seen that, the art of needlework being confined 
 within narrower limits than that of painting, it becomes 
 necessary, while adopting natural forms, to convention- 
 alise them to suit our purpose ; and that a knowledge 
 of what can and what cannot be accomplished by the means at our 
 command, is the foundation of the art, and also one of the best 
 fruits of our experience. 
 
 Roughly speaking, there are two modes of treating natural forms 
 in embroidery. That most suitable for beginners, and most easily 
 adapted to small pieces of work, is what may be termed the natural 
 treatment, where conventionalism is carried no further than is 
 rendered necessary by the nature of the materials and the size and 
 shape of the space to be filled. The other treatment is of a more 
 severe kind ; in it certain natural forms are taken as a basis, and from 
 them a design of a more or less formal character is worked out. In 
 this style beautiful patterns may be made, and it is very effective 
 where a certain defined space has to be filled ; but a large knowledge 
 and practice of the principles of design are required in order to attain 
 any degree of success ; the lines and curves must be guided by a clear 
 idea of what is to be done, they should be free and strong ; no weak 
 

 16 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 or loose lines can be allowed ; each part must be determined by its 
 relation to the whole, and a perfect balance of all be preserved. This 
 branch of design can best be learned by studying good examples, such 
 as Raphael's Arabesques in the Vatican (of which there are copies in 
 the South Kensington Museum), and other fifteenth and sixteenth 
 century work. 
 
 It is beyond the scope of this little work to teach the art 
 of designing ; our desire is to give the amateur some help in the 
 first mentioned simpler process, by which the lovely forms of 
 natural objects may be reduced to a simplicity suitable for embroidery, 
 leaving arabesque, cinque-cento, and geometrical design to more 
 experienced hands. 
 
 The most severe conventional treatment is that which reduces 
 the design to a mere symbol for the flower intended, as in the 
 heraldic rose and fieur-de-lys, which, in their traditional forms, 
 preserve only the abstract lines of the flower. Sometimes this 
 extreme conventional treatment is employed merely as a sign of 
 vegetable life, as occasionally in old stained glass, where it is used 
 to signify that the action took place out of doors. In early needle- 
 work this archaic treatment is to be found, and is there perfectly 
 appropriate, but with our improved appliances it is now scarcely 
 permissible, except where a certain space is left in a geometrical 
 pattern, better filled by some symbol of vegetable life than by any 
 closer adherence to nature ; or in applied work, where the thickness of 
 the material hinders more delicate treatment. 
 
 Taking for granted that flowers and leaves are the most suitable 
 objects for embroidery, we shall find that the simplest flowers are 
 the best, as they are those which can be most fully expressed by the 
 fewest lines if in outline, and with the fewest shades if in colour. It 
 
ON DESIGN. i 7 
 
 will be obvious that double flowers are not suitable ; we must be 
 content to embroider wild roses, with their few distinct petals and 
 well-marked centres, leaving to the painter the noble Gloire de Dijon, 
 with its multitude of folded leaves and subtle gradations of colour. 
 Not only should the flowers be single, but also of simple form ; what 
 are called old-fashioned flowers are, as a rule, the best ; some of our 
 favourite garden flowers are spoiled by over-cultivation, and exotics 
 are usually too complex in form to be rendered with the ease which 
 is so essential to our art. 
 
 In order to gain any proficiency in designing, careful studies 
 from nature, of flowers and leaves, buds and seed-vessels, in various 
 positions, should be made, and when a thorough acquaintance with 
 natural forms has been gained, designs may be constructed from these 
 drawings. Such practice will lead to a right perception as to what detail 
 must be dispensed with and what retained. Some experience, also, as 
 to what is and what is not practicable with the needle must also be 
 acquired before a satisfactory design can be made. At first we are 
 nearly certain to err by attempting too much. For instance, the 
 crimped petals of the iris, or the jagged edges of the Chinese pink, 
 must be in some measure simplified even in the most careful drawing, 
 and thus made more easy to reduce again from the drawing to the 
 point of simplicity required by the needle. In some flowers the 
 crinkled edges must be entirely left out, as in the pansy, where it 
 is better to take the general curve and shape of the petal than 
 to attempt the little irregularities that are not essential to its 
 character. Where they are essential, as in the pink, they ought to 
 be suggested. 
 
 As the object of household decoration is to make our rooms 
 
 pleasant places of rest, a certain breadth and repose should be aimed 
 c 
 
1 8 
 
 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 at in our work ; all sense of fatigue should be avoided. This must 
 be done by being careful not to crowd the design with detail, even 
 
 though we may be tempted to do so 
 by our command of materials and of 
 the requisite time and patience. The 
 flowers composing a design should 
 not overlap each other too much, for 
 as there is no shadow, the relief is 
 necessarily so low that a sense of 
 crowding and confusion is very easily 
 produced. The appearance of ease 
 must be produced, not only by the 
 expression of freedom in the design 
 and facility in carrying it out, but also 
 by the obviousness of the intention. 
 Detail should be kept subordinate to 
 the design viewed as a whole, and 
 should rather be discovered by degrees 
 than be apparent at the first glance ; 
 if this be not attended to, the general 
 effect of the design will be lost, and 
 confusion instead of unity will be the 
 result. Be temperate, therefore, in 
 detail ; a thorn here and there on a 
 rose stem will 'be enough to suggest 
 the thorny character of roses, nor is 
 it needful to make more than a few 
 of the serrations on the leaves ; to do more would be to lose the 
 outline, which, of all things, must be preserved distinct. 
 
ON DESIGN. 
 
 19 
 
 In drawing a leaf, observe carefully its distinguishing charac- 
 teristics, first as to its general shape, then its growth, whether 
 upright or drooping ; then as to detail of form, 
 whether it be serrated or not ; if it be, whether 
 finely or coarsely. If the notches be very fine, 
 the edges may be left quite smooth in working ; 
 but if they be large and regular, they should be 
 represented, though not in their full number, so 
 as merely to suggest the fact. Fig. 1 shows a 
 bramble leaf carefully drawn from nature ; Fig. 2 
 shows the same leaf sufficiently modified in its 
 details to be embroidered without losing its 
 character ; it might be still further convention- 
 alised if the nature of the material or the char- 
 acter of the design required it. 
 
 There is another truth that is often ne- 
 glected, yet which may be expressed without risk 
 of over-multiplying detail — that is, the junction 
 of the leaf and the stalk. This should never be 
 overlooked if the design be meant for outline 
 work, in which, being without the help of 
 colour, we should more fully insist upon truth 
 of line. It should be clearly shown whether the 
 junction be effected by a lobe (as in Fig. 3), or 
 without (as in Fig. 4), or if there be no clear 
 leaf-stalk at all (as in Fig. 5). Also, pains 
 should be taken to finish off the stalks care- 
 fully ; there are various ways of doing this (see Figs. 3, 4, and 5). 
 It is in these little matters that truth and life may be preserved 
 
2o ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 without risk of confusion, and they help to secure a satisfactory 
 result. 
 
 Many instances could be named of glaring inaccuracies to be met 
 with in patterns and decorations — such as a strawberry leaf attached 
 to a carnation flower, a poppy bud opening at the wrong end, or a 
 convolvulus furnished with tendrils. Observation and intelligence 
 will always secure us from mistakes such as these, which are inad- 
 missible as against nature. Departures from nature should never 
 be made through ignorance ; to conventionalise is not to depart 
 from nature, it is but to select and use the forms and detail 
 necessary and suitable for our purpose. If we cannot tell the 
 whole truth, let us at least tell no falsehood. 
 
 A little practice in simple flower-forms will soon give con- 
 fidence enough to make more formally arranged patterns, and, as 
 a first step in that direction, some flower, say the honeysuckle or 
 the rose, may be twisted and turned artfully so as to fill the 
 required space, still preserving its natural characteristics. It must 
 be remembered that, however conventionally the flower is treated, its 
 general characteristics must always be preserved. For instance, it 
 would be against all truth to twist into running scrolls the stiff 
 sunflower or the upright sword-lily ; their stiff and upright character 
 should rather be insisted upon than hinted at : if grace be the object, 
 a more pliant flower can easily be chosen. s 
 
 The daisy-shaped flowers are all good for embroidery; being 
 clear and well-defined, they require but little conventionalising. In 
 arranging them — the sunflower, for instance — the petals need not be 
 stiffened into a geometrical star, unless the flowers are to be 
 associated with some scroll-work that demands rigid treatment. In 
 nature, the sunflower petals are too long to stand out evenly round 
 
ON DESIGN. 
 
 the black disc ; this tendency to droop should be just indicated 
 here and there in the design (see Fig. 6). 
 
 The daffodil and 
 narcissus, and the lily 
 tribes, work extremely 
 well ; so do the primrose, 
 potentilla, and wild rose. 
 There are also many ber- 
 ries that make beautiful 
 combinations with their 
 blossoms and leaves, as 
 the bramble, cherry, &c. 
 There is no need for a full 
 list ; so soon as the task 
 of designing has become 
 familiar, it will be known 
 
 at a glance whether a flower be likely to be effective or not, and 
 it will be found that the simplest flowers fulfil most completely 
 the requirements of the art. 
 
 In designs for filled-in embroidery, the vacant spaces should 
 be larger than they need be for outline work, especially if the work 
 is to be done in crewels, for the substance of the wool fills up 
 the spaces, and contracts the material a little ; so that a design 
 which looks a little bald on paper will prove sufficiently handsome 
 when worked. 
 
 Designs for outline work may be closer in arrangement ; they 
 should be very carefully drawn, as all the beauty of outline 
 work consists in its grace and truth of form. This style, by 
 allowing more grace, allows also in some respects more naturalism ; 
 
 Fig-6 
 
22 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 but no attempt at roundness of form should be made, beyond what 
 can be attained by simple curves without shading. Such details as 
 the junction of leaf and stalk and the correct veining of the leaves 
 should be insisted on. The careful drawing of leaf-veins imparts 
 life and curvature to an outline that otherwise has no meaning. 
 
 Fig -7 | 
 
 
 Fig -8 
 
 
 Fig. 7 shows a leaf of the common scarlet poppy conventionalised 
 for working in outline without veins ; Fig. 8 shows the same leaf with 
 the veins added. It will be seen how much life and vigour depend 
 on this simple veining. 
 
 In designing a border, it must be taken into consideration 
 whether it be intended for a horizontal or a perpendicular position. 
 In some cases, of course, the upright arrangement will run no risk 
 of being used horizontally, in others there is less certainty. There 
 are borders which may be used either way, and there are others 
 which, at first sight, seem as if they might be used indiscriminately, 
 but after a little study are found to be more suitable for one position 
 than the other. 
 
ON DESIGN. 23 
 
 Borders designed for a horizontal position, and composed of 
 upright sprigs, single or grouped, require a line or two below, 
 serving to keep them together ; without this they look dis- 
 jointed, and each sprig is too independent of the rest. It is not 
 necessary for the flowers to spring from this line, which has the 
 same controlling power whether they touch it or not. Should the 
 sprigs be large, a single line is not enough ; a series of lines should 
 be arranged. These will balance the composition, giving weight to 
 the lower part, and making a pleasing opposition of line. Scroll 
 borders also are often improved by a line on each side ; it is 
 not an unvarying necessity, but in many cases a great improvement. 
 Sometimes the effect is obtained by the scroll or border being 
 worked on a narrow piece of material, and then sewn on to some 
 other stuff of a different shade ; in this case the enclosing lines are 
 obtained by the limit of the material on which the border is worked. 
 
 It is often necessary to enlarge flowers, such as the daisy and 
 primrose, beyond their natural size ; this is no sin against truth or 
 good taste, so long as regard is had to their proportion to each other 
 when grouped. If a sunflower is reduced to a size suitable for the 
 space at command, it must not be associated with daffodils enlarged 
 to fit the same place ; their relative proportions must be maintained, 
 or an unnatural appearance is the result. 
 
 Good conventional work is always truthful, and yet it ought 
 always to maintain a certain reticence, which may occasionally 
 amount to a severe reserve, by the expression only of the most general 
 features. Reticence there should always be, allowing no extravagance 
 or waste, no useless or superfluous lines. 
 
