[ELEVENTH LESSON.]
DIAPER-WORK—STAMPED DIAPER-PATTERNS—CUTTING DIAPERS.
That which is called diaper-work is where the ground consists of one generally small pattern frequently repeated at regular intervals. It is so called from the well-known diaper or figured linen cloth, from the Old French diapré, meaning the same, from the verb diapréz, to diaper, or “diversifie with flourishings” (Cotgrave). The verb, according to Skeat, is from the Old French diaspre, later jasper, a stone much used for ornamental jewellery. Italian, diaspro, a jasper. “Diaper, to decorate with a variety of colours, or to embroider on a rich ground” (Anglo-Norman). “There was a rich figured cloth so called” (Strutt, ii. 6), as “also a kind of printed linen” (Halliwell). The latter are still common. It is, however, most probable that the word really comes, as Fairholt asserts, from Ypres, i.e., d’Ypres, which was famous for such work. Some writers apply the term to merely dotting, indenting, or roughening a ground, but it is properly applicable to small figures.
Stamped Diaper Patterns. These may be produced firstly and most readily by means of wood, stamped or punched, Fig. [23] and [27], and a hammer or mallet. Practise with these first on waste wood. It is not at first easy to repeat them at perfectly regular intervals, making one the same as the other. The work is greatly facilitated by drawing lines like a chequer or chess-board on the ground, and making a stamp or diaper in every dot, or all along the lines. Punches for this purpose may be had in great variety. This class of stamped work is very effective for narrow edgings and borders, and on fillets, which would otherwise be tedious and difficult to carve. With but little practice this work can be executed with great rapidity.