Going over to the embroidery side....
Dec. 23rd, 2008 01:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grnvixenSo, as some of my f-list know, I’ve been doing a lot of research on historic embroidery lately. I started a ‘commons’ book to keep track of things and it has been very handy but I have found a lot of resources online (including some LJ’s :) ), so I’ve decided to also use my LJ to try and keep track of some of this information. I know a lot of this will be of no interest to many on my f-list so when I have posts like that I will put them behind a cut so as not to clutter up your friends pages.
Speaking of……
When I remember waaay back in the early mists of time when I first started researching historic costume, and embroidery, the resources available now blow those early efforts away. I was lucky then to have had access to a pretty good local ILL but google can leave it in the dust. My favorite way to kill a lunch hour has become ‘treasure hunting’ on google for more examples of 16th century embroidery. I still appreciate the ILL, not everything is online, but there is so much more, not to mention pretty pictures!
I’ve always been interested in historic costume and embroidery, with embroidery now in the lead. What probably sparked this recent focus is the embroidered jacket project at the Plimoth Plantation. (blog can be found here ). I was able to work on the jacket last January(and again in September) and that experience kicked off the research on a project I have long wanted to do, but didn’t feel I had the skills; an embroidered 16th century nightcap. And not just any cap, one of the polychrome ones with all the layers, and goldwork and spangles, oh my :). After the hands-on experience with the jacket, I think I could stitch this now.
That first trip inspired me to start the research and I’ve been treasure hunting ever since. The original nightcap research has expanded to include coifs, forehead cloths and, to some degree, the embroidered jackets. There seems to be a lot of cross-over in design resources between these. I also suspect the same workshops worked some examples.
Being landlocked here in the US has been a little frustrating for some of this but I must say that, at least so far, I have encounter some very helpful staff at the museums I have emailed with questions. It was also a treat to see the two embroidered nightcaps at the MFA in Boston upclose and personal during the January trip to the plantation.
An example of a piece I am searching for is in this a book on embroidered book bindings. Plate 2, in Chapter One is described as
“As well as the embroidered bags, certain rectangular cloths variously ornamented, some richly, some plainly, were made and used for the protection of embroidered books, when being read. These, like the bags, only seem to have been used during the seventeenth century. A particularly fine example belongs to a New Testament bound in embroidered satin in 1640. It is of fine linen, measuring 16½ by 9¼ inches, and is beautifully embroidered in a floral design, with thick stalks of gold braid arranged in curves and bearing conventional flowers and leaves, all worked in needle-point lace with coloured silks in a wonderfully skilful manner.”
The plate is black and white but a couple of things struck me, in particular, the way the thistles and rose were embroidered, with multiple layers. There are several examples of extra layers (done with detached buttonhole stitch) on caps, coifs and jackets but, at least when I first saw this pic, I had only seen one other piece with multiple layers, done very very similar to this piece, at that was a nightcap at a museum in Edmundsbury. This had me taking a look at the ‘ornamental bag’ and the dimensions finally jumped out at me. Hmmm, they were very similar to extant coifs. I have a very strong suspicion that this piece at least started out as a coif. It may never have been finished, or was taken apart to make this bag but I’ll bet it originally was a coif.
The book indicates that the examples pictured were primarily from the Bodleian library in Oxford and the British Museum. The 1640 New Testament this embroidered piece is affiliated with is later indicated in being “at Oxford”. So far attempts to find the current location of this piece, and a better color photo, have failed.
I did find an absolutely gorgeous polychrome forehead cloth at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (http://www.famsf.org/ and enter 1995.24 in the search box at the top. Try the zoom function, the detail awesome). The embroidery is not as close a match as the nightcap but still very very similar. The curator I have corresponded with thinks this was a domestic-worked piece because of all the fiddly bits and she may be right, the insects in particular are each very unique. It does share several points with the other pieces though, including multi-layering on the thistle and rose motifs, the way the strawberries are speckled, and the stitch used for the goldwork ‘stem’. TWN identified this as up and down buttonhole, although I have yet to test/practice it.
Ok, that’s a start :).
Speaking of……
When I remember waaay back in the early mists of time when I first started researching historic costume, and embroidery, the resources available now blow those early efforts away. I was lucky then to have had access to a pretty good local ILL but google can leave it in the dust. My favorite way to kill a lunch hour has become ‘treasure hunting’ on google for more examples of 16th century embroidery. I still appreciate the ILL, not everything is online, but there is so much more, not to mention pretty pictures!
I’ve always been interested in historic costume and embroidery, with embroidery now in the lead. What probably sparked this recent focus is the embroidered jacket project at the Plimoth Plantation. (blog can be found here ). I was able to work on the jacket last January(and again in September) and that experience kicked off the research on a project I have long wanted to do, but didn’t feel I had the skills; an embroidered 16th century nightcap. And not just any cap, one of the polychrome ones with all the layers, and goldwork and spangles, oh my :). After the hands-on experience with the jacket, I think I could stitch this now.
That first trip inspired me to start the research and I’ve been treasure hunting ever since. The original nightcap research has expanded to include coifs, forehead cloths and, to some degree, the embroidered jackets. There seems to be a lot of cross-over in design resources between these. I also suspect the same workshops worked some examples.
Being landlocked here in the US has been a little frustrating for some of this but I must say that, at least so far, I have encounter some very helpful staff at the museums I have emailed with questions. It was also a treat to see the two embroidered nightcaps at the MFA in Boston upclose and personal during the January trip to the plantation.
An example of a piece I am searching for is in this a book on embroidered book bindings. Plate 2, in Chapter One is described as
“As well as the embroidered bags, certain rectangular cloths variously ornamented, some richly, some plainly, were made and used for the protection of embroidered books, when being read. These, like the bags, only seem to have been used during the seventeenth century. A particularly fine example belongs to a New Testament bound in embroidered satin in 1640. It is of fine linen, measuring 16½ by 9¼ inches, and is beautifully embroidered in a floral design, with thick stalks of gold braid arranged in curves and bearing conventional flowers and leaves, all worked in needle-point lace with coloured silks in a wonderfully skilful manner.”
The plate is black and white but a couple of things struck me, in particular, the way the thistles and rose were embroidered, with multiple layers. There are several examples of extra layers (done with detached buttonhole stitch) on caps, coifs and jackets but, at least when I first saw this pic, I had only seen one other piece with multiple layers, done very very similar to this piece, at that was a nightcap at a museum in Edmundsbury. This had me taking a look at the ‘ornamental bag’ and the dimensions finally jumped out at me. Hmmm, they were very similar to extant coifs. I have a very strong suspicion that this piece at least started out as a coif. It may never have been finished, or was taken apart to make this bag but I’ll bet it originally was a coif.
The book indicates that the examples pictured were primarily from the Bodleian library in Oxford and the British Museum. The 1640 New Testament this embroidered piece is affiliated with is later indicated in being “at Oxford”. So far attempts to find the current location of this piece, and a better color photo, have failed.
I did find an absolutely gorgeous polychrome forehead cloth at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco (http://www.famsf.org/ and enter 1995.24 in the search box at the top. Try the zoom function, the detail awesome). The embroidery is not as close a match as the nightcap but still very very similar. The curator I have corresponded with thinks this was a domestic-worked piece because of all the fiddly bits and she may be right, the insects in particular are each very unique. It does share several points with the other pieces though, including multi-layering on the thistle and rose motifs, the way the strawberries are speckled, and the stitch used for the goldwork ‘stem’. TWN identified this as up and down buttonhole, although I have yet to test/practice it.
Ok, that’s a start :).
