Those patterns, after so many fashions, which we see figured upon the garments worn by men and women on Egyptian and Assyrian monuments, but especially on the burned-clay vases made and painted by the Greeks in their earliest as well as in later times, or which we read about in the writings of that people, were not wrought6 in the loom7, but worked by the needle.
The old Egyptian loom—and that of the Jews must have been like it—was, as we know from paintings, of the simplest shape, and seems to have been able to do little more diversified8 in design than straight lines in different colours; and at best nothing higher in execution than checker-work: beyond this, all was put in by hand with the needle. In Paris, at the Louvre, are several pieces of early Egyptian webs coloured, drawings of which have been published by Sir Gardner Wilkinson in his work ‘The Egyptians in the time of the Pharaohs.’ There are two pieces wrought up and down with needlework; the second piece of blue is figured all over in white embroidery with a pattern of netting, the meshes10 of which shut in irregular cubic shapes, and in the lines of the reticulation the mystic “fylfot” is seen. Sir J. G. Wilkinson says of them: “They are mostly cotton, and, though79 their date is uncertain, they suffice to show that the manufacture was Egyptian; and the many dresses painted on the monuments of the eighteenth dynasty show that the most varied11 patterns were used by the Egyptians more than 3000 years ago, as they were at a later period by the Babylonians, who became noted12 for their needlework.”
It is clear from the book of Exodus13 that the Israelites from very early times, having learnt the art in Egypt, embroidered14 their garments; although the word “embroidery” which occurs so frequently in every English version probably sometimes means merely weaving in stripes, and not work with the needle. The embroidering15 also of the sails of vessels16 was not uncommon17 in the east; boats used in sacred festivals on the Nile were so decorated; and the prophet Ezekiel says to the people of Tyre, “Fine linen with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest forth18 to be thy sail.” The reader will here also remember Shakspeare’s description of the barge19 of Cleopatra;
Burned on the water:
Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that
The winds were love-sick with them; she did lie
In her pavilion, cloth of gold, of tissue, etc.
Pliny says that the Phrygians invented embroidery, and that garments so ornamented21 were called Phrygionic. Of such a fashion were “the art-wrought vests of splendid purple tint” brought forth by Dido, and the cloak given by Andromache to Ascanius. Hence, an embroiderer22 was called in Latin “Phrygio,” and needlework “Phrygium” or “Phrygian” work. When the design, as often happened, was wrought in solid gold wire or golden thread, the embroidery so worked was named “auriphrygium.” From this term comes the old English word “orphrey.”
While Phrygia in general, Babylon in particular (as Pliny also tells us) became celebrated23 for the beauty of its embroideries24. All who have seen the sculptures in the British museum brought80 from Nineveh, and described and figured by Layard, must have remarked how lavishly25 the Assyrians adorned26 their robes with the needlework for which one of their greatest cities was so famous. Up to the first century of our era the reputation which Babylon had won for her textiles and needlework still lived. We know from Josephus, who had often been to worship at Jerusalem, that the veils of the Temple were Babylonian; and of the outer one that writer says: “there was a veil of equal largeness with the door. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue and fine linen, and scarlet27 and purple, and of a texture28 that was wonderful.”
What the Jews did for the Temple we may be sure was done by Christians29 for the Church. The faithful, however, went even further, and wore garments figured all over with sacred subjects in embroidery. We learn this from a stirring sermon preached by St. Asterius, bishop30 of Amasia in Pontus, in the fourth century. Taking for his text “a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen” he upbraids31 the world for its follies32 in dress, and complains that some people went about arrayed like painted walls, with beasts and flowers all over them; while others, pretending a more serious tone of thought, dressed in clothes depicting33 the doings and wonders of our Lord. “Strive,” St. Asterius exhorts34 them, “to follow in your lives the teachings of the Gospel, rather than have the miracles of our Redeemer embroidered upon your outward dress.” To have had so many subjects shown upon one garment it is clear that each must have been done very small, and wrought in outline; a style which is being brought back, with great effect, into modern ecclesiastical use.
