But in close connection with the making of the Concordances must be mentioned the art of bookbinding, and embroidered covers for books, as well as embroidery for other purposes.
The Concordances are all bound in velvet or leather, and are nearly all stamped with designs in gold, on much the same plan. The stamps chiefly
used are fleurs-de-lis, acorns, sprigs of oak, etc., and the amount of ornamentation appears to depend upon the rank of the person for whom the book was intended, and also partly upon the date when the book was made, the earlier copies being much less elaborate than the later volumes.
It is also evident that books printed in the ordinary way were bound, or re-bound, at Gidding. One of the most remarkable of which there is any authentic account is a large folio Bible, printed by Barker, of London, in the year 1639. It now belongs to the Marquis of Bute, and, as a rule, is in his library at Cardiff; but he is most kind in allowing it to be exhibited, and it has recently been shown at Bath, and before that at Glasgow. The binding is of blue silk, elaborately decorated with designs in gilt and silver thread, and in the centre are the royal arms and initials C. R., which prove clearly enough for whom the work was originally done. A competent authority, one of the great professional connoisseurs, has declared the binding to be one of the most magnificent specimens with which he is acquainted.
It would ill-befit one of the ruder sex to attempt to write critically about the needlework of the maidens of Gidding, but we may sing their praises
for the skill, the industry, and the artistic results exhibited by this branch of their daily occupations.
The specimen most easily examined by any one wishing to do so, is a cover for a dressing-case in the South Kensington Museum; another similar piece of work was lent by a gentleman in London to an exhibition in Dublin a few years ago; he kindly supplied the information afterwards that he had been for many years a collector and admirer of the Gidding needlework, and had one or two Bible covers and some other pieces of their embroidery in his possession.
A gentleman at Brighton has also a small 32mo New Testament, printed by R. Barker, of London, a.d. 1640, which has a Gidding embroidered cover. The design is a simple floral pattern worked in fine close stitches on white silk, with a foundation of coarse canvas or holland, which was perhaps glued on to the original boards. He has also a portrait of Charles I. made in the same kind of stitch on a satin ground, but it is not certain whether this was worked at Gidding or not. A great deal of needlework of that date is wrongly attributed to the Miss Collets.
An altar cloth, shown at Dublin in 1888, was also stated to be their work, and it is extremely
probable that they would have done such things, for it is mentioned “that they were expert with their needles, and made them serve the altar and the poor.”