India has produced vast quantities of embroideries of varying excellence. The fine woollen shawls of Kashmir are widely famed; their first production is supposed to date back to a remote period. The somewhat gaudy effect of many Indian embroideries is at times intensified by the addition of beetles’ wings, tinsel or fragments of looking-glass. China is the original home of the silkworm, and the textile arts there reached an advanced stage at a date long before that of any equally skilful work in Europe. Embroideries worked there are generally in silk threads on a ground of the same material. Such work is largely used for various articles of costume, and for coverlets, screens, banners, chair-covers and table-hangings. The ornaments upon the robes especially are prescribed according to the rank of the wearer. The designs include elaborate landscapes with buildings and figures, dragons, birds, animals, symbolic devices, and especially flowers (Plate III. fig. 11). Dr Bushell states that the stuff to be embroidered is first stretched upon a frame, on pivots, and that pattern-books with woodcuts have been published for the workers’ guidance. A kind of embroidery exported in large quantities from Canton to Europe rivals painting in the variety and gradation of its colours, and in the smoothness and regularity of its surface.
Embroidery in Japan resembles in many ways that of China, the country which probably supplied its first models. As a general rule, Japanese work is more pictorial and fanciful than that of China, and the stitching is looser. It frequently happens that the brush has been used to add to the variety of the embroidered work, and in other cases the needle has been an accessory upon a fabric already ornamented with printing or painting. Japanese work is characterized generally by bold and broad treatment, and especial skill is shown in the representation of landscapes—figures, rocks, waterfalls, animals, birds, trees, flowers and clouds being each rendered by a few lines. More elaborate are the large temple hangings, the pattern being frequently thrown into relief, and completely covering the ground material.
Embroidery in Persia has been used to a great extent for the decoration of carpets, for prayer or for use at the bath (Plate V. fig. 17). Robes, hangings, curtains, tablecovers and portières are also embroidered. A preference is shown for floral patterns, but the Mahommedans of Persia had no scruples about introducing the forms of men and animals—the former engaged in hawking or hunting, or feasting in gardens. Panels embroidered with close diagonal bands of flowers were made into loose trousers for women, now obsolete. The embroidered shawls of Kerman are widely celebrated. Hangings and covers of cloth patchwork have been embroidered in many parts of Persia, more particularly at Resht and Ispahan.
In Turkestan, and especially at Bokhara, excellent embroideries have been, and are, produced, some patterns being of a bold floral type, and others conventionalized into hooked and serrated outlines. The work is most usually in bright-coloured silks, red predominating, on a linen material.
In North Africa the embroidery of Morocco and Algeria deserves notice; the former inclines more to geometrical forms and the latter to patterns of a floral character.
Plate V.
| Fig. 17.—LINEN PRAYER CARPET, QUILTED AND EMBROIDERED IN CHAIN STITCH WITH COLOURED SILKS, CHIEFLY WHITE, YELLOW, GREEN AND RED. |
| The border consists of a wide band set between two narrow ones, each with a waved continuous stem with blossoms in the wavings. Similar floral scrolling and leafy stem ornament fills the space beyond the pointed shape at the upper end, which is edged with acanthus leaf devices. The main ground below the niche or pointed shape is a blossoming plant, with balanced bunches of flowers between which are leaves, formally arranged in a pointed oval shape. Persian work, 18th century, 4 ft. 6 in. × 2 ft. 11 in. (Victoria and Albert Museum.) |
Plate VI.