The discriminating35 accuracy with which our old writers noted the several kinds of textile gifts bestowed36 upon a church is as instructive as praiseworthy. Ingulph did not think it enough to say that abbot Egelric had given many hangings to the church at Croyland, the great number of which were silken, but he explains81 also that some were ornamented with birds wrought in gold and sewed on; in fact, of cut-work; others with those birds woven into the stuff; others quite plain. We find the same care taken in old inventories37.
By the latter end of the thirteenth century embroidery obtained for its several styles and various sorts of ornamentation a distinguishing and technical nomenclature. One of the earliest documents in which we meet with this set of terms is the inventory38 drawn39 up, in 1295, of the vestments belonging to St. Paul’s cathedral, printed by Dugdale: herein, the “opus plumarium,” the “opus pectineum,” the “opus pulvinarium,” “consutum de serico,” “de serico consuto,” may be severally found.
“Opus plumarium” was the then usual term for what is now commonly called embroidery; and was given to needlework of this kind because the stitches were laid down longwise and not across: that is, so put together that they seemed to overlap40 one another like the feathers in the plumage of a bird. This style was aptly called “feather-stitch” work, in contradistinction to that done in cross and tent stitch, or the “cushion-style.”
The “opus pulvinarium,” or “cushion-style,” was like the modern so-called Berlin work. As now, so then it was done in the same stitching with pretty much the same materials and generally, if not always, put to the same purpose; for cushions, to sit or to kneel upon in church or to uphold the mass-book at the altar; hence its name of “cushion-style.” In working it silken thread is known to have been often used. Among other specimens42, and in silk, there is a beautiful cushion of a date corresponding to the London inventory at South Kensington, no. 1324. Being well adapted for working heraldry this stitch has been used from an early period for the purpose; and emblazoned orphreys, like the narrow hem4 on the Syon cope, were wrought in it.
The “opus pectineum” was a kind of woven work imitative of embroidery, and employed to supply it. John Garland, in his82 dictionary, explains that it was made by means of a comb, or some comb-like instrument: and from this the work itself received the distinctive43 appellation44 of “pectineum,” or comb-wrought. Before John Garland left England for France, to teach a school there, he must have often seen his countrywomen at such an occupation; and the amice given by Katherine Lovell to St. Paul’s, “de opere pectineo,” may perhaps have been the work of her own hands.
Women in the middle ages were so ready at the needle that they could make their embroidery look as if it had been done in the loom, really woven. A shred45 of crimson46 cendal figured in gold and silver thread with a knight47 on horseback, armed as of the latter time of Edward the first, was shown to us some time ago. At first sight the mounted warrior48 seemed to have been not hand-worked but woven; so flat, so even was every thread. Looking at it however through a glass and turning it about, we found it to have been embroidered by the finger in such a way that the stitches laid down upon the surface were carried through into the canvas lining49 at the back of the thin silk. In this same manner all the design, both before and behind, upon the fine English-wrought chasuble at South Kensington, no. 673, was probably worked.
At the latter end of the thirteenth century our countrywomen invented a new way of embroidery. Without giving up altogether the old “opus plumarium” or feather-stitch, they mixed it with a new style, both of needlework and mechanism50. So beautiful was the novel method deemed abroad that it won for itself the complimentary51 appellation of “opus Anglicum,” or English work. In what its peculiarity52 consisted has long been a question and a puzzle among foreign arch?ological writers; and a living one of eminence53, M. Voisin, noticing a cope of English work given to the church of Tournai, says: “Il serait curieux de savoir quelle broderie ou quel tissu on designait sous le nom de opus Anglicum.”
83 But if we examine that very fine piece of English needlework, the Syon cope, at South Kensington, no. 9182, we find that the first stitches for the human face were begun in the centre of the cheek, and worked in circular lines; falling (after the further side had been made) into straight lines, which were so carried on through the rest of the fleshes; in some instances, also, through the draperies. But this was done in a sort of chain-stitch, and a newly practised mechanical appliance was brought into use. After the whole figure had thus been wrought with this kind of chain-stitch in circles and straight lines, then with a little thin iron rod ending in a small bulb or smooth knob slightly heated, those middle spots in the faces that had been worked in circular lines were pressed down; and the deep wide dimples in the throat, especially of aged54 persons. By the hollows thus lastingly55 sunk a play of light and shadow is brought out, which at a short distance lends to the portion so treated the appearance of low relief. Chain-stitch, then, worked in circular lines and relief given to parts by hollows sunk into the faces and other portions of the persons, constitute the elements of the “opus Anglicum,” or embroidery after the English manner. How the chain-stitch was worked into circles for the faces, and straight lines for the rest of the figures, is well shown by a woodcut, after a portion of the Steeple Aston embroideries, given in the arch?ological journal, vol iv. p. 285.
