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diff --git a/17585-8.txt b/17585-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3978a13 --- /dev/null +++ b/17585-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3976 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of English Embroidered Bookbindings, by +Cyril James Humphries Davenport + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: English Embroidered Bookbindings + +Author: Cyril James Humphries Davenport + +Editor: Alfred Pollard + +Release Date: January 23, 2006 [EBook #17585] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH EMBROIDERED BOOKBINDINGS *** + + + + +Produced by K.D. Thornton, Bruce Albrecht, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +ENGLISH EMBROIDERED BOOKBINDINGS + +[Illustration: 19--Christopherson, Historia Ecclesiastica. Lovanii, +1569.] + + + + +EDITED BY +ALFRED POLLARD + +ENGLISH +EMBROIDERED +BOOKBINDINGS + +BY CYRIL DAVENPORT, F. S. A + +AUTHOR OF +'THE ENGLISH REGALIA' +ETC. + +LONDON +KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER +AND COMPANY, LIMITED + +1899 + +The English +Bookman's +Library +Edinburgh: T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty + + + + +CONTENTS AND LIST OF PLATES + + PAGE +GENERAL INTRODUCTION, ix +By Alfred W. Pollard. + +ENGLISH EMBROIDERED BINDINGS +By Cyril Davenport. + + +CHAPTER I.--Introductory, 1 + +PLATES. + 1. Embroidered Bag for Psalms. _London_, 1633, 17 + 2. Embroidered Cover for New Testament. _London_, 1640, 18 + + +CHAPTER II.--Books Bound in Canvas, 28 + +PLATES. + 3. The Felbrigge Psalter. 13th-century MS., 29 + 4. The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul. MS. by + the Princess Elizabeth. 1544, 32 + 5. Prayers of Queen Katherine Parr. MS. by the + Princess Elizabeth. 1545, 33 + 6. Christian Prayers. _London_, 1581, 37 + 7. Psalms and Common Praier. _London_, 1606, 38 + 8. Bible, etc. _London_, 1612, 39 + 9. Sermons by Samuel Ward. _London_, 1626-7, 41 +10. New Testament, etc. _London_, 1625-35, 42 +11. The Daily Exercise of a Christian. _London_, 1623, 44 +12. Bible. _London_, 1626, 45 +13. Bible, etc. _London_, 1642, 48 +14. Bible. _London_, 1648, 49 + + +CHAPTER III.--Books Bound in Velvet, 52 + +PLATES. +15. Très ample description de toute la terre Saincte, + etc. MS. 1540, 52 +16. Biblia. _Tiguri_, 1543, 54 +17. Il Petrarcha. _Venetia_, 1544, 55 +18. Queen Mary's Psalter. 14th century MS., 57 +19. Christopherson, Historia Ecclesiastica. _Lovanii_, 1569, + _Frontispiece_ +20. Christian Prayers. _London_, 1570, 59 +21. Parker, De antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ. _London_, 1572, 60 +22. The Epistles of St. Paul. _London_, 1578, 63 +23. Christian Prayers, etc. _London_, 1584, 65 +24. Orationis Dominicæ Explicatio, etc. _Genevæ_, 1583, 67 +25. Bible. _London_, 1583, 68 +26. The Commonplaces of Peter Martyr. _London_, 1583, 69 +27. Biblia. _Antverpiæ_, 1590, 70 +28. Udall, Sermons. _London_, 1596, 71 +29. Collection of Sixteenth-Century Tracts, 72 +30. Bacon, Opera. _Londini_, 1623, 75 +31. Bacon, Essays. 1625, 76 +32. Common Prayer. _London_, 1638, 77 +33. Bible. _Cambridge_, 1674, 78 + + +CHAPTER IV.--Books Bound in Satin, 80 + +PLATES. +34. Collection of Sixteenth-Century Tracts, 80 +35. New Testament in Greek. _Leyden_, 1576, 81 +36. Bible. _London_, 1619, 84 +37. Emblemes Chrestiens. MS. 1624, 85 +38. New Testament. _London_, 1625, 86 +39. New Testament and Psalms. _London_, 1630, 89 +40. Henshaw, Horæ Successivæ. _London_, 1632, 90 +41. Psalms. _London_, 1633, 91 +42. Psalms. _London_, 1635, 92 +43. Psalms. _London_, 1633, 94 +44. Bible. _London_, 1638, 96 +45. Psalms. _London_, 1639, 98 +46. The Way to True Happiness. _London_, 1639, 99 +47. New Testament. _London_, 1640, 101 +48. Psalms. _London_, 1641, 103 +49. Psalms. _London_, 1643, 105 +50. Psalms. _London_, 1643, 106 +51. Psalms. _London_, 1646, 108 +52. Bible. _London_, 1646, 109 + + + + +GENERAL INTRODUCTION + + +A new series of 'Books about Books,' exclusively English in its aims, +may seem to savour of the patriotism which, in matters of art and +historical research, is, with reason enough, often scoffed at as a +treacherous guide. No doubt in these pleasant studies patriotism acts as +a magnifying-glass, making us unduly exaggerate details. On the other +hand, it encourages us to try to discover them, and just at present this +encouragement seems to be needed. There are so many gaps in