 Hitherto we have only spoken of flower-forms for embroidery, 
 but there are other natural forms which can be associated with them. 
 
24 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 Birds and butterflies are often most effective; they give animation 
 to the design, and are useful aids in the general composition, as they 
 may be placed where they are necessary for the balance of the 
 design, or for relief in colour, which it would be difficult to attain 
 by other means. Butterflies are especially appropriate, as, from their 
 variety of size and colour, they can be made to harmonise with 
 almost any grouping of flowers. We should avoid mixing birds 
 or butterflies of one climate with flowers peculiar to another. 
 
 Ribbon twisted or knotted round the stems of flowers, or tying 
 up garlands, makes also a pleasant variety, but requires experience 
 and judgment in its use. Care should be taken not to twist the 
 ribbon into impossible bows, nor to allow it to hang in too wavy 
 and straggling lines. 
 
 Vases can also be occasionally introduced ; they are best repre- 
 sented by some material laid on, or else worked in lines only, giving 
 the outline and the pattern on it, as in a pencil drawing without 
 shading. 
 
 Good designs may be produced after some study of the kind 
 indicated in this chapter, no more naturalism being used than can 
 be expressed with the materials consistently with clearness of outline 
 and a due feeling of repose. Half — perhaps more than half — the 
 object will then be accomplished, for the principles which have 
 guided us hitherto may still be applied in adding- the colour that 
 will make our work true art, and a delight to the eye so long as 
 a fragment of it lasts. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON COLOUR. 
 
 FTER good design, good colouring comes next in 
 importance, and is so essential to a piece of em- 
 broidery that, while harmonious colouring may atone 
 even for faulty design, a good design will certainly 
 be spoiled by vulgar colouring. As the colouring of our work is 
 a matter of so much consequence, we cannot be too particular in 
 considering it well beforehand, that all may be in harmony and in 
 keeping, not only with itself, but with the purpose and position for 
 which it is intended. 
 
 We have already seen that our work is not to be a mere copy 
 of Nature, but rather a skilful adaptation of her forms to decorative 
 purposes. And as conventionalism in form is imposed upon us as 
 a necessity, it also follows that the same necessity has to be observed 
 in our imitation of nature with regard to colour. This becomes 
 apparent from the very outset. In many cases it is utterly impossible 
 to give the natural colouring of a particular flower ; we may, perhaps, 
 be able to get its general tone, but the subtle gradations which are 
 with difficulty reproduced in painting are quite out of reach in 
 embroidery. As a simple instance, take a blue pansy : the first 
 difficulty will be to get silk or wool dyed the proper shades ; but 
 
26 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 supposing that overcome, a greater one will arise — that of mingling 
 the tints, with all the delicacies of tone and intermixture of shade 
 that are found in the flower, without producing a confused and 
 unsatisfactory effect ; and after our utmost efforts to represent a 
 pansy as it appears in nature, the result is sure to be a failure. And 
 if this be the case with a flower so simply coloured as the pansy, 
 how much greater the difficulty will be with flowers of more 
 complex hues ! 
 
 But there is another consideration. It must be remembered 
 how different are the surroundings of flowers, as used for decorative 
 effect either in painting or embroidery, from their surroundings in 
 the open air. Therefore, in adapting their colour to their place in 
 in-door decoration, their more subdued tints and less brilliant 
 aspect should be chosen ; for their brighter colours have the clear 
 air, the sunlight, their natural texture, and, above all, their evan- 
 escence, to render them delightful. The pure colour alone, without 
 these aids, transferred to needlework, would be glaring and gaudy. 
 Moreover, as there is no raw colour in nature, but an admixture 
 of yellow in most of her hues, it is a great mistake to render her 
 brilliancy, which is chiefly owing to subtle qualities of texture, by 
 raw and gaudy silks and wools, which smite the eye without pleasing 
 the sense. Thus, as it is impossible to reproduce the fluctuating 
 iridescence of the natural flower, it is better to take nature as a 
 suggestive guide rather than as a pattern for servile copying, and 
 to choose colours with regard to their general harmony rather than 
 their separate exact truth to nature. 
 
 Embroidery is a decorative work, and therefore must be regulated 
 by the rules of decorative treatment ; and as harmony is one of the 
 first considerations, the attempt to combine a close imitation of 
 
ON COLOUR. 27 
 
 nature in colour with conventionalism in form would be a fatal 
 error. Consistency of treatment must be aimed at, and having 
 simplified the forms of nature, we must, for corresponding reasons, 
 simplify the colours also. 
 
 The colour of the ground of a piece of work must regulate its 
 general tone. Some one prevailing colour should be adopted, and 
 the rest chosen with reference to it. In many instances this colour 
 has to be decided by the ultimate destination of the work, as in the 
 case of portieres, or window curtains, which must be in keeping with 
 the rest of the furniture of the room. But supposing the piece of 
 work to be complete in itself, the colour of the ground is first 
 chosen, and then taken as a guide to the colours of the flowers to 
 be embroidered upon it. 
 
 The colours chosen must not be in contrast, but in harmony. Thus 
 if the ground be green, pure yellows and pure blues will harmonise, 
 while red will produce a violent contrast ; green being composed 
 of blue and yellow, either of its component parts will agree with it. 
 Some of the most beautifully coloured work is that done in one key 
 of colour ; that is, one colour is taken as the key-note, and those 
 shades only are used that form its component parts, or that have 
 the original colour in their composition. 
 
 For instance, in embroidery on gold-coloured satin, nothing will 
 look so well as a design coloured in shades of russet and golden 
 browns, every now and then striking, as it were, the higher or lower 
 octave of the key-note by the introduction of a lighter or darker shade 
 of the pure ground colour. Again, taking green for the ground and 
 treating it in the same way, it has first to be considered whether it is 
 a yellow or blue green. If a yellow green, the highest note should 
 then be yellow. The same harmony should be carried through the 
 
28 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 brown, warm, and russet greens, up to the primary colour, yellow, to 
 which all these tints owe their warmth, and which is the chief 
 constituent of the ground. But if the ground be a blue green, 
 colder greens must be used, of a sage rather than russet tint, while 
 the key-note is struck with a pure blue, that being the chief constituent 
 part of the ground colour, and also the cool element in the other 
 colours used. Worked under this careful restraint, the resulting 
 effect, subdued though it be, is abundantly gratifying. 
 
 The combination of a greater variety of colours is not so easy. 
 Contrasting colours require great care and judgment in their arrange- 
 ment, and should be made by their rarity to add brilliancy to the 
 surrounding harmony. If contrasting colours are placed side by side, 
 the brilliancy of each is certainly enhanced, yet the result is not 
 harmonious, but harsh and disturbing. Contrasting colours, however, 
 are capable of producing good effects, but in managing them so much 
 judgment and discretion is necessary, that it is best to be on the safe 
 side and avoid them, until we have attained such a degree of 
 experience as may warrant a flight into these more difficult regions. 
 Place a pure blue near a pure yellow, and the effect is crude and 
 bad ; but slightly tone the blue with yellow, and the yellow with 
 blue, and instantly the effect becomes pleasing. In the same manner 
 a strong blue and a bright red with a dash of yellow in it are harsh ; 
 but introduce in their neighbourhood a subdued Yusset-green — the 
 tertiary tint, a combination of the three — and a softer, more pleasing 
 effect is imparted. 
 
 Pale soft tints are more easily combined than strong deep 
 colours. If we would avoid vulgar colouring, we shall do well not 
 to introduce more than two of the primary colours, in their purity, 
 into one piece of work ; the subordinate parts, as leaves and stalks or 
 
ON COLOUR. 29 
 
 scroll work, must be more or less of neutral tints — olive, russet, and 
 soft brown shades. Purples and tints inclining to blue are difficult 
 to manage. Of the three primary colours, blue — -the cold one 
 in nature — pleases us, not by its coldness, but by its purity. The 
 secondary tints, green and purple, lose tone in proportion to the 
 amount of blue they contain, a preponderance of which adds to 
 their coldness and hardness. In the tertiary tints, those that have the 
 smallest proportion of blue in them are to be preferred ; as russet, 
 which is one part blue, one part yellow, and two parts red ; and 
 olive, which is one part blue, two parts yellow, and one part red : 
 these are both more pleasing than slate, which is two parts blue, 
 one part yellow, and one part red. 
 
 It is not a bad rule to make the colour that forms the larger 
 constituent part of the ground the chief pure colour used in the design, 
 even when one key of colour is not otherwise strictly carried out as 
 explained above. Thus, where the ground is a red plum or maroon, 
 pure red pinks — that is, pinks without any shade of blue in them 
 — will harmonise satisfactorily and be much more pleasing than if 
 blue — the lesser element of the ground colour — be used ; but if the 
 ground be of a blue plum colour, pale blue would be more pleasing 
 than' pink, blue being the leading colour in the ground. 
 
 We will describe a piece of silk embroidery in which this plan 
 of colour was most charmingly carried out. The ground was bronze- 
 green satin ; upon it were worked sprays of convolvulus springing from 
 a vase of grey satin ; the convolvulus flowers were white, edged with 
 a pure blue — not the purplish blue of the natural flower, for that 
 would not have harmonised so well — and yet there was nothing 
 unnatural in the effect of the colour. The leaves were of yellow 
 and grey greens, and the stalks a brownish green. Then, to give 
 
3 o ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 warmth and life, some sulphur butterflies hovered over the garlands. 
 Thus, though in the colouring of the design the component parts 
 only of the bronze green ground were used, the effect was perfect. 
 This piece of work was for the front of an upright piano, and its 
 quiet cheerfulness replaced with admirable effect the usual unmeaning 
 fretwork lined with silk of some raw colour. Colour is so much 
 a matter of feeling, and of so subtle a nature, that only the most 
 general rules can be safely given, and even these more as guides 
 than as laws to be implicitly obeyed. Shades and tones are so 
 varied and uncertain that it is impossible to describe them in words ; 
 the eye must be educated to appreciate them, and to learn their 
 combinations and effects, which in the description may be so easily 
 misapprehended. A master of colour will produce harmonies 
 where, with the same materials, another would produce discords. 
 In the Bellini picture in the National Gallery, " S. Jerome in his 
 Study," the prevailing colours are red, blue, and green ; but instead 
 of a vulgar glaring effect, such as would have been produced by 
 an ordinary hand, a most delicious harmony is the result — warm, 
 glowing, and yet subdued, owing to the judicious choice of tones and 
 their varying intensity. 
 
 It is often said that the old-fashioned colours are the best ; this 
 is so because they are softer and purer than the brilliant colours 
 which have vitiated the taste of later years. Metallic aniline dyes 
 — the discovery of which was hailed as a blessing, but which the 
 artist looks upon in quite another light — are harsh and unlike 
 anything in nature ; take them into the sunlit garden, where a 
 flower, however brilliant, is never raw in colour, and you will feel the 
 discord instantly. However strong they may be, they have no 
 depth about them ; they smite your eye, they do not draw your 
 
ON COLOUR. 31 
 
 gaze into them. It would seem as if all their strength existed 
 literally on the surface only, so soon do the aniline dyes fade. 
 In a modern Turkey carpet, which has been coloured with modern 
 hues to suit the English taste, the colour soon goes out of the 
 bluish magenta-crimson that has been used instead of the old pure 
 red, and only a dirty pinkish-white is left. 
 
 That the pure colours produced from vegetable dyes last longer 
 and preserve their original harmony by fading all together, when they 
 do fade with the lapse of years, is a strong argument in their favour ; 
 for nothing is more provoking than to find work that has cost time 
 and thought rendered discordant and ugly by the colour having 
 gone completely from some of the shades, and remaining in full 
 brightness in others. Everything must grow old and fade away 
 in time ; but old age, even in needlework, may still be rendered 
 beautiful if all its tints fade together, instead of dying by piecemeal. 
 