Although not merely the faces and the extremities56 but the dresses also of the persons figured were generally wrought in chain-stitch, and afterwards treated as we have just described, another practice was to work the draperies in feather-stitch, which was also employed for the grounding, and diapered after a simple, zigzag57 design; as we find in the Syon cope.
Part of the orphrey of the Syon cope.
How highly English embroideries were at one period appreciated by foreigners may be gathered from the especial notice taken of them abroad; as we may find in continental58 documents. Matilda, queen of William the conqueror59, carried away from the84 abbey of Abingdon its richest vestments, and would not be put off with inferior ones. In his will A. D. 1360 cardinal60 Talairand, bishop of Albano, speaks of the English embroideries on a85 costly61 set of white vestments. A bishop of Tournai, in 1343, bequeathed to that cathedral an old English cope, as well as a beautiful corporal “of English work.” Among the copes reserved for prelates’ use in the chapel62 of Charles duke of Bourgogne, brother-in-law to John duke of Bedford, there was one of English work very elaborately fraught63 with many figures, as appears from this description of it: “une chappe de brodeure d’or, fa?on d’Engleterre, à plusieurs histoires de N.D. et anges et autres ymages, estans en laceures escriptes, garnie d’un orfroir d’icelle fa?on fait à apostres, desquelles les manteulx sont tous couvertes de perles, et leur diadesmes pourphiler de perles, estans en manière de tabernacles, faits de deux arbres, dont les tiges sont touts64 couvertes de perles, et à la dite chappe y a une bille des dites armes, garnie de perles comme la dessus dicte.”
While so coveted65 abroad, our English embroidery was highly prized and well paid for at home. We find in the Issue Rolls that Henry the third had a chasuble embroidered by Mabilia of Bury St. Edmund’s; and that Edward the second paid a hundred marks to Rose the wife of John de Bureford, a citizen and mercer of London, for a choir-cope of her embroidering, and which was to be sent to the Pope as an offering from the queen.
English embroidery afterwards lost its first high reputation. Through those years wasted with the wars of the Roses the work of the English needle was very poor, very coarse, and, so to say, ragged66; as, for instance, the chasuble at South Kensington, no. 4045. Nothing of the celebrated chain-stitch with dimpled faces in the figures can be found about it: every part is worked in the feather-stitch, slovenly67 put down. During the early part of the seventeenth century our embroiderers again struck out a new style, which consisted in throwing up the figures a good height above the grounding. Of this raised work there is a fine specimen41 in the fourth of the copes preserved in the chapter library at Durham. It is said to have been wrought for and given by Charles the first to that cathedral. This red silk vestment is well86 sprinkled with bodiless cherubic heads crowned with rays and borne up by wings; while upon the hood68 is David, holding in one hand the head of Goliah; the whole done in highly raised embroidery. Bibles of the large folio size, covered in rich silk or satin and embroidered with the royal arms done in bold raised-work, are still to be found in our libraries. More than one of these volumes is said to have been a gift from the king to a forefather69 of the present owner.
This style of raised embroidery remained in use for many years. Not only large Bibles but smaller volumes, especially prayer-books, had bindings enriched with it. Generally such examples are attributed, and in most cases wrongly, to the so-called nuns70 of Little Gidding. The same kind of work is sometimes found on the broad frames of old looking-glasses: setting forth perhaps, as in the specimen no. 892, the story of Ahasuerus and Esther, or a passage in some courtship carried on after the manners of Arcadia.
