Creative redwork embroidery designs

Copies of oil-paintings in wool-work, such as were produced by Miss Mary Linwood (b. 1755, d. 1845) an d Miss Knowles (b. 1733, d. 1807), "the Quaker, that works the sutile pictures," * represent the climax of this mis- taken art. A single illustration (Plate 60) exemplifies the extent to which embroidery was used for the decoration of costume in the eighteenth century. It is a gentleman's coat, of the latter half of the century, worked in floss silks of several colours. Of the nineteenth century we must say very little. Taste during the earlier part of the century was not good. Since then a revival has set in. Excellent results have already been attained, and there is good promise for the future.

Maps of the world, of conti- nents, or of our own country, often bear dates as far back as the later years of the eighteenth century. The popularity of the sampler appears to have greatly declined after the first two or three decades of the nineteenth century. One sampler* of the earlier part of that century may be described. Besides the customary house, with trees, animals, and birds, it has the quaintly designed figure of a man in a red coat perhaps an army pen- sioner. The little embroideress has supplied the means of identification by working the following inscription above the figure : " This is my Dear father."

Mary Wakeling's sampler, dated 1742, bears some doggerel lines, the theme being that "poor wretched life's short portion flies away." Ann Woodgate, in 1794, after de- scribing the inevitable withering of flowers, concludes that " Such and so withering are our early joys, Which time or sickness speedily destroys." The quotations are sometimes more hap- pily chosen. Extracts from hymns and from metrical versions of the Psalms are met with, besides the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Com- mandments, the Creed, and quotations from different books of the Bible.

The panels are generally made in shapes to fit the backs, seats, and sides of settees and chairs, and there are sometimes also square pieces for cushions. The work is usually in wools, with silks for the high lights, on coarse linen or canvas. The favourite designs are land- scapes, with shepherds and shepherdesses or other figures. Sometimes the armorial bear- ings of the family are represented, and occa- sionally a vase of flowers or some such ornament takes the principal place. It is not unusual to find on these panels the name of the worker and the date. An embroidery in the Victoria and Albert Museum (No. 269, 1893, see Plate 59) represents a vase of flowers in colours, the ground being covered all over with a diaper pattern in cream- white silk. Underneath the basket is worked the name ELIZABETH RVSSELL, with the date 1730. This panel may have been intended for a cushion-cover.

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 Pla...

Even embroideries did not escape the influence of the Celestial empire. Gay birds, with tails resembling flames, like the mythical Chinese phoenix, fly amid flowers designed on Chinese models. This influence gradually died out as the eighteenth century advanced. The most noticeable change is the increasing tendency to produce a de- ceptive resemblance to nature there is less of design and more of direct imitation. Flowers are shaded to have the appearance of relief, and embroidery encroaches on the province of the painted picture.

From this ground at regu- lar intervals rise large trees whose trunks generally assume a serpentine form. The flowers of various kinds and large leaves growing from the trunks are designed with great boldness. Birds are frequently scat- tered among the branches, which intertwine so as to cover the whole upper part of the hanging. It is probable that none of these hangings are earlier than the middle of the seventeenth century, and the greater part belong to the latter half of that century.* They are sometimes in sombre colours, green being predominant. Occasionally a piece is found worked entirely in shades of red. In the later years of the century, large numbers of embroideries were produced in England chiefly small panels and articles of costume worked only in yellow silk. The designs are usually floral, the linen ground being quilted in small diaper patterns. A ground quilted in this way is sometimes worked with sprays of flowers in bright colours.