 A simple and very effective arrangement of colour, and one 
 especially appropriate for outline work, is one in which the pattern 
 is worked on a dark ground in a lighter shade of the same. If the 
 curtains be dark crimson and the pattern worked in a lighter shade, 
 the material is enriched and relieved sufficiently without the introduc- 
 tion of colours, possibly unsuitable to the general harmony of the room. 
 In a small room, curtains embroidered in many colours do not look 
 well, unless, perhaps, where the ground is unbleached linen or some 
 similar light-coloured substance ; but by working a sprig or other 
 design in outline in a brighter shade of the dark material, the heaviness 
 of a mass of self-colour is much relieved. Outline embroidery, also, 
 looks extremely well when done in a dark colour on a light ground 
 — either a darker shade of the same colour as the ground, or an 
 altogether different colour, as dark blue on unbleached linen or raw 
 
32 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 silk ; dark red and brown also look extremely well on the unbleached 
 tints. In outline patterns, to be worked in not only a different shade 
 but in a different colour from the ground, a greater contrast is 
 required, and the lines, though thin, should be strong. 
 
 If at any time it be found that the ground colour chosen is too 
 obtrusive and does not retire enough, a little diaper pattern may 
 be worked all over the piece in a darker shade of the ground ; this 
 gives depth and richness, and lends greater value to the principal 
 design. In cases, too, where the plain ground is felt to be mono- 
 tonous, the diaper may be used with good effect. A simple little 
 pattern is all that is necessary, for the diaper must never obtrude 
 itself, either by its elaborate pattern or strength of colour — like a 
 healthy influence, it should be felt rather than seen. 
 
 As a rule, dark grounds give the strongest relief to the design. 
 Dark brownish greens, deep dull blues, and rich maroon shades, make 
 good grounds ; but if the design be many-coloured, black will be 
 found the safest, as it will subdue, and at the same time show out, 
 the brilliancy. Some of the most beautiful work is done on pale 
 grounds ; creamy white, buff, pale grey and fawn, all make good 
 ground-tones. If strong relief is desired, either a dark or a light 
 ground must be chosen ; the intermediate shades, unless of a very 
 neutral tone, do not as a rule make good grounds — great judg- 
 ment is required in their use, or an indistinct effect is the result. 
 
 It will help much to preserve the unity and clearness of the 
 effect if all the different shades of the design contrast more with the 
 ground than with each other. Thus, if the ground be dark, all the 
 colours of the design should be of lighter shades than the ground 
 colour ; if the ground be light, the whole design should show dark 
 upon it. 
 
ON COLOUR. 
 
 33 
 
 Keeping in mind that repose is a most important element in 
 art decoration, we must be content with a few colours at a time. 
 Just as we may not crowd in details of form, so we must be sparing 
 in details of colour, nor must we attempt every shade and gradation 
 of tone. Let us be content with the hint that Nature gives us. If 
 we must embroider a blue flower, let us choose such a blue as will 
 harmonise with the rest of the work rather than try to match the 
 exact hue of nature, and shade it just so far as will give a clear idea 
 of the flower without relief or projection. As a general rule, two 
 shades are enough (unless the flower be unusually large) to convey 
 sufficient detail without confusion : let us not attempt all the 
 shades and mixed tints to be found in nature, or we shall spoil our 
 work, making it confused and indistinct, neither conveying a good 
 idea of what was intended, nor producing the repose of decorative 
 treatment. We must make up our mind, once for all, that it is 
 impossible to imitate nature closely with embroidery materials; 
 therefore, in utilising her beauties for decorative work, we must 
 conventionalise them in colour as well as in form, so as to produce 
 a work of art, instead of some nondescript " fancy work " that is 
 neither art nor nature. 
 
 In those cases where a natural treatment can be followed in 
 form, a corresponding treatment will probably be possible in 
 colour ; and so long as such treatment is consistent with repose, 
 harmony, and clearness in design and apprehension, it may be safely 
 adopted ; but it must be borne in mind that to follow nature closely 
 in one flower and to conventionalise another in the same design is 
 to destroy harmony : all must be in keeping — naturalised or con- 
 ventionalised in exactly the same degree. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON MATERIALS AND STITCHES. 
 
 E have now to give a few suggestions as to the 
 materials and stitches best suited to the kinds of 
 needlework of which we have been speaking. 
 
 In the material on which to work there is great 
 liberty of choice ; silk, satin, velvet, cloth, and linen have all their 
 appropriate uses. The first thing to be considered is the suitability 
 of the material in texture and substance to the purpose for which 
 it is intended. For instance, delicate satin is not appropriate for a 
 "tidy" intended to be washed and constantly renewed; nor is rough 
 serge or coarse linen suited for a dainty screen or cushion that is 
 to form a lasting ornament. 
 
 The next thing to remember is that the material should suit the 
 work that is to be put upon it. The material used for ornamenting 
 should be superior, or at least equal in quality to the material 
 ornamented. Coarse worsteds are suited to rough serge or thick 
 linen ; finer worsteds, crewel (which is ' two-thread worsted), and 
 filosel (which is inferior silk), to finer linen or cloth ; while silk 
 and satin require silks of the finest and brightest texture. Crewel 
 should not be used for embroidery on silk, satin, or velvet, though 
 silk looks well on fine woollen material or on linen. 
 
36 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 Another point is that the material on which we work should be 
 good and true of its kind, well and evenly woven, well dyed, and of a 
 fast colour ; and if there be any pattern, such as diaper or twill, upon 
 it, it should be fairly produced by weaving, and not by dressing or 
 stamping. 
 
 For working in crewel, we recommend unbleached linen, and 
 woollen fabrics, such as cloth, serge, and some other materials now 
 used for ladies' dresses. Mixed stuffs, such as those made of wool 
 and silk, or wool and cotton, should be looked on with suspicion, as 
 not likely to be durable enough to repay the time spent upon them, 
 and also as being liable to shrink and wrinkle with heat or damp. 
 Thick diagonal cloth, or serge, as it is sometimes called, makes a very 
 good substance to work upon either with silk or crewel, and is useful 
 for large pieces of household work. It looks well for curtains, as it is 
 not so heavy as broadcloth, and it is easier to work upon — a great 
 merit, as the labour of a large piece of work is more than doubled if 
 the material be too thick or close for the needle to pass through 
 without a twitch or pull. Serge is also useful for table-covers, 
 bracket borders, and many other things. 
 
 Very fine and highly-dressed cloth is not so good as serge, or 
 even as cloth of a flannel-like surface ; indeed, no glazed nor highly- 
 dressed material makes a good ground— the stitches lie too much on 
 the surface, or stand out from it, instead of forming a part of it. 
 Satin, however, embroidered with soft bright silks, is the exception 
 to this rule, because by these a perfect harmony of texture is 
 obtained. 
 
 There are many differences of opinion about the best linen for 
 crewel embroidery, and a thoroughly satisfactory kind is difficult to 
 meet with. The fancy-work shops recommend a material made on 
 
ON MATERIALS AND STITCHES. 37 
 
 purpose, usually called "Verona crash;" it is close, rough, and hard, 
 its most engaging quality being its colour. But as roughness and 
 coarseness should not be sought for their own sake, we strongly 
 advise our readers to choose their linen at an ordinary linendraper's, 
 and to avoid the special materials made to supply a passing fashion. 
 The old hand-loom linens would be the best if we could get them, 
 the warp and woof are more even and canvas-like, and they are less 
 dressed for sale than modern linens ; but, failing these, it is best 
 to turn over the stock of linen at some good household shop, and 
 we shall be very unfortunate if we do not find something to suit 
 our purpose. The shops in the North of England afford the best 
 choice, and an opportunity of choosing linen in any Flemish town 
 should not be neglected. 
 
 The names given to different sorts of linen vary in different 
 places, but we have found that glass-towelling and Barnsley pillow 
 linen — the more unbleached the better — are best for tidies and smaller 
 pieces of work. "Barnsley loom" linen is good in colour, bright 
 in the thread, and evenly woven, but heavier than the pillow linen ; 
 while for strong coarse work, such as bed hangings, Barnsley sheeting 
 and Russia towelling are useful. The best kind of " Russia duck" — 
 not the "duck" sailors use, but a superior kind of roller towelling — is 
 a good material, yellow and even, and, though strong, not unseemly. 
 Some of the unglazed hollands are good in colour and texture ; in 
 fact, any linen may be used that appears suitable to the purpose 
 and good of its kind, and without the thick threads that are unsightly 
 if left in, and make holes if taken out. For crewel work, the linen 
 should be just coarse enough to allow the worsted to pass through 
 without difficulty. 
 
 In the choice of materials, we must not allow ourselves to be led 
 
38 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 away against our own better judgment by what is said at the fancy- 
 work shop to be " the proper thing now," or to take what is given 
 to us, whether it be to our taste or not! An independent choice of 
 material leads to individuality in our work, which is always a great 
 charm ; and if we do not design our own patterns — it is not everyone 
 who can — we must guard the more jealously such choice as is left 
 to us. By reserving this choice of materials, we free ourselves 
 from the thraldom of the workshops, and of people too much 
 interested in the sale of these special materials while the fashion 
 lasts to give good advice. 
 
 We do not consider cotton a good material for embroidery ; 
 it does not bear washing so well as linen, and it is not so durable. 
 We have a fragment of embroidery in fine crimson silk, part of a 
 coverlet, probably a hundred years old ; the flower patterns are very 
 beautiful, and the needlework is marvellous ; the silk is almost 
 perfect, but the ground, a twilled cotton, is not only worn, but 
 stretched, soft, and rotten. Linen, with equal wear, might have 
 been threadbare, but would have kept its shape and colour. Some 
 cotton materials, however, may be advantageously used ; one is 
 cotton velvet, or velveteen, which is firm and durable, and often 
 dyed in good shades not to be found in silk ; it is also useful for 
 several purposes, such as chair cushions, which, vif made of silk 
 velvet, would be soon crushed and spoiled. Another exception is 
 Bolton (or "work-house") sheeting, which is very thick, unbleached, 
 and twilled. We have seen this worked in filosel for curtains, and 
 it may be used for bed hangings or coverlets worked in worsted or 
 crewel, or with an appliqud pattern in serge. The very best kind 
 should be chosen, and it should not have too much time or labour 
 spent upon it in the working. Being inexpensive, it is useful for 
 
ON MATERIALS AND STITCHES. 
 
 39 
 
 an experiment, as a pattern may be quickly worked upon it in one 
 colour to try if it be effective and well-balanced, before carrying it 
 out on a more costly material. 
 
 We now come to the stitches, which, though difficult to explain 
 clearly in words, are really simple and few — the simpler and the fewer, 
 the better the work. 
 
 The most useful stitch is the embroidery or long stitch, known 
 to canvas-workers as the tent stitch. A single line of it is like the 
 wrong side of back stitching in plain needlework, 
 only the stitches are longer. In Fig. 9, supposing 
 the work to be in a frame, we bring the needle up 
 at 1 and put it down at 2, bring it up again at 3 
 and put it down at 4, and so on. In outline work 
 the thread should be kept to the left of the needle, 
 and great care should be taken to bring the needle 
 up exactly in the line of the pattern, or a wavy 
 uncertain line will be the result, and the character 
 of the pattern will be lost. If the work be done in 
 the hand, as is best for outline work, the easiest and 
 quickest way is to work this stitch upwards, or from 
 the worker (Fig. 10). The needle should be brought 
 through at 1, and put it in again from 2 to 3, and 
 from 4 to 5, and so on. We must be careful that 
 the stitches are neither too tight nor too loose, that 
 the curves are not " broken-backed," and that the points are 
 clear and sharp. 
 