Few people at the present day have a just idea of the labour, the money, and the length of time often bestowed of old upon embroideries, which had been sketched71 as well as wrought by the hands of men, each in his own craft the ablest and most cunning of his time. In behalf of England plenty of evidence has been produced already: as a proof of the same labour elsewhere a remarkable72 passage may be quoted, given, in his life of Antonio Pollaiuolo, by Vasari: “For San Giovanni in Florence there were made certain very rich vestments after the design of this master, all of gold-wove velvet73 with pile upon pile (di broccato riccio sopra riccio), each woven of one entire piece and without seam, embroidered with the most subtile mastery of that art by Paolo da Verona, a man most eminent74 of his calling, and of incomparable ingenuity75. This work took twenty-six years for its completion, being wholly in close stitch (questi ricami fatti con9 punto serrato); but the excellent method of which is now all but lost, the custom being in these days to make the stitches much wider (il punteggiare87 piu largo), whereby the work is rendered less durable76 and much less pleasing to the eye.” These vestments may yet be seen framed and glazed77 in presses around the sacristy of San Giovanni. Antonio died in 1498. The magnificent cope before referred to, now at Stonyhurst, is of one seamless piece of gorgeous gold tissue figured with bold wide-spreading foliage78 in crimson velvet, pile upon pile, and dotted with small gold spots; probably it came from the same loom that threw off these famous San Giovanni vestments.
Embroidered Saddle-cloth of the sixteenth century.
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1
embroidery
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| n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品 | |
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linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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3
hemp
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| n.大麻；纤维 | |
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hem
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| n.贴边，镶边；vt.缝贴边；(in)包围，限制 | |
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5
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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6
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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7
loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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8
diversified
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| adj.多样化的，多种经营的v.使多样化，多样化( diversify的过去式和过去分词 )；进入新的商业领域 | |
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con
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| n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的 | |
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10
meshes
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| 网孔( mesh的名词复数 )； 网状物； 陷阱； 困境 | |
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11
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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12
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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13
exodus
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| v.大批离去，成群外出 | |
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14
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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15
embroidering
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| v.（在织物上）绣花( embroider的现在分词 )；刺绣；对…加以渲染（或修饰）；给…添枝加叶 | |
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16
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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17
uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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18
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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19
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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20
burnished
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| adj.抛光的，光亮的v.擦亮（金属等），磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 )；被擦亮，磨光 | |
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21
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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embroiderer
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| 刺绣工 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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24
embroideries
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| 刺绣( embroidery的名词复数 )； 刺绣品； 刺绣法 | |
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lavishly
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| adv.慷慨地，大方地 | |
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adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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27
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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28
texture
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| n.(织物)质地；(材料)构造；结构；肌理 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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30
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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31
upbraids
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| v.责备，申斥，谴责( upbraid的第三人称单数 ) | |
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32
follies
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| 罪恶，时事讽刺剧； 愚蠢，蠢笨，愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
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33
depicting
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| 描绘，描画( depict的现在分词 )； 描述 | |
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exhorts
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| n.劝勉者，告诫者，提倡者( exhort的名词复数 )v.劝告，劝说( exhort的第三人称单数 ) | |
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discriminating
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| a.有辨别能力的 | |
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bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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inventories
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| n.总结( inventory的名词复数 )；细账；存货清单（或财产目录）的编制 | |
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inventory
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| n.详细目录，存货清单 | |
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39
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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overlap
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| v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠 | |
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41
specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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43
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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shred
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| v.撕成碎片，变成碎片；n.碎布条，细片，些少 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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47
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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51
complimentary
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| adj.赠送的，免费的，赞美的，恭维的 | |
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peculiarity
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| n.独特性，特色；特殊的东西；怪癖 | |
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eminence
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| n.卓越，显赫；高地，高处；名家 | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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lastingly
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| [医]有残留性，持久地，耐久地 | |
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extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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zigzag
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| n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行 | |
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continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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cardinal
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| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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fraught
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| adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的 | |
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touts
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| n.招徕( tout的名词复数 )；（音乐会、体育比赛等的）卖高价票的人；侦查者；探听赛马的情报v.兜售( tout的第三人称单数 )；招揽；侦查；探听赛马情报 | |
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65
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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66
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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67
slovenly
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| adj.懒散的，不整齐的，邋遢的 | |
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68
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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69
forefather
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| n.祖先；前辈 | |
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70
nuns
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| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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71
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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72
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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73
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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74
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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75
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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76
durable
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| adj.持久的，耐久的 | |
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77
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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78
foliage
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| n.叶子，树叶，簇叶 | |
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