our +knowledge of the history of books in England that we can hardly claim +that our own dwelling is set in order, and yet many of our bookmen +appear more inclined to re-decorate their neighbours' houses than to do +work that still urgently needs to be done at home. The reasons for this +transference of energy are not far to seek. It is quite easy to be +struck with the inferiority of English books and their accessories, such +as bindings and illustrations, to those produced on the Continent. To +compare the books printed by Caxton with the best work of his German or +Italian contemporaries, to compare the books bound for Henry, Prince of +Wales, with those bound for the Kings of France, to try to find even a +dozen English books printed before 1640 with woodcuts (not imported +from abroad) of any real artistic merit--if any one is anxious to +reinforce his national modesty, here are three very efficacious methods +of doing it! On the other hand, English book-collectors have always been +cosmopolitan in their tastes, and without leaving England it is possible +to study to some effect, in public or private libraries, the finest +books of almost any foreign country. It is small wonder, therefore, that +our bookmen, when they have been minded to write on their hobbies, have +sought beauty and stateliness of work where they could most readily find +them, and that the labourers in the book-field of our own country are +not numerous. Touchstone's remark, 'a poor thing, but mine own,' might, +on the worst view of the case, have suggested greater diligence at home; +but on a wider view English book-work is by no means a 'poor thing.' Its +excellence at certain periods is as striking as its inferiority at +others, and it is a literal fact that there is no art or craft connected +with books in which England, at one time or another, has not held the +primacy in Europe. + +It would certainly be unreasonable to complain that printing with +movable types was not invented at a time better suited to our national +convenience. Yet the fact that the invention was made just in the middle +of the fifteenth century constituted a handicap by which the printing +trade in this country was for generations overweighted. At almost any +earlier period, more particularly from the beginning of the fourteenth +century to the first quarter of the fifteenth, England would have been +as well equipped as any foreign country to take its part in the race. +From the production of Queen Mary's Psalter at the earlier date to that +of the Sherborne Missal at the later, English manuscripts, if we may +judge from the scanty specimens which the evil days of Henry VIII. and +Edward VI. have left us, may vie in beauty of writing and decoration +with the finest examples of Continental art. If John Siferwas, instead +of William Caxton, had introduced printing into England, our English +incunabula would have taken a far higher place. But the sixty odd years +which separate the two men were absolutely disastrous to the English +book-trade. After her exhausting and futile struggle with France, England +was torn asunder by the wars of the Roses, and by the time these were +ended the school of illumination, so full of promise, and seemingly so +firmly established, had absolutely died out. When printing was introduced +England possessed no trained illuminators or skilful scribes such as in +other countries were forced to make the best of the new art in order not +to lose their living, nor were there any native wood-engravers ready to +illustrate the new books. I have never myself seen or heard of a 'Caxton' +in which an illuminator has painted a preliminary border or initial +letters; even the rubrication, where it exists, is usually a +disfigurement; while as for pictures, it has been unkindly said that +inquiry whence they were obtained is superfluous, since any boy with a +knife could have cut them as well. + +Making its start under these unfavourable conditions, the English +book-trade was exposed at once to the full competition of the +Continental presses, Richard III. expressly excluding it from +the protection which was given to other industries. Practically all +learned books of every sort, the great majority of our service-books, +most grammars for use in English schools, and even a few popular books +of the kind to which Caxton devoted himself, were produced abroad for +the English market and freely imported. Only those