 In working thickly filled-in embroidery, it is better not to outline 
 the flower or leaf first, as their shape is not bounded by an outline 
 in nature, and in this kind of work a more natural appearance is 
 
40 
 
 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 Fig- 11 
 
 Fig -13 
 
 Fig 12 
 
 Fig -14 
 
 aimed at than in outline work. The stitches are to express the form 
 of the leaf, and they should take the direction that the lines would 
 take if we were shading the flower or leaf with a pen or pencil. For 
 
 instance, in working a pansy, the 
 stitches in each leaf must take 
 the direction of the lines in Fig. 
 1 1 , and not cross the petals as 
 in Fig. 12. In a simple leaf the 
 stitches should form the same 
 angle with the middle rib that 
 the lateral veins do in the real 
 leaf, as in Fig. 13. Leaves hav- 
 ing parallel veins, such as the 
 jonquil, should be worked in 
 parallel stitches (Fig. 14). In 
 working the petals of flowers this 
 rule cannot always be carried out, 
 but it is often possible, and will 
 be found to give great life and 
 vigour to the work. The meet- 
 ing of the stitches at the point of a snowdrop petal will express 
 an important part of its construction in a perfectly simple and 
 legitimate manner. (We would remind our readers in this place of 
 the value of the accurate drawings from nature recommended in 
 Chapter II.) It will be found that in the proper placing of stitches 
 in the filling-in of flowers, and in the exercise of the judgment 
 in all these particulars, the difference between skilled and 'prentice 
 work, between the intelligent use of the needle and mere mechanical 
 copying, will be evident. 
 
ON MATERIALS AND STITCHES. 41 
 
 In working narrow leaves, where one stitch may reach from the 
 middle to the edge of the leaf, it is best to pass the thread from the 
 edge underneath to the middle, thus beginning each stitch in the 
 middle and making the under side almost like the upper. The 
 thread must not be pulled so tight as to pucker the work. A broad 
 leaf or petal requires more than one stitch between the middle and 
 the edge, and for these the needle may be brought up again whenever 
 the next stitch seems wanted ; but two stitches together should not 
 begin nor end on the same line, except on the outside edge to 
 preserve the outline, or in showing the middle rib. 
 
 Unless the embroidery be very large and bold, the line formed 
 by the meeting of the stitches evenly down the middle of a leaf will 
 sufficiently mark the mid-rib. If in the real leaf it be very deep 
 and well-defined, a minute space left between the two lines, very 
 narrow near the stalk and tapering till the threads meet again near 
 the point, will in most cases be sufficient. As a general rule, lateral 
 veins need not be indicated at all ; if they be very marked in the 
 natural leaf, and either raised, or of a decidedly different colour from 
 the leaf itself, they may be laid on by applying a cord or piece of 
 thick silk-twist and fastening it down with small stitches of fine silk 
 of the same colour. This way of marking the veins is only appro- 
 priate to large and rather coarse pieces of work ; in fine work it is 
 apt to attract the eye too much and to make the veins unduly 
 prominent ; in most cases the meeting of the stitches down the 
 middle of the leaf is enough. If it be necessary to make the veins 
 of another shade of colour, and also to indicate the lateral veins, it 
 is best to work the leaf first without regarding them, and to put 
 them in afterwards over the work, in the usual embroidery stitch 
 of the desired shade. 
 
42 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 As to the proper length of the embroidery stitch, it is obvious 
 that no rule can be given ; it depends both on the general style of 
 the work, and on the shape and size of the flower or leaf. In the 
 embroidered marks in the corners of old-fashioned blankets — always 
 worthy of notice for their pattern — stitches of two or three inches 
 long were used with good effect for the purpose ; while in some fine 
 embroidery, stitches two-or-three-eighths of an inch long are the 
 longest that can be found. For ordinary crewel embroidery the 
 stitches may be from three-eighths to half-an-inch long, varied to 
 suit their position, some being necessarily short ; in silk work they 
 will be rather shorter. It should be remembered that a long stitch 
 gives ease and smoothness to the work, while a short one, though it 
 may look painstaking, has an air of timidity that belongs rather to 
 the work of the beginner than of the practised needlewoman. 
 
 Satin-stitch, worked over and under so that both sides are alike, 
 hardly needs mention ; it is only a way of using the long-stitch for 
 white work or for filled-in work, where the direction of the stitches 
 has not to be considered. 
 
 Chain-stitch is sometimes used for filled-in embroidery ; the 
 lines of the chain are laid very close together, and follow the form 
 of the leaf till it is filled in, beginning at the outside and working 
 to the centre. Some Algerian and Eastern work is done entirely 
 in this stitch ; it is found frequently in ancient crewel-work — still we 
 do not recommend it ; it has a slightly mechanical effect, and can 
 be perfectly imitated with the sewing-machine ; it is also less elastic 
 and less easily adapted to varying forms than the long-stitch, which 
 is the true embroidery stitch. The chain-stitch is sometimes useful 
 for outline work where a stronger line is required than that made 
 by the long-stitch ; it may be used very effectively in the horizontal 
 
ON MATERIALS AND STITCHES. 
 
 43 
 
 lines that we have recommended as a base for single flowers to 
 spring from, or for enclosing a narrow border. 
 
 For these two last purposes a good effect may be made by 
 enclosing an arrangement of short diagonal and perpendicular lines 
 between horizontal ones. Suggestions for these may often be 
 found on Oriental china, where some rich-looking border proves 
 on examination to be only a few .long and short lines skilfully 
 arranged. We insert a few specimens by way of example. 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^L> 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 «* 
 
 :'*« 
 
 The herring-bone stitch was formerly much used. We have 
 seen an old piece of fine linen embroidered all over with a bold and 
 graceful design of flowers in outline, in pale gold-coloured silk ; here 
 and there a piece is filled in, to give accent and distinctness to the 
 design, and the stems are worked in a close herring-bone stitch, 
 which gives them a strength and substance that would be wanting 
 if so bold and spreading a pattern were worked simply in outline. 
 We possess another piece, part of a quilt, probably half-a-century 
 older, which is worked in the same colour and material. The ground 
 is thickly quilted in back-stitch, in a scale pattern, and a conventional 
 
44 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 flower design is worked on it in herring-bone stitch, done so closely 
 as to resemble braid. 
 
 In the first of these two examples some of the filled-in work 
 is done in a peculiar manner — from side to side. Supposing an 
 oval leaf to be filled in, it is begun at the base, where it is very 
 narrow, with a few satin stitches ; then, when space enough is 
 reached, instead of passing the thread all the way underneath to 
 the opposite side, about one-third of the width of the leaf is taken 
 up in the needle, and the next stitch is done in the same manner 
 on the opposite side of the leaf, working from side to side until 
 the leaf becomes too narrow again, when it is finished with a few 
 satin stitches. This stitch throws all the silk to the top, and the 
 crossing of the threads in the middle of the leaf has a very rich 
 and soft effect, giving also the appearance of a vein. 
 
 The French knot is a useful device for the centres of such 
 flowers as the daisy or sunflower, or for the ends of the stamens of 
 some other flowers. It is made by bringing the thread through to 
 the front of the work, and holding the thread in the left hand four 
 or five inches from the work, the needle being in the right hand ; 
 the thread in the left hand is twisted two or three times round 
 the needle as close to the work as possible, then the point is turned 
 down into the material, nearly, but not exactly, .where the thread 
 came up ; the needle is pulled through to the other side, and the 
 thread drawn carefully till the knot is firm. Care must be taken 
 to draw the thread round the needle close up to the work before 
 the needle is pulled quite through, lest the knot should hang loose 
 and the effect be spoiled. 
 
 Some Eastern embroidery is done in the long stitch first 
 described ; it is worked in regular lines across the shape to be 
 
ON MATERIALS AND STITCHES. 45 
 
 filled, no attempt being made to follow the natural lines of the 
 flower or leaf. This looks well for purely conventional forms, but 
 is not appropriate for a design of natural flowers ; it resembles 
 applied work in treatment, and the shapes are usually enclosed with 
 a gold or black line. 
 
 There are other stitches that may be sometimes used with good 
 effect, but they are, as a rule, only modifications of the more generally 
 useful ones that we have described. Every worker has her own 
 devices for getting over difficulties or giving effect to her work, 
 suggested by the necessity of the moment or the peculiarity of her 
 materials — devices that, according to their success, show the skill 
 of the workwoman ; but we recommend the beginner to make herself 
 well versed in the use of ordinary stitches before trying novelties. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON METHODS AND USES. 
 
 S the kinds of work we have described cannot be 
 purchased at the shops ready for the needle, and as 
 it is difficult, if not impossible, to have the design 
 we have made traced satisfactorily on the material 
 by another hand, we will give a few directions for making these 
 useful preparations. The trouble that must be taken will be well 
 repaid by the great gain to the work in intelligence and individuality. 
 Outline embroidery and crewel work on linen may be done in 
 the hand — most people can work with skill enough to avoid pucker- 
 ing an outline — but a frame must be used for delicate materials, 
 such as silk, satin, or velvet, which would be spoiled if creased, 
 and also for heavy embroidery on a slight material. 
 
 For these delicate fabrics it is a good plan to have the frame 
 edged with strong linen or tape nailed to it, and to sew the satin or 
 silk very closely to this, instead of sewing the material itself round 
 the rollers of the frame and lacing it at the sides. This latter plan 
 does very well for cloth or serge, but silk or velvet will not always 
 bear the stretching. Sometimes it is more convenient to pin the 
 work into the frame, especially when only a portion of the material 
 requires stretching — the corners of a table-cloth, for instance. Then 
 
48 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 we have to guard against marking the inner sides of the stuff, and 
 pins will mark it less than stitches. 
 
 It is always worth while to arrange and prepare work well 
 before beginning ; a little trouble at first saves a great deal of 
 vexation afterwards. " Well begun is half done," and when the 
 first stitch is put into a piece of work that has been well thought 
 out and carefully designed, the materials well chosen and in 
 sufficient quantities, the ground fixed exactly and truly into the 
 frame, and the pattern neatly drawn out, we may well feel that the 
 work is half done — certainly it is the lighter and pleasanter part 
 that lies before us, and we have made success all but certain. 
 
 The necessity of care in keeping the work from dust while it 
 is in hand, and scrupulous cleanliness in the working, is too 
 obvious to be insisted upon ; but it may be suggested that, in 
 working a piece too long to put all at once into the frame, it is a 
 good plan to place a layer of cotton-wool and tissue paper over 
 the part that is finished, when it comes to be rolled up, lest the 
 thick part of the work should impress marks upon the ground. 
 
 We have spoken before of the necessity of simplicity, remember- 
 ing that decorative effect, not a flower-painting, is to be produced • 
 but we must give one more warning — work should not be shaded 
 so as to produce roundness or raised effect inconsistent with 
 legitimate aims, still less should any attempt be made to raise it by 
 stuffing it with wadding, by thick stitches of coarse cotton, or any 
 such horrible devices. 
 
 Silk is so easily caught and dragged that great care is required 
 in working it. To prevent it from twisting, it is best to have a flat 
 bodkin or stiletto at hand to hold under the silk as it is drawn 
 through ; and when the work is finished, it is a good plan to rub 
 
ON METHODS AND USES. 49 
 
 a little very stiff, almost dry, paste or gum into the back of the 
 embroidery : this will hold all the ends firmly, and prevent the 
 stitches from being drawn or pulled from the wrong side. It is 
 better to rub on the paste with the finger than with a brush, as it 
 can be done more lightly and with less danger of pressing it through 
 to the right side ; some tissue paper should then be laid over the 
 paste and pressed lightly : this should be done, and have become 
 perfectly dry, before the work is taken out of the frame. 
 
 To make linen work smooth and even when it is finished, it 
 should be damped all over at the back with a sponge, and then 
 stretched tightly and evenly, face downwards, on a board, or pinned 
 out on a nailed carpet with a clean cloth underneath it. When the 
 work as well as the linen is quite dry, it may be taken up ; and if 
 the edges show the pin-marks, they can be smoothed with the fingers. 
 When linen work is washed, it must be treated in the same way. ' 
 
 Bold applied work may be done in the hand, but finer kinds are 
 most easily managed in a frame. Great care should be taken to cut 
 the applied pieces very exactly ; the back of each piece may be just 
 touched with gum — as thick and dry as possible, lest it should come 
 through — in order to keep it in its place on the material, which 
 should first be marked with the pattern. The applied piece should 
 then be very carefully smoothed and adjusted, for a curved or 
 cross-cut piece is very apt to get out of its proper curves or to 
 stretch too much. The edges are fastened down by laying a cord 
 of silver or gold twist, or of thick silk, on the edge, and sewing it 
 down with fine stitches. Another way is to sew over the edges 
 with a button-hole stitch worked in a lighter or a darker shade of 
 the colour of the applied piece. If the pattern be of leaves, their 
 veins may be indicated by long stitches in a little lighter or darker 
 
 G 
 
So ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 shade, which gives a full and rich effect. Applied work is perhaps 
 better suited for purely conventional forms than for flowers ; though 
 in large bold work these last are very telling. 
 
