Chats on Old Lace and Needlework Part 18

XIII

EMBROIDERY IN "COSTUME"

Early Greek garments--Biblical references to embroidery--Ecclesiastical garments--Eighteenth-century dresses, coats, and waistcoats--Muslin embroideries.

The subject of Costume has been most admirably treated in another volume of this series, but a reference must be made to it as affecting our topic, English Embroidery, as costume has played no little part in its history.

From the earliest ages embroidery has been used to decorate garments.

The ancient Greeks embroidered the hems of their graceful draperies in the well-known Greek fret and other designs so invariably seen on the old Greek vases. The legend that Minerva herself taught the Greeks the art of embroidery ill.u.s.trates how deeply the art was understood; and the pretty story told by an old botanist of how the foxglove came by its name and its curious bell-like flowers is worth repeating. In the old Greek days, when G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses were regarded as having the attributes of humanity in addition to those of deities, Juno was one day amusing herself with making tapestry, and, after the manner of the people, put a thimble on her finger. Jupiter, "playing the rogue with her," took her thimble and threw it away, and down it dropped to the earth. The G.o.ddess was very wroth, and in order to pacify her Jupiter turned the thimble into a flower, which now is known as Digitalis, or finger-stole.

This little fairy tale can scarcely be taken as proof conclusive of the existence of either needle tapestry or thimble use, but its telling may amuse the reader.

In all ancient histories we find continuous references to the embroidered garment worn by its people. It was well recognised that no material was sufficiently beautiful not to be further embellished with rich embroideries. In the Psalms we find that "Pharaoh's daughter shall be brought to the king in a raiment of needlework," and that "her clothing is of wrought gold."

Phrygia was above all the country most noted for embroideries of gold, and for many years the name "Phrygian embroidery" was sufficient to describe any highly decorated specimen. It is said that the name of the vestment or tr.i.m.m.i.n.g, the "orphry" is derived from the word "Auri-phrygium," meaning "gold of Phrygian embroidery."

The Phrygians are credited with having taught the Egyptians the art, while the Hebrews, while sojourning in the land of Egypt, learned the art from their captors, and carried it with them all through their journeys to the Promised Land, and their final settlement in Palestine.

The mention of gold and purple embroideries, both as garments and hangings, is conspicuous throughout all Bible history. The Egyptian and Greek arts are in almost all respects concurrent. The Phoenicians carried examples of each country's work from one to another. After the conquest of Greece the Romans absorbed her art, and developed it in their own special style. They in turn carried their arts and crafts to Gaul and Britain, and by degrees needlecraft permeated the whole of Europe.

Dealing with the embroidered costumes of our own country, the ancient records, illuminated Missals, and other contemporary data show that very sumptuous were both the ecclesiastical and lay garments. Heavy gold embroideries were worked on the hems of skirts and mantles. The Kings'

coronation robes and mantles were beautiful specimens of handicraft, often after a king's death being given to the churches for vestments.

From Anglo-Saxon to Norman times extensive use was made of the work of the needle for clothing, but after the Conquest till quite late in the Tudor period little has been found to throw light upon the use of embroidery for the lay dress of the time. All woman's taste and energy seem to have been devoted to make monumental embroideries for church use.

It was, indeed, not until the gorgeous period of Henry VIII. that embroidery, as distinct from garment-making, appeared; and then everything became an object worthy of decoration. Much fine st.i.tchery was put into the fine white undergarments of that time, and the overdresses of both men and women became stiff with gold thread and jewels. Much use was made of slashing and quilting, the point of junction being dotted with pearls and precious stones. n.o.ble ladies wore dresses heavily and richly embroidered with gold, and the train was so weighty that train-bearers were pressed into service. In the old paintings the horses belonging to kings and n.o.bles wear trappings of heavily embroidered gold. Even the hounds who are frequently represented with their masters have collars ma.s.sively decorated with gold bullion.

The skirts of the ladies of this time were thickly encrusted with jewels, folds of silk being crossed in a kind of lattice-work, each crossing being fixed with a pearl or jewel, and a similar precious stone being inserted in the square formed by the trellis. The long stomachers were one gleaming ma.s.s of jewelled embroidery, the tiny caps or headdresses being likewise heavily studded with gems.

During the reign of Charles I. a much daintier style of dress appeared.

Velvet and silken suits were worn by the men, handsomely but appropriately trimmed with the fine "punto in aria" or Reticella laces of Venice; and in this and the three succeeding reigns dress was of sumptuous velvets, satins, and heavy silks, unembroidered, but trimmed, and in Charles II.'s time _loaded_ with costly laces. It will be noted that whenever lace is in the ascendant, embroidery suffers, as is quite natural. Lace itself is sufficient adornment for fine raiment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by E. Gray, Bayswater._

MRS. TICKELL AND HER SISTER, MRS. SHERIDAN, BY GAINSBOROUGH, SHOWING HOW LACE WAS SUPERSEDED BY FILMY MUSLINS.