| Fig. 18.—PART OF A SICILIAN COVERLET, OF THE END OF THE 14TH CENTURY. |
| It is of white linen, quilted and padded in wool so as to throw the design into relief. The scenes represented, taken from the Story of Tristan, with inscriptions in the Sicilian dialect, are as follows:—(1) Comu: Lu Amoroldu Fa Bandiri: Lu Osti: In Cornuualgia (How the Morold made the host to go to Cornwall); (2) Comu: Lu Rre: Languis: Cumanda: Chi Uaia: Lo Osti. Cornuaglia (How King Languis ordered that the host should go to Cornwall); (3) Comu: Lu Rre: Languis: Manda: Per Lu Trabutu in Cornualia (How King Languis sent to Cornwall for the tribute); (4) Comu: (li m) Issagieri: so Uinnti: Al Rre: Marcu: Per Lu Tributu Di Secti Anni (How the ambassadors are come to King Mark for the tribute of seven years); (5) Comu: Lu Amoroldu Uai: in Cornuualgia (How the Morold comes to Cornwall); (6) Comu: Lu Amoroldu: Fa Suldari: La Genti (How the Morold made the people pay); (7) Comu: T(ristainu): Dai: Lu Guantu Allu Amoroldu Dela Bactaglia (How Tristan gives the glove of battle to the Morold); (8) Comu: Lu Amoroldu: E Uinutu: in Cornuualgia: Cum XXXX Galei: (How the Morold is come to Cornwall with forty galleys); (9) Comu Tristainu Bucta: La Uarca: Arretu: Intu: Allu Maru (How Tristan struck his boat behind him into the sea); (10) Comu: Tristainu: Aspecta: Lu Amoroldu: Alla Isola Di Lu Maru: Sansa Uintura (How Tristan awaits the Morold on the isle Sanza Ventura in the sea); (11) Comu: Tristainu Feriu Lu Amorolldu in Testa (How Tristan wounded the Morold in the head); (12) Comu: Lu Inna (?) Delu Amoroldu: Aspecttaua Lu Patrunu (How the Morold’s page (?) awaited his master); (13) Comu Lu Amorodu Feriu: Tristainu A Tradimantu (How the Morold wounded Tristan by treachery); (14) ... Sita: In Airlandia ( ... in Ireland). |
Bibliography.—Lady Alford, Needlework as Art (London, 1886); Mrs M. Barber, Some Drawings of Ancient Embroidery (ib., 1880); P. Blanchet, Tissus antiques et du haut moyen-âge (Paris, 1897); F. Bock, Die Kleinodien des Heiligen Römischen Reiches Deutscher Nation (Vienna, 1864); M. Charles, Les Broderies et les dentelles (Paris, 1905); Mrs Christie, Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving (London, 1906); A.S. Cole, C.B., “Some Aspects of Ancient and Modern Embroidery” (Soc. of Arts Journal, liii., 1905, pp. 956-973); R. Cox, L’Art de décorer les tissus (Paris, Lyons, 1900); L.F. Day, Art in Needlework (London, 1900); A. Dolby, Church Embroidery (ib., 1867), and Church Vestments (ib., 1868); M. Dreger, Künstlerische Entwicklung der Weberei und Stickerei (Vienna, 1904); Madame I. Errera, Collection de broderies anciennes (Brussels, 1905); L. de Farcy, La Broderie (Paris, 1890); R. Forrer, Die Gräber und Textilfunde von Achmim-Panopolis (Strassburg, 1891); F.R. Fowke, The Bayeux Tapestry (London, 1898); Rev. C.H. Hartshorne, On English Medieval Embroidery (ib., 1848); M.B. Huish, Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries (ib., 1900); A.F. Kendrick, English Embroidery (ib., 1905); English Embroidery executed prior to the Middle of the 16th Century (Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, 1905, introduction by A.F. Kendrick); E. Lefebure, Embroideries and Lace, translated by A.S. Cole, C.B. (London, 1888); F. Marshall, Old English Embroidery (ib., 1894); E.M. Rogge, Moderne Kunst-Nadelarbeiten (Amsterdam, 1905); South Kensington Museum, Catalogue of Special Loan Exhibition of Decorative Art Needlework (1874); W.G.P. Townshend, Embroidery (London, 1899). For further examples of ecclesiastical embroidery see the articles [Chasuble], [Cope], [Dalmatic] and [Mitre].