 The processes for transferring designs from paper to the ground 
 on which they are to be worked vary with the nature and colour 
 of the material. For a light-coloured stuff, the best way is to trace 
 the design on tissue or other thin paper, to lay the material fiat 
 upon a table, and fix the place of the pattern upon it very exactly. 
 Then put a piece of carbonised blue or black paper, face down- 
 ward on the material, between it and the paper pattern, and with a 
 stiletto or other hard-pointed, but not too sharp instrument (a 
 metallic pencil or a knitting needle will often answer the purpose), 
 trace over all the lines of the design, taking care to keep the 
 paper pattern from slipping, and that the fingers do not press so 
 heavily on the transferring paper as to cause the colour to come off 
 unduly. 
 
 The ordinary carbonised paper is easily procured, being in 
 common use in shops for writing bills in duplicate. The objection 
 to it is that the colour may come off too readily, and a shade 
 of blue or grey be left on the material, especially if the latter 
 be at all of a rough or woolly texture. Before a new sheet of this 
 paper is used, it should be rubbed gently with* a cloth so as to 
 remove any unfixed colour ; and an old sheet should be carefully 
 cherished. 
 
 A good white transferring paper would be very useful for 
 darker stuffs, but the only kind we have seen is too greasy to be 
 safe for delicate materials. For these, the old-fashioned plan of 
 pouncing must be followed, which, if rather more troublesome than 
 tracing, has the advantage of being safe. 
 
ON METHODS AND USES. 51 
 
 For pouncing, the design must be drawn on thick paper, and 
 then pricked along the lines with a pin. The paper should be held 
 up to the light to see that the holes are clear and in sufficient 
 number to show the pattern. When the pattern is fixed, face 
 upward, on the material, dust it over with starch tied up in a 
 little muslin, so that the fine powder goes through the holes. 
 Flour or violet powder will answer, and may be best applied about 
 the pattern with a soft brush. This done, the paper must be taken 
 up very carefully, lifting it straight upwards off the material, so that it 
 does not blur the little dots of white, which ought to be in regular 
 order underneath, marking out the design. Some white tracing paint 
 should be ready prepared, which may be made of pipeclay and very- 
 weak gum, or of whitening and beer, or in a third way, which we 
 prefer, with whitening and gin or whisky. Perhaps, on the whole, the 
 Chinese white used by water-colour painters, and sold in shilling bottles, 
 is the best. With any of these, and a pen or brush, the lines of the 
 pattern, indicated by the dots of white powder, should be traced, 
 keeping the original design before the eye lest the dots should be 
 misleading or the spirit of the drawing be lost, and blowing away 
 the powder where it has come through too plentifully. Care must 
 be taken not to make the lines too broad, lest they should show 
 under the work, and for this reason the white liquid should not 
 be too thin : it will become whiter and show more plainly as it 
 dries. For a light-coloured material, which might be endangered 
 by the carbonised paper, the pouncing may be done with powder 
 blue, which dusts off again without smearing the stuff as some 
 powdered colours do, and the blue dots should be followed with 
 some coloured ink or paint. 
 
 There is still another way, when the design is of such a nature 
 
S 2 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 that it can be carried out. This is to cut out the pattern in paper, 
 place it on the material, and trace round the edge with chalk. Then 
 remove the paper and go over the chalk outline with Chinese white 
 perfecting it where it is defective. 
 
 It may be necessary to say a word as to the various objects 
 which may be rendered decorative by needlework, though many of 
 these have been already mentioned incidentally. They are well-nigh 
 numberless, from a mat for the coal-box to the most costly hangings ; 
 among the rest may be mentioned curtains for doors, windows, and 
 book-cases ; chair-covers, cushions, footstools, table-cloths, d'oyleys, 
 couvre-pieds, valances for chimney-pieces, and screens of all kinds. 
 The unmeaning fret-work and commonplace silk lining of an 
 upright piano may be replaced most agreeably by a piece of silk 
 embroidery. This should be of fine and careful work, for it is fully 
 displayed, near the eye, and almost occupies the place of a picture. 
 Bell-pulls remain in old-fashioned houses, and are coming into use 
 again with the Jacobean style now in favour ; they have a good effect 
 embroidered on some colour that goes well with the wall paper or 
 paint of the wainscot. 
 
 Embroidery on linen has as many uses as that on cloth or silk. 
 Embroidered linen makes pleasant summer chair-covers, hangings 
 for a morning-room or bedroom, valances to hang above a washstand, 
 and borders for brackets. Afternoon tea table-cloths of linen look 
 very well with embroidered ends — towel-wise — or bordered all round : 
 outline work is more suitable for these than filled-in embroidery, 
 as it will bear more frequent washing, especially if done in ingrain 
 cotton. The indispensable ever-to-be-renewed "tidy" may be made 
 quite a work of art. The most convenient material for tidies is 
 linen, embroidered in various colours, or in monochrome with crewel 
 
ON METHODS AND USES. 
 
 53 
 
 or with filosel. Blue linen decorated with white makes a good 
 useful tidy. 
 
 Outline work on linen is also very suitable for bedroom hangings ; 
 indeed, in our opinion, outline work is, as a rule, the best style for 
 curtains and such large pieces of work, whatever the material may 
 be ; though beautiful coloured and filled-in work has been made for 
 such purposes, and may be made again. To this class of work belong 
 mats for the coal-box, bath carpets of coarse flannel, summer carriage 
 rugs of heavy linen, and the large squares of linen used to protect 
 the carpet by open windows. A little bold and effective embroidery 
 for borders will make these necessaries into pleasant decorations, 
 only they must not be too laboured, or made too conspicuous. 
 
 We have not yet named a class of work that has been favoured 
 in all ages of needlework ; one which will tax the skill of the needle- 
 woman and designer perhaps even more than curtains, viz., the 
 bed-quilt or coverlet. A quilt means, properly speaking, something 
 quilted, i.e., wadded and sewn down : very beautiful grounds were 
 made in this way, the quilting being sometimes the sole ornament 
 of the coverlet, and at others serving as a ground on which various 
 patterns were worked. In these days, and with a decorative end in 
 view, such very elaborate work hardly repays the time spent on it ; 
 but we do recommend the coverlet as an excellent object for work 
 and for design. Outline work in one colour is very suitable for this 
 purpose, and a bold formal pattern looks very handsome. A more 
 flowing and branching design, well enclosed in lines and borders, 
 will look equally well : the worker's name or monogram and the date 
 should always be added. Quilts are sometimes made with Bolton 
 sheeting, used rather as a foundation than as a ground, being nearly 
 covered with an applied pattern of leaves and flowers in cloth, with 
 
54 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 the stems worked in crewel ; the vacant spaces being filled by a 
 very simple diaper. 
 
 For outline work a strong linen makes the best ground, and 
 we advise that the pattern be worked in filosel, as more durable than 
 worsted, and also as pleasanter in the working. For this purpose, 
 and for any large piece of monochrome work, it is necessary to have 
 an abundant supply of filosel or worsted ; what remains need not be 
 wasted, but if there be too little, it is scarcely possible to get it 
 really matched ; the colour may appear to be the same, but it will 
 have been dyed at different times, and washing, or even wear, will 
 develop a difference, that spoils the whole work. 
 
 From what we have said, it will be seen that, although skilled 
 workers often employ valuable materials, yet true art needlework 
 need not be costly. It is only necessary to observe the rules of art 
 as regards the design and the colouring, in order to make the most 
 inexpensive materials into objects that shall be a perpetual delight. 
 
 We must, however, give a caution against a mistake that 
 frequently brings good needlework into contempt. It is that of 
 filling a room with perpetual patterns : carpet and walls are 
 perhaps already ornamented with more or less striking designs, 
 and if we embroider every article susceptible of this decoration with 
 patterns — however lovely — we shall lose the essential quality of 
 repose, fatigue the eye, and weary the mind. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON CHURCH EMBROIDERY. 
 
 | HERE are two more branches of needlework closely 
 connected with our subject, but as each is a study 
 in itself, and has been the subject of able and 
 exhaustive treatises, a few words on their relations 
 to Art are all that need be given to either. 
 
 These two are — (i) Church Embroidery, and (2) Lace. 
 
 The first has been much studied at all times, and of late years 
 more carefully than the decorative needlework of which we have 
 been speaking, and with ever-improving results. Many works of 
 true art have been produced, many also that have fallen lamentably 
 short of that standard. 
 
 The study of church needlework has one curious disadvantage. 
 Being in a certain measure the expression of religious thought, the 
 examples we have of it are governed by the ideas of the time which 
 produced them ; but a long and interesting period of church history, 
 full of growth and rich in thought, remains without examples. 
 
 The history of secular needlework is continuous, each century 
 having its own style, depending upon and growing out of that which 
 preceded it ; while for nearly three hundred years no needlework 
 whatever was done for our churches. During the time that furnishes 
 
56 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 us with the best specimens of secular needlework, green baize, red 
 cloth, or, at best, crimson velvet with gold tassels, were all that was 
 permitted for ecclesiastical decoration ; consequently the history of 
 church embroidery stops short in the sixteenth century, and there 
 is no further guide, good or bad. 
 
 A new style is beset with the same difficulties that attend the 
 revival, or rather the renewed practice of Gothic architecture. One 
 of these difficulties is that later Continental examples, while often 
 showing great technical skill, have as often defied every rule of Art, 
 or are the expression of doctrines and ideas which do not find favour 
 in this country or belong to the Anglican Church. But, in spite of 
 all that has been said, a new style of church architecture is growing 
 up adapted to present needs, and with it a new style of needlework 
 must find a place, if indeed it has not already done so ; the humbler 
 art possessing fewer difficulties and more elasticity than the greater 
 one on which it is dependent. 
 
 The general rules that have been given for the design and 
 colouring of decorative needlework for our homes will also apply to 
 that which is intended for the glory of God in the beautifying of His 
 house. This last has narrower limitations, stricter laws of fitness, 
 bonds of symbolism, rules of colour, and traditions of style ; but a 
 student of art needlework will not find these stricter laws prevent 
 church work from being beautiful and harmonious ; indeed, they 
 will be aids rather than hindrances, while the knowledge already 
 acquired of general principles of colour and design will be a safeguard 
 against placing vulgar, crude, or tasteless combinations where, in 
 many eyes, they would be not only ugly but irreverent. 
 
 Church needlework differs only from secular art-work in its 
 design, which is subject to the limitations spoken of above, and in 
 
ON CHURCH EMBROIDERY. S 7 
 
 its special application, which makes it the highest effort of needle- 
 work. If a faithful apprenticeship has been served to secular work, 
 it is only needful to apply the same principles to suitable designs 
 in order to fit the work for the highest purpose to which it can be 
 devoted. Instead of merely reproducing ancient work, which is 
 often too cramped and archaic to suit modern churches, it will be 
 better to employ the increased skill of modern times in designing 
 work that shall be new and original, and yet within the fitting limits 
 and chastened reserve of ecclesiastical embroidery. 
 
 In designing this kind of work the foregoing rules will be 
 found especially binding. There are double reasons why colours 
 should be grave and rich rather than harsh or crude : unity of 
 design and harmony of colour take a new and deeper meaning, 
 honesty of workmanship becomes a duty, and a new reason for 
 conventionalism is seen when we remember that we ourselves, 
 when in God's house, lay aside an ordinary and natural 
 demeanour. 
 
