Church Needlework: A manual of practical instruction

by Hinda M. Hands

Sketch showing spacing of Canopy-work—typical English thirteenth-century Cope of St. Sylvester. Each of the larger spaces is filled with groups of figures illustrating the Life of Christ, smaller ones with Angels, the medallions with birds.

A very favourite arrangement of design in the old English work was to divide the whole surface of the cope into a series of quatrefoils, like the ‘Syon cope,’ or of canopy-work, as shown by the cope of ‘St. Sylvester,’ enclosing groups of figures illustrating the life of Christ, the intermediate spaces being filled with cherubim and angels. The lowest central space was often occupied by the Annunciation or the Nativity; the middle one usually by the Crucifixion, and the upper one by the Lord in Glory. This arrangement left very little room for a hood; indeed, at this period they are generally so small as not to require much consideration, being often merely a triangular enlargement of the orphrey at the centre. When the fashions changed (which they seemed to do definitely, if slowly), our forefathers did not exercise so much judgment as we might expect in adapting their priceless inheritance of needlework, but hacked away at one part and joined on at another, quite regardless of the mutilation it involved. Even in the Syon cope the orphreys, which are supposed to have been added only about fifty years later than the body of the cope, cut off half of the figures of the angels nearest to the edge. The ‘Daroca’ cope at Madrid, which is worked in the same style and of very similar design, has its original narrow orphrey, and the angels are designed to fit into their spaces, but the large hood seems to have been an after-thought, and a border and fringe have been ruthlessly struck through the figures of four angels enclosing the upper central group which completed the design.

In many of the later ones the hood and orphreys became the principal features of the cope, and all the decoration was concentrated upon them. Both hood and orphrey are worked separately (unless the former be a quasi-hood joined in with the orphrey, or marked out merely on the back of the cope). The orphrey is applied to the cope in a long embroidery frame, before making it up. The hood is not usually so applied, but made up by itself, lined and fringed; and fastened, by means of loops sewn on its upper edge, to buttons placed to correspond on the orphrey (either below or over it).

The cope and its lining, of silk or linen, should be cut out exactly alike, allowing at least half an inch for ‘turnings’ all round (see A on diagram). Tiny snippets should be cut out of these ‘turnings’ along the curved edge (B on diagram), then outside and lining should have their edges turned up and tacked separately, then again tacked together, first down the middle, then along the straight edge, and lastly round the curve, in each case starting from the centre. It is then ready to be slip-stitched together—again beginning at the centre, both for straight and curved edges.

Mitre of St. Thomas of Canterbury

The cope is fastened in front with a large clasp or brooch, called the morse. This may be made of metal enriched with precious stones, in which case it is work for the artist-goldsmith. Or it may be of material richly embroidered, with or without jewels; a good size for a morse is from 6 to 8 inches long by 3 inches wide. Some of those worn by bishops at King Edward VII.’s coronation were 12 inches long.

It should be fastened firmly on the right side of the garment about 12 inches from the centre, and may have three or four large strong ‘eyes’ sewn on the other edge in which the hooks will fit, which are to be fixed securely on the corresponding spot on the left side of the cope.

Both the hood and the lower edge of the cope itself may be finished off with a border or a fringe, or both.

The Mitre—also part of the official dress of bishops and archbishops—is a linen cap of a nearly triangular form as seen from the front or back. The appearance of it is familiar to all (in a somewhat exaggerated form) in the armorial bearings of many Sees, and in pictures, &c., where towards the fifteenth century it grows taller and bigger, and more unbecoming as time goes on.