The members received much employment for
ceremonial and festive occasions. By the
time of Charles I. the company seems to
have fallen upon evil days. A petition was
presented to that monarch in 1634 pleading
that " trade was then so much decayed and
grown out of use, that a greater part of the
company, for want of employment, were . . .
much impoverished." The company still
exists, but in common with most of the other
livery companies of London, it has gradually
become dissociated from the work for which
it was incorporated.*
* See Hazlitt's " Livery Companies of the City of
London." The company has lately given a stimulus to
the embroiderer's art by holding competitive exhibitions of
needlework and offering prizes (see The Art Workers'
Quarterly, vol. ii. p. 103.)
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