 It seems impertinent to criticise a branch of needlework that 
 we do not intend to teach, but it may not be amiss to warn our 
 readers against some of the mistakes that are most frequently 
 committed. One of these is the abuse of symbolism, as when 
 symbols are wrongly used or put in wrong places. The most holy 
 signs and names are often seen placed where they will be leant 
 against, knelt upon, or even stood upon ; or emblems are seen in 
 positions of the highest dignity which should properly occupy only 
 secondary places. 
 
 A more common fault, the result of a more common ignorance, 
 is to suppose that precious materials, excellent workmanship, and 
 even good colouring will atone for the absence of a thoughtful and 
 
 H 
 
S 8 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 well-balanced design ; this is to endeavour to build without a 
 foundation. 
 
 The pieces of work hitherto described have been shown as 
 examples ; one which we have seen must now be held up as a 
 warning. It was an " antependium," or pulpit frontal, the material 
 of which was cream-white silk. The border was of pale pink roses, 
 with their stems and leaves on a ground of olive green, well treated 
 and well worked. In the centre was a red cross bordered with gold, 
 in harmony with the border, well proportioned, and rightly telling 
 as the principal point. This would have been very good had this 
 been all, and had the white ground been left plain as a relief to the 
 eye, or worked with a diaper to give it increased richness, but it was 
 encumbered with a heavy scroll above the cross, shaded with a cold 
 inharmonious grey, and inscribed with black letters that made the 
 sharpest contrast in the whole work. Below the cross were a large 
 fleur-de-lys and a highly conventionalised rose, both in gold-coloured 
 silk, exquisitely worked, but quite out of place, overloading and 
 confusing the design. 
 
 Good work may be done for churches by many who are unin- 
 structed in the details of the richer kinds of work ; but they should 
 content themselves with the humbler rather than the more ambitious 
 objects. Besides these last, which from the dignity of their position 
 and the richness of their materials require special skill and undivided 
 attention, there are many articles the decoration of which may be 
 confided to less practised hands. Kneeling cushions and pede-mats 
 have been partly rescued from the dominion of cross-stitch, and are 
 frequently embroidered or made in applied work of excellent design 
 and colour. More seldom, but occasionally, we have seen em- 
 broidered colossal hangings and door curtains, which are much 
 
ON CHURCH EMBROIDERY. 59 
 
 more beautiful and valuable than any loom work, upholstery, or 
 the stamped designs most commonly used for these purposes. 
 
 To all these articles the rules of design and colour given in 
 our earlier chapters will easily be applied, often more easily than in 
 work intended for house decoration, because of the broader and 
 simpler surroundings and equally distributed light of a church ; 
 while the varied and constantly changing uses and aspects of an 
 ordinary room multiply the difficulties of arranging forms and 
 colours for its decoration. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON SOME KINDS OF LACE. 
 
 ,NE more branch of needlework has to be mentioned, 
 viz;, Lace. With lace made on the pillow we have 
 nothing to do, it is not needlework, and its beauties 
 are not of the same order ; but point lace, properly 
 so called, made with points or stitches, comes into the category of 
 art needlework, from its beautiful and expressive designs so 
 marvellously adapted to the materials and conditions of its work- 
 manship, and from its matchless execution. For everything but 
 personal use, and for some church purposes, these triumphs of 
 needlework are too costly and elaborate ; but there are several 
 kinds of lace, or rather linen work, which, as being more adapted 
 for general purposes and for their decorative value, deserve a place 
 with coloured embroidery. We do not, however, intend to give 
 anything like full or sufficient directions for doing these kinds of 
 work, but merely to mention the different styles of lace-work which 
 seem best suited for decoration, and to give a few hints as to the 
 rules of art to be applied to them. 
 
 We begin with the bolder kind of tape-guipure, which is made 
 of linen tape twisted and folded into a pattern, held together with 
 bars, and then filled in and enriched with needlework. For this 
 
62 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 work the pattern should be such as may be formed by the flat folds 
 of the tape, cut and joined on again when required. No attempt 
 should be made to conceal that it is a tape by drawing it into 
 shapes that it will not easily take, or by making it imitate lace 
 made entirely with the needle or upon the pillow. The best 
 material for this work is a real tape — that is, one in which the 
 threads cross each other at right angles, and not a braid which 
 has no warp, the threads in which are plaited together. The bars 
 or " brides " should be firm, not too thin, and sufficient in number 
 to hold the tape well in its place, allowing no loose curves or ill- 
 secured angles. It is better to have too many than too few bars, 
 and, whether with or without knots, they should be of firm overcast 
 or button-hole work, not merely of twisted threads. The thread 
 used for the bars and for filling some of the spaces should neither 
 be too fine nor too tightly twisted, in which case it is wiry and 
 intractable. Even if the soft thread should seem to make the work 
 fluffy and confused at first, the first wash will clear it more than 
 enough. 
 
 With regard both to this guipure work and to the other kinds 
 of linen work on which we are going to speak, the rule laid down 
 in the first chapter for all decorative work applies — however 
 complete, it should be easy. Therefore, lace-work done for this 
 purpose should not be a monument of patient industry, into which 
 as much work as possible is put, nor a sampler of various stitches 
 and curious devices, but a clear and facile carrying out of the 
 original idea, easy to be comprehended, and producing a good effect 
 at a moderate distance. 
 
 A beautiful kind of work, which is founded upon old lace, 
 though we believe the manner of executing it to be quite modern, 
 
ON SOME KINDS OF LACE. 63 
 
 is done by drawing patterns on linen, overcasting or buttonholing 
 the outlines, cutting away the ground, and enriching the pattern 
 with bars, cords, and raised work. 
 
 This kind of work admits of great richness both of form and 
 execution ; the beautiful flowing patterns of Venetian, rose, raised, 
 or bone point can be very well reproduced in it, preserving their 
 beauties of form and proportion ; but if our meaning has been 
 hitherto made clear, it will be understood that these laces must not 
 be merely imitated, but carefully studied and adapted to the intended 
 purpose. It is true that this mode of working is particularly well 
 adapted to the patterns of the above-named laces ; but for this 
 reproduction they must be considerably enlarged and their detail 
 much simplified, giving only their broader characteristics. If this 
 be neglected, the linen will be only a coarse and unsatisfactory 
 imitation of the close-set stitches of the original, instead of an 
 arrangement of pleasant contrasts between the plainness and even- 
 ness of the linen, the spaces and bars of the ground, and the raised 
 work of the edges. The outlining of this work with gold thread 
 has a very rich and beautiful effect, which is increased if the lining 
 be of amber or golden-brown silk or satin. 
 
 Point-conti, lately called " guipure d'art," or, in homely phrase, 
 darned netting, is another effective kind of white needlework. It is 
 almost the only kind of old work which, in modern practice, has 
 preserved some degree of beauty, in spite of the fancy-work shops 
 and ladies' magazines. This may be ascribed to the unyielding 
 nature of the netted groundwork, which compels a certain special 
 treatment, and thus vigorous and beautiful designs have been 
 produced, but through blind rather than intelligent obedience. In 
 the desire for variety rather than for appropriateness, later designs 
 
64 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 have been spoiled by cutting away portions of the net in order to 
 produce larger open spaces, destroying the unity of the diaper-like 
 ground and making uncomfortable-looking holes. The ground 
 should be netted with linen thread, beginning at one corner ; great 
 care is needed to make it true and even, so that it will stretch 
 properly in the little frames used for the work. The pattern 
 should be worked in the same thread as that used for the ground. 
 This is a very old kind of work ; the early specimens are simply 
 darned on the netting, without any raised work, in bold conven- 
 tional designs, sometimes with letters, armorial bearings, and such 
 devices. 
 
 Punto a gruftpo, point-tird, or drawn work, is a kind of linen 
 work that is particularly good for decorative purposes ; it is simple 
 and easy, and produces an excellent effect. It is most appropriate 
 for the ends of table-cloths, toilet-cloths, tidies, or towels : the last 
 being its original Italian use. As the names indicate, it is made 
 in the material of the cloth itself, some of the threads of which 
 are drawn out and the remainder grouped into patterns more or 
 less elaborate. A hem-stitch like that used for pocket handkerchiefs 
 is useful for this work ; it may be worked singly along a row of 
 drawn threads, or, for a broader line, on both sides of the row, 
 either taking up the same threads as those taken on the other side, 
 so making little bars ; or taking half the threads from each of two 
 of the opposite stitches, and so making a zig-zag. Other patterns 
 may be made by passing a thick linen thread along the centre of 
 a row of threads from which the weft has been drawn, and either 
 twisting them over each other or knotting them into groups. (See 
 Plate VII.) 
 
 Pretty work may be made by embroidering the spaces of plain 
 
ON SOME KINDS OF LACE. 65 
 
 linen between the rows of drawn work, either with silk or with 
 ingrain cotton, red or blue ; only one colour should be used ; the 
 cotton should be the thickest that can be procured, and a little of 
 it or of the silk should be mixed with the fringe. The patterns 
 worked should be very simple, either line patterns, dots, stars, or 
 very simple leaf patterns. Our own taste is in favour of using 
 only one kind of work, rather than a mixture of drawn work and 
 embroidery ; but the latter is so much admired that we give these 
 few hints for it, with the advice that in mixed work one or the 
 other kind should be made the most prominent. If the prominence 
 is intended to be given to the embroidery, the drawn work should 
 be distinctly subservient ; but if the contrary, the embroidery should 
 be confined to narrow patterns of the simplest kind. This work 
 washes extremely well, and so does the cotton or silk embroidery ; 
 it should not be starched or ironed, but pinned or basted fiat and 
 tight while wet upon a board or the floor, and left to dry. 
 
 Drawn work should be finished with a fringe of the warp of 
 the material knotted or twisted into tassels. The elaboration of 
 this knotted fringe gave rise to what is now known as Macrame 
 lace, a kind of work that has often a very good effect. The old 
 specimens are very beautiful ; but the modern revival is not always 
 happy, partly because the thread used is too smooth and tightly 
 twisted, making the work too regular and machine-like ; partly 
 because the patterns are too elaborate, and the threads are too 
 much tied, instead of being left partly loose and showing their real 
 nature ; and the easy, natural look, which is the great charm of the 
 work, is thus lost. By avoiding these faults, and remembering the 
 character of the work as a finish and fringe rather than a lace, very 
 good edges and borders may be made. 
 
66 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 Perhaps the most beautiful work and the best art production 
 of all these laces is point-coupd, or cut work, erroneously called 
 Greek lace. It is made on a foundation of linen, of which' some of 
 the threads are cut away and the remainder worked .over, making 
 regular square spaces. A severe ground plan, as it may be called, 
 is thus laid down, and the pattern, however rich and varied, is 
 subdued and confined by guiding lines, and may be made to form 
 stars, circles, crosses, or cobwebs of a geometrical character. As 
 the limits imposed by the manner of working cannot be passed, 
 this work is never seen in a bad style, even when the severe right 
 angles of the foundation are partly overcome, and the scollops and 
 Vandykes that were once only the edge of the straight border are 
 enlarged and developed until they form the principal part of the 
 work ; the geometric character is preserved, and the work, which 
 by its first conditions restrains while it exercises the fancy and skill 
 of the worker, is still beautiful and excellent. 
 
 Cut work is very durable, and old examples of it are numerous ; 
 it was a great favourite with the painters of the 17th century, 
 and is found in every portrait, forming the turned-up cuffs of 
 the Vandyke dress, and edging the falling collars that displaced the 
 standing ruffs of the previous half-century. The finer kinds of this 
 work are very laborious, though labour is seldorn better spent ; for 
 furniture decoration it can hardly be too coarse, provided the 
 material be sufficiently durable to repay the trouble of the working. 
 Brown packing cloth for the foundation — which is entirely covered 
 — worked with brown thread, in a suitable pattern, with not more 
 detail than the thick threads can express clearly, will make a 
 beautiful border. This may be edged with a Macrame fringe 
 of the same thread as is used for the work, care being taken 
 
ON SOME KINDS OF LACE. 67 
 
 that the knotted pattern be quite simple and unobtrusive, so 
 as not to divide attention with the border, to which it is only 
 an adjunct. 
 