(_Dulwich Gallery._)]

As the use of the fine Venetian and Flemish and French laces declined, and tuckers and frillings of Mechlin, Valenciennes, and Point d'Angleterre appeared, the use of embroidery a.s.serted itself, and the pretty satins and daintily coloured silks of William and Mary, Queen Anne, and more specially the earlier Georges, began to be embroidered in a specially delicate fashion. Fine floss silk was used in soft colourings, and whole surfaces were covered with tiny embroidered sprays of natural-coloured flowers. Really exquisite st.i.tchery was put into the graceful honeysuckle, the pansy, carnation, and rose cl.u.s.ters which decorated the dresses. The bodices, sacques, and skirts of the early eighteenth-century ladies were embroidered with real artistic taste and feeling. Some of the old dresses kept at South Kensington show the exquisite specimens of this cla.s.s of needlework; while the coats and waistcoats of the sterner s.e.x are not a whit behind the feminine garments in beauty. The long waistcoats were most frequently made of cream, pale blue, or white silk or satin, delightfully embroidered with tiny sprays of blossoms, and fastened with fine old paste b.u.t.tons; while the coat, frequently of brocade, was heavily embroidered down the front with three or four inches of solid embroidery of foliage and flowers, oftentimes mixed with gold and silver threads. The tiny cravat of Mechlin, cuff ruffles, knee breeches, silken hose, and buckled shoes, along with the powdered hair, complete a costume that has never been equalled, either before or afterwards, in beauty, grace, and elegance.

During the William IV. and the long Victorian period, with the exception of a very fine embroidery on muslin, in the earlier part of it, nothing but fine st.i.tchery for the use of underwear was made, if we except the hundreds and thousands of yards of cut and b.u.t.tonholed linen which seemed to have been the solace and delight of our grandmothers when they allowed themselves to be torn away from their beloved Berlin-wool work.

To sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam appears to have been the amus.e.m.e.nt of the properly const.i.tuted women of the early and mid-nineteenth century.

XIV

SALE PRICES

XIV

SALE PRICES

Ancient embroideries so seldom come into the salerooms that it is rarely an opportunity occurs for obtaining market prices, therefore Lady Wolseley's sale on July 12, 1906, must be accepted as a standard.

Immense prices are asked at the antique shops, the dealers apparently basing their prices on this sale by auction and _doubling_ them. I have visited every shop in the trade in search of prices for this book before procuring the auctioneer's catalogue, and was aghast at the terrific sums asked for oftentimes indifferent specimens in comparison to what was paid in the auction-room. During the past year anything from 15 15s. to 40 has been paid at Christie's for specimens of varying degrees of perfection of work and condition. The latter state is even of greater importance than the first, as no matter how good the work originally, if discoloured and frayed, prices go down and down. Nearly all the finest specimens of the Stump-work period are marred by the tarnishing of the gold and silver threads. Instead of these being a glory and a great enhancement to the embroidery, they prove a great disfigurement, and thereby cause a considerable reduction in value.

The earlier pet.i.t point pictures, having little or no bullion in their execution (and when cared for and not exposed to too much sunlight), have kept their condition very well, and now are quite the favourite kind for collection. It speaks much for the quality of the silks used and the dyes of nearly three hundred years ago that the fugitive greens and blues and delicate roses in these little works of art, as in the superb tapestries of the same date, should be as fine as when made, whereas to-day's colours are as fleeting as the glories of the rainbow.

The following are the princ.i.p.al prices in Lady Wolseley's sale:

s. d.

A small bag, red and gold brocade 2 15 0

A small bag or purse 5 0 0

A fine bead book-cover 6 0 0

Same, trimmed with silver lace (Harris) 6 16 0

A pair of embroidered shoes (Harris) 6 0 0

A small pocket-book, silk embroidery on silver ground 8 17 6

A pair of Stuart shoes 9 19 6

A stumpwork picture, a most curious globe, showing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, 1648 (S. G. Fenton) 24 0 0

A double book of Psalms, embroidered binding with Tudor rose 23 10 0

A pet.i.t point picture, 12-1/2 9-1/2 11 11 0

A small picture, partly sketched and partly worked 4 14 6

A Stuart stump picture, 18 15-1/2 18 18 0

A Stuart stump picture, King under canopy, 17-1/2 14 14 14 6

A Stuart bullion picture, vase, in tortoisesh.e.l.l frame, 23 18 8 8 0

Same, with Herodias's daughter and John the Baptist 5 5 0