It is a linen coverlet, quilted with white
thread and embroidered with coloured silks.
One of the border compartments contains a
shield of arms with the initials E S and the
date 1703; in the others are such designs as
the following : a griffin, a lion, a horse, a
standing figure, a mermaid, a merman, a
castle, a three-masted ship, a camel, a hound,
rabbits, a duck and other birds, and fishes.
Worsted work for large coverlets and
hangings survives the seventeenth century,
but the designs are of a different character.
The cover partly reproduced in colour
(Plate D) belongs to the best type of the
earlier half of the century. In other
examples the stems are arranged in a less
ordered manner, and run over the whole field.
The use of silk for embroidery gradually
replaced that of worsteds, in the eighteenth
century, for these large pieces. There still
exist a great number worked in the former
material, sometimes on a linen ground, and at
other times on silk. The coverlet illustrated
in Plate 57 is on linen, the embroidery being
entirely in red and green silk. The honey-
suckle border is particularly effective. Some-
times gold thread was also used
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