 For the borders at the ends of a white linen altar-cloth, this 
 lace should be worked on stout white linen with a thick soft white 
 linen thread ; this admits of a very rich pattern, and is admirably 
 suited to the purpose. The lace should be firmly finished off with 
 a flat hem of the foundation linen all round, making it complete 
 in itself. A fringe of linen thread should be sewn on, so that it 
 can be renewed. The cloth, of finer linen, should have a broad 
 open hem all round ; if crosses are added, they should be worked 
 in thick embroidery with fine linen thread. Then the cloth should 
 be washed twice over, and got up without starch. Last of all, the 
 cut-work borders should be sewn to the ends of the cloth 
 with an open stitch, which may be easily cut when the cloth 
 is washed, which it will require much more frequently than the 
 borders. 
 
 For the histories, dates, and other particulars of these laces, 
 the reader is referred to the works of Mrs. Bury-Palliser and Mrs. 
 Hailstone, which contain not only every information to be desired, 
 but also illustrations from which patterns can be worked or 
 adapted. 
 
 The materials for each kind of work mentioned in this chapter 
 are the same, i.e., linen cloth and linen thread of various degrees 
 of whiteness and fineness, the choice and matching of which require 
 some considerable skill and judgment, only to be gained by 
 experience. One hint only we can give, and that must not be 
 taken for an invariable rule — viz., patent and specially- made 
 materials should be avoided. Work is almost certain to be truer, 
 
68 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 easier, and more full of character if made of ordinary household 
 materials, than of articles made purposely for the " fancy trade." 
 Homespun linen and thread are, unfortunately for our purposes, 
 hardly to be met with now, and machine-made fabrics are only 
 too even and white ; but a better choice can be made at the linen- 
 draper's than at the fancy shop, if care is always taken that, whether 
 fine or coarse, each article be true and good of its kind. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON THE STUDY OF OLD NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 || HE interesting subject of the history of ancient needle- 
 work is far too wide to be entered upon here, but 
 as acquaintance with good models is essential to 
 fU the successful practice of this as of every other art, 
 we will give a few hints on what is best to study or to imitate. 
 
 We would not by any means be understood to insist that 
 because work is old it is. necessarily beautiful. Its beauty, like that 
 of modern work, will depend on its obedience to the laws of art, 
 though much of its peculiar charm lies in this obedience being 
 unconscious ; the workwoman or designer could have laid down no 
 rules for expressing a sense of beauty and proportion, but she has 
 succeeded nevertheless, perhaps rather the more, in putting them 
 into her work. Partly, no doubt, the work, if it be good, gains 
 its charm with age ; the colours soften and mellow ; the linen 
 takes a creamy tint ; the stitches fit into their places in the loving 
 companionship of years ; and the mystery of past generations — of 
 the busy fingers quiet now, of hopes faded or fulfilled, of stories 
 that must be ever untold — hangs about the fragments that we 
 tenderly handle and carefully preserve. 
 
 Much of the old needlework that has been handed down to 
 
7 o ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 us is not suitable for our imitation, though almost all is worthy 
 of study. Tapestry, for instance, may give many useful hints. 
 When the work is of sufficiently early date to be pure in style, the 
 flowers and stems of flowering plants are often very good, well 
 conventionalised and yet full of life. Flower-stems dividing the 
 figure subjects of old work are often particularly good, and are 
 worthy of notice in pictures, and in wood or stone carving, as well 
 as in needlework. But tapestry is not suitable for our imitation ; 
 it is too elaborate in the later specimens, and too archaic in the 
 early ones ; with our skill, knowledge, and appliances we can do 
 more, and to better purpose, for decorative effect in other ways. 
 
 Better models may be found in the freer work of the 17th 
 and 1 8th centuries, and in the early part of the present century. 
 All embroidery on linen grounds, whether in silks or worsteds, is 
 well worthy of attention. In this style are massive quilts of the 
 17th century, with bold flower patterns overlaying an elaborately 
 quilted ground, all done in silk, sometimes many coloured, and 
 sometimes in the beautiful pale gold colour of undyed silk. There 
 is also coarser work of the same century in crewel worsteds ; some 
 of these are very handsome and well designed, while others are 
 clumsy in design and gaudy in colour. Samplers are more to be 
 considered for their curious and quaint devices than as possessing 
 beauties worthy of imitation. It is sometimes well to remark their 
 extreme conventionalism, and a hint may thus be gleaned for use 
 in larger work. 
 
 The curtains and hangings of Queen Anne's time are of excellent 
 design, grave and well-considered. Here is no more quaintness, no 
 striving after the impossible, nor touching imperfection, rousing our 
 sympathy for the eager and fanciful workwoman of the earlier time. 
 
ON THE STUDY. OF OLD NEEDLEWORK. 71 
 
 All is polished, capable, well-regulated, the colour entirely within 
 bounds, the forms full of a courtly rather than a natural grace. The 
 flowers are not those of the forest and wild hedgerow, but of grave 
 parterres and stately Dutch gardens — noble sunflowers curling their 
 leaves within due bounds, tulips standing upright on sufficient 
 stems, stiff crown imperials and broad lilies, all marshalled in 
 well-balanced order and thoughtful arrangement. For large 
 pieces of work, such as coverlets and curtains, there cannot be 
 better models than these, always having regard to the intended 
 surroundings of our own work. 
 
 Lighter and more delicate fancies succeed these stately per- 
 formances ; the patterns grow smaller, the materials finer, the uses 
 more intimate and personal. Trailing patterns of honeysuckle, 
 jasmine, and sweet pea cover the finer linen in graceful trellis, or 
 are scattered over creamy satin in dainty bouquets and sprigs, of 
 which the best chintz patterns are imitations. Delicate satin-stitch 
 work is done on net — almost worthy of being ranked as lace ; and 
 embroidery on white muslin is brought to a rare perfection. Silk 
 is dyed in more tender shades ; velvet becomes too heavy for the 
 prevailing taste, and goes much out of fashion ; crewels are less 
 used, and silks more so ; while the linen becomes cambric, and satin 
 — the most beautiful material of all — is most frequently used for 
 a ground. 
 
 We can hardly study the needlework of the 18th century too 
 much ; but it must be as intelligent students, not as servile copyists 
 — not accepting as good everything of that date, for it is beauty, not 
 curious antiquity, that we seek. It is because the work of this 
 time is thoughtful and original that it is worthy of our earnest 
 attention ; but in blind admiration we are apt to miss these essential 
 
Ti ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 charms. It is well to remember the reason why English art-work 
 of this period is so good : it is because there was then so little 
 pacific intercourse with the French, from whom we have always 
 been too prone to copy ; our workmen were thrown upon their 
 own resources, and, consequently, there is in all the household and 
 decorative work of this age something more truly national and 
 more original than at any subsequent period. 
 
 Speaking of a living artist, Professor Sidney Colvin says : — 
 " For surroundings, for motive, for costume, he has been apt to 
 turn towards the England of the 18th century — as who would 
 not turn of such as care for simple refinement and reserve in 
 outward things, for a natural and demure inventiveness in the 
 accessories of life that is full of an inexpressible charm ? This is 
 not the place for an apology of that century, which its successor 
 has from many sides flouted and disowned with such blatant and 
 ignorant ingratitude ; besides, the instinct of artists has in our day 
 led more than one of them to do their part towards its rehabilita- 
 tion, at least on the side of its home look and garniture, and the 
 lovable circumstances with which it invested its ladyhood and 
 childhood — exquisite these, if ever they were exquisite on earth." * 
 Nowhere shall we find this delicate feeling, these lovable circum- 
 stances, more clearly and truly expressed than in the needlework 
 these ladies loved. 
 
 Continental work must be studied in the same way as our own. 
 The churches and museums of numberless foreign towns contain 
 pieces of needlework easily accessible and well worthy of attention. 
 As an instance, there are several interesting fragments in the Imperial 
 Museum at Nuremberg; one, the "Battle of the Frogs," a spirited 
 
 *" Portfolio," May, 1871. 
 
ON THE STUDY OF OLD NEEDLEWORK. n 
 
 work in white thread on blue linen, is from Portugal, and suggests 
 yet unknown treasures in that country. Italy is, in this as in other 
 arts, the great storehouse of examples ; the rich domestic life of the 
 free cities has produced the best specimens that remain to us of the 
 labours of former centuries in this peculiarly domestic art. In 
 Italy, the best and brightest silk for the needle, as well as the finest 
 textile fabrics, were produced ; but it is not so much the excellence 
 of the materials as the art knowledge and feeling it exhibits that 
 make Italian needlework so beautiful. But though this may be 
 the best, the productions of every country should be considered, 
 and there are few that do not produce something which may be 
 instructive. Attention should always be paid to patterns that appear 
 to be traditional, and used for the same purposes from generation 
 to generation. An instance of this is the highly-conventionalised 
 and very effective pot-and-flower pattern that the Cretan women 
 embroider in silk on their linen petticoats. 
 
 Oriental needlework has, until the last few years, been produced 
 under the same conditions as old English work ; that is, the styles 
 are of natural growth, and the work has been done for home uses 
 and under national influences — not to satisfy foreign tastes or to 
 supply a foreign market. 
 
 Indian, Chinese, and Japanese needlework is better for study 
 than for close imitation. The first is often very beautiful in the 
 colouring — no western race seems to have understood polychrome 
 so well ; we include Persian and Cashmere work, with the varied 
 products of Hindoo looms and needles, all that is kindred and 
 yet dissimilar coming under the term " Indian," taken in its 
 widest sense. To study this colouring with profit, we must only 
 take work done before the introduction of modern European dyes ; 
 
 K 
 
74 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 good patterns are now too often totally spoiled by the use of 
 English aniline-dyed silks ; and there are others, for the most part 
 good, where pieces of magenta-pink stand out like painful blots, 
 while older pieces in the same style are models of bright har- 
 monious colouring. Indian needlework done in gold and silver 
 is especially beautiful, and looks splendid without being gaudy. 
 We shall do well to notice that, when gold is used with varied 
 colours, it is as precious and well-applied as in the best 14th 
 century illuminations. 
 
 The beauties of Japanese needlework are, like those of other 
 art-work from that wonderful land, very far from being rightly 
 understood here by more than a few ; and though a wave of 
 fashion has swept numberless objects of Japanese art into this 
 country, their real merits are as yet but little appreciated. It must 
 be remembered that Japanese work, like our own, to be good, must 
 conform to the rules of art ; and also that, without knowing the 
 nature of the objects represented, we are apt to call objects strange 
 and barbarous which are often conventionalisms and symbols, 
 meaningless to us simply because we do not possess the key. 
 Here the caution against rash copying needs repetition. It is in 
 great measure to unintelligent imitation of the Japanese that we 
 owe some of the extraordinary productions of the last few years. 
 These show only one, and that one of the least important, of the 
 characteristics of good art — originality, and the only emotion they 
 excite in the beholder is the not very elevated one of amazement. 
 
 The best specimens of Japanese needlework are the cloths used 
 as covers for the presents given by persons paying visits of 
 ceremony ; these cloths are not given with the presents they cover, 
 but are family heirlooms, and good specimens are rarely seen in 
 
ON THE STUDY OF OLD NEEDLEWORK. 75 
 
 England. The white birds on a. black satin ground, so often met with, 
 are done for the English market ; they have many merits, but are 
 far inferior to the work done by the Japanese for their own honour 
 and delight. Some rare pieces we have seen lately were excellent 
 illustrations of the principles of colour recommended in Chapter 
 III. ; the grounds are satin, of the deep soft blue of a summer 
 night, and the leading colours of the embroidery are gold, pale 
 blue, and white. Another piece we will describe in detail, as it 
 gives a good idea of Japanese excellences of design and arrange- 
 ment. The ground is scarlet moreen ; of a . bright scarlet, yellow 
 enough to harmonise with the gold that forms the principal colour 
 in the embroidery. The subject is a long flight of storks, the 
 sacred bird — not less than eighty of them are flying upwards in 
 a zigzag line, the angles of which are very carefully studied, 
 from the bottom to the top of the picture. Most of these storks 
 are in white silk, the direction of the stitches giving much of 
 their form ; they are picked out with black, and there is a little 
 pale pink or pale yellow-green in their beaks and legs. A few of 
 them, perhaps one-fourth, are worked all in gold, representing the 
 birds in shadow, or seen against the light, and these have little or no 
 detail. Each bird is distinct, separately drawn, and having his own 
 expression, mode of flight, and position in the line. The rest of 
 the space is filled by horizontal bars of gold of varying widths, 
 and groups of fan-stitches also in gold ; these seem to indicate the 
 flat sunset clouds, and the tops of the distant trees passed over 
 by the storks in their flight. 
 
 We have specially described this piece of needlework because 
 it so truly conforms to the rules of the art, and exhibits the 
 greatest richness, delicacy, and elaboration within the strict limits 
 
7 6 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 of needlework. There is no shading, but the forms of the storks 
 are accurately expressed by the direction of the stitches as well as 
 by the colour. The detail is abundant where the storks are in 
 light, and is expressed by the varied and manageable silks. The 
 truth that colour and detail are lost when objects are seen against 
 the light is recognised in the treatment of the golden storks, which 
 are in fiat shapes of plain gold. Any attempt to give the varied 
 colours and shapes of the clouds would have interfered with the 
 effect of the storks, which are the motive of the whole, so their 
 horizontal character and varying widths are the truths chosen for 
 representation. So with the trees : a few fan-stitches just express 
 their multitude, their rounded lines against the sky, and the way 
 in which each tree springs from its own centre ; other details, such 
 as colour, shadow, variety, roundness, &c, are beyond the limits 
 of the needlework, and are wisely let alone. 
 
 In studying patterns and arrangements of colour for the sake of 
 our needlework, we. must not by any means confine ourselves to 
 needlework only; the productions of other arts will often be found 
 useful, especially Oriental arts. Most Eastern needlework is too 
 elaborate for imitation ; but when it is fully understood what is 
 and what is not suitable for our own work, many hints may be 
 gathered, and even whole patterns successfully adapted from carved 
 or inlaid work, from enamels, metal-work, or. from china. For 
 instance, the flower-drawing on Japanese hand-screens and fans is 
 an excellent study ; the flowers are simple, clear, and vividly 
 expressed in themselves, and also admirably adapted to the size 
 and shapes of the spaces they ornament. Good line patterns are 
 often to be found on the insides of china cups and basins. Indian 
 weapons, ornamented with damascened work, will give hints for 
 
ON THE STUDY OF OLD XEEDLE1V0RK. 77 
 
 conventional patterns in outline. Moorish metal-work has often 
 good incised line patterns, and so forth. In European art there 
 is not so much to be easily adapted to our purposes ; but in early- 
 Italian, Flemish, and German pictures — in wood-carving in low 
 relief, in incised metal-work, and other similar things, there is 
 nearly always something to be learned, provided that the objects 
 we study are good of their kind, and true to their own art. 
 
 Returning to the needlework of our own country, it seems 
 that, from the time that Indian and Chinese fabrics were brought 
 here, English taste has decayed ; the skill and patience of Eastern 
 workers seem to have stricken English ones with despair. Odd 
 imitations of Indian and Chinese pattern and colouring are found 
 in some manufactures — such as Lowestoft and old Worcester ware, 
 and Manchester printed cottons — falling far short of the models, it 
 is true, but showing a growing appreciation of their beauty. This, 
 together with the effect of renewed French influence, helped to 
 bring on the strange era in which everything was an imitation, 
 and nothing was original, natural, or spontaneous of its own kind ; 
 when the work of bygone centuries was ticketed and copied 
 without intelligence or taste — not enquired into, studied, or compre- 
 hended; a time in which every art was paralysed — in which old things 
 were not understood, and new things were mere imitations, barren 
 and lifeless. 
 
 Into the causes of this deadness and debasement we cannot 
 here enquire ; it was probably not so much a deadness as a 
 winter sleep before a new spring ; it is sufficient for the present 
 purpose to believe it to be over, and, laying a good foundation of 
 what is old, to build up that which is new, work not less true 
 than the old, but more spacious, wide and firm, above all, more 
 
 K2 
 
78 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 beautiful ; having always regard to the eternal laws that, by truth 
 and fitness, govern beauty. 
 
 We cannot expect our work to have the natural unconscious 
 grace of early art that was the spontaneous production of the taste 
 and skill of its time, and in which there was little intentional reference 
 to what had gone before or to what might be hereafter. Every 
 condition of art has undergone change ; the past is laid before us 
 as an open book, and we cannot choose but read in it ; the styles 
 of bygone centuries are known, named, and enquired into, and 
 are open to every student. 
 
 Surrounded by so many guides and models, it may well be 
 feared that any new excellence is impossible for us ; but, avoiding 
 on the one hand the imitation of that which is imperfect and 
 inappropriate, and on the other the struggle after originality that 
 ends in eccentricity, and availing ourselves of the knowledge, 
 skill, enlightenment, and improved appliances of the age, we may 
 yet produce good and tasteful work, not quite unworthy of the 
 high rank we claim for it in using the name Art Needlework. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE PLATES. 
 
 |ITH regard to the designs which form so important 
 a part of this work, it is necessary to state — as it has 
 I been found impossible to produce them in their full 
 I size and still to preserve a portable form — that while 
 some are drawn on a sufficiently large scale for working, others will 
 have to be enlarged, some more and some less, according to the nature 
 of the piece of work intended and the space to be filled. As any 
 attempt to represent stitches or texture would have had but an 
 unsatisfactory result, the designs are printed in flat tints merely, 
 and it will be found that any undue flatness and hardness will 
 disappear in the execution ; and the designs, if properly carried out 
 in needlework, will appear to far greater advantage than they now 
 do in colour-printing. In some of the designs for filled-in work, 
 a thin outline has been found necessary in order to define the forms, 
 but this is not intended to be reproduced in needlework. 
 
 Plate I. — Design for square footstool or cushion — strawberry blossom 
 and leaves. If used for a footstool, it should be worked in 
 crewels on cloth or serge ; if for a cushion, in silks on silk or 
 satin ; or it may be worked on woollen stuff partly in crewels 
 
So ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 and partly in silk. It will be seen that this design is adapted 
 to its purpose by looking equally well in any position, it being 
 impossible to be placed upside down. It may be enlarged to 
 any size required for either of the above-named purposes. Haif- 
 a-yard square is a good size for a cushion. The border at the 
 foot of the plate is intended for the sides of the footstool, and 
 would not be required for the cushion. 
 
 Plate II. — Contains two designs ; the upper one is intended for 
 the border of a table-cloth — primroses, wood-anemones, and ivy 
 —to be worked in crewels on cloth or serge ; the flowers may be 
 worked in silk. The design may be enlarged, if required. The 
 lower design is for a mantelpiece border — oranges and blossom — 
 which may be enlarged and continued to fit the required size, the 
 basket to come in the centre ; to be worked on cloth, serge, 
 or velvet, in silk or crewel according to taste. The former of 
 these two designs illustrates a somewhat naturalistic treatment, 
 while the latter is more formal and decorative. 
 
 Plate III. — Design for curtains, to be worked in two shades of 
 blue, in crewels on linen or Bolton sheeting. This design may 
 be worked in its present scale, or it may be enlarged if desired. 
 
 Plate IV. — Design for tidy or chair-back — chrysanthemum — to be 
 worked on linen in crewels and silk. It should be enlarged to 
 three or four times its present size. 
 
 Plate V. — The same design as that in Plate IV., but in different 
 colouring. 
 
THE PLATES. 81 
 
 Plate VI. — Design for a cushion — syringa — to be worked on cloth 
 or velvet in silk or crewels. The border, which is shown at the 
 top of the plate, is intended to be repeated at each of the four 
 sides ; and the small square, shown at the foot of the plate, 
 to be repeated at each of the four corners. The design may be 
 enlarged to any extent not exceeding four times its present size. 
 
 Plate VII. — Patterns of stitches for table-cloth, toilet-cloth, tidy, or 
 towels, with fringe at the foot — produced in any loosely-woven 
 material by drawing out warp or woof threads in definite 
 places, and twisting, looping, gathering up, or knotting the 
 loose threads that are left. 
 
 Plate VIII. — Contains two designs : (i) Border for table-cover — 
 wild clematis, or traveller's joy — to be worked on cloth or 
 serge ; the flowers in silk, and the rest in crewels. Full size. 
 (2) Design for a pocket or gibeci&re — speedwell — to be worked 
 in silks on velvet. 
 
 Plate IX. — Design for quilt, tidy, or chair-back. To be worked in 
 crewels on glass-cloth, in which the squares are already defined 
 and woven in colour, but the lines should be worked over. 
 
 Plate X. — Design for curtain — honeysuckle and bird (yellow- 
 hammer) — to be worked in crewels on linen, Bolton sheeting, 
 or serge, which latter may be of a full colour if desired, so that 
 it is harmonious. The bird should only be repeated half as 
 often as the rest of the pattern, which need not be enlarged, but 
 may be so if required. 
 
82 ART NEEDLEWORK. 
 
 Plate XIV. — Design for tea-table cloth. Silk, on linen. Pale blue 
 or pink may be used instead of yellow, if preferred. 
 
 Plate XV. — Design for piano decoration — the space in a cottage or 
 cabinet piano usually filled by silk and fret-work — to be worked 
 in silks on silk, satin, or velvet. One-half of the design only 
 is given, which will have to be enlarged to the required size, 
 and repeated, reversed, for the other half. 
 
 Plate XVI. — Design, chiefly outline, for curtains or portibre, to be 
 worked in silk or crewel on serge or cloth. It may be enlarged 
 to any size, and the colour varied if required. 
 
 Plate XVII. — Design for bed-hanging, curtain, or quilt, with border, 
 which, in a quilt, should be worked all round. Silk, on 
 unbleached linen or sheeting. Blue or red may be used 
 instead of yellow, if preferred. 
 
 Plate XVIII. — The same design reversed, white on colour. This 
 design may be enlarged to any size. 
 
 Plate XIX. — Border — periwinkle — which may be worked in silk or 
 crewels, for a cloth table-cover, or for the border of a curtain 
 or portikre. 
 
 Plate XI. — Outline design for tea-table cloth, to' be worked in silk 
 on linen ; yellow, pink, or any other colour of a delicate shade 
 may be used. The design does not require enlarging. 
 
THE PLATES. 83 
 
 Plate XII. — The same design reversed — light upon dark ground. 
 
 Plate XIII. — Design for footstool — daisies — to be worked in crewels 
 on serge or cloth ; the border is intended to go round the side 
 of the stool, and to be connected with the top by a cord or 
 piping. To be enlarged to two or three times its present size. 
 
 Marcus Wakd & Co., Royal Ulster Works, Belfast 
 
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 Th£ library is open every afternoon, except Sun- 
 day, from 2 until 5, and on Monday, Wednesday and 
 Saturday evenings from 7' to 9. 
 
 All books, except new fiction, may be kept three 
 'weeks, and a' fine of three cents a day will be charged 
 for over detention. New fiction may be kept one week, 
 and the fine will be two cents a day for over detention. 
 
 Borrowers may take two books at one time, pro- 
 vided that only one book of fiction is taken. 
 
 Books to be renewed must be returned to the library. 
 
 The owner of a card will be responsible for all 
 books, 'fines and- penalties recorded against it. 
 
 A person wishing to take books on another person's 
 card may be required to produce written permission to 
 that effect. 
 
 If a card is lost, five cents must be paid for a new one. 
 
 The librarian may refuse to change a book the 
 same day on which it is taken out and must withhold 
 the use of the library from all whose fines are unpaid. 
 
 Persons wilfully violating the rules of the library 
 may be deprived of its privileges at the discretion of 
 the Trustees. 
 
 Whoever wilfully, and maliciously, or without 
 cause, writes upon, injures, tears or destroys any 
 book, plate, picture, engraving or statue, belonging 
 to any Public Library, is punishable by State Law. 
 
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