who mistake the +shadow for the substance will regret this free trade, to which we owe +the development of scholarship in England during the sixteenth century. +None the less, it was hard on a young industry, and though Pynson, +Wynkyn de Worde, the Faques, Berthelet, Wolfe, John Day, and others +produced fine books in England during the sixteenth century, the start +given to the Continental presses was too great, and before our printers +had fully caught up their competitors, they too were seized with the +carelessness and almost incredible bad taste which marks the books of +the first half of the seventeenth century in every country of Europe. + +Towards the close of the eighteenth century, as is well known, the +French thought sufficiently well of Baskerville's types to purchase a +fount after his death for the printing of an important edition of the +works of Voltaire. But the merits of Baskerville as a printer, never +very cordially admitted, are now more hotly disputed than ever; and if I +am asked at what period English printing has attained that occasional +primacy which I have claimed for our exponents of all the bookish arts, +I would boldly say that it possesses it at the present day. On the one +hand, the Kelmscott Press books, on their own lines, are the finest and +the most harmonious which have ever been produced; on the other, the +book-work turned out in the ordinary way of business by the five or six +leading printers of England and Scotland seems to me, both in technical +qualities and in excellence of taste, the finest in the world, and with +no rival worth mentioning, except in the work of one or two of the best +firms in the United States. Moreover, as far as I can learn, it is only +in Great Britain and America that the form of books is now the subject +of the ceaseless experiment and ingenuity which are the signs of a +period of artistic activity. + +As regards book-illustration the same claim may be put forward, though +with a little more hesitation. We have been taught lately, with +insistence, that 'the sixties' marked an epoch in English art, solely +from the black and white work in illustrated books. At that period our +book-pictures are said to have been the best in the world; unfortunately +our book-decoration, whether better or worse than that of other +countries, was almost unmitigatedly bad. In the last quarter of a +century our decorative work has improved in the most striking manner; +our illustrations, if judged merely for their pictorial qualities, have +not advanced. In the eyes of artists the sketches for book-work now +being produced in other countries are probably as good as our own. But +an illustration is not merely a picture, it is a picture to be placed +in a certain position in a printed book, and in due relation to the size +of the page and the character of the type. English book-illustrators by +no means always realise this distinction, yet there is on the whole a +greater feeling for these proprieties in English books than in those of +other countries, and this is an important point in estimating merits. +Another important point is that the rule of the 'tint' or 'half-tone' +block, with its inevitable accompaniment of loaded paper, ugly to the +eye and heavy in the hand, though it has seriously damaged English +illustrated work, has not yet gained the predominance it has in other +countries. Our best illustrated books are printed from line-blocks, and +there are even signs of a possible revival of artistic wood-engraving. + +In endeavouring to make good my assertion of what I have called the +occasional primacy of English book-work, I am not unaware of the danger +of trying, or seeming to try, to play the strains of 'Rule Britannia' on +my own poor penny whistle. As regards manuscripts, therefore, it is a +pleasure to be able to seek shelter behind the authority of Sir Edward +Maunde Thompson, whose words in this connection carry all the more +weight, because he has shown himself a severe critic of the claims +which have been put forward on behalf of several fine manuscripts to be +regarded as English. In the closing paragraphs of his monograph on +_English Illuminated Manuscripts_ he thus sums up the pretensions of the +English school:-- + + 'The freehand drawing of our artists under the Anglo-Saxon kings + was incomparably superior to the dead copies from Byzantine models + which were in favour abroad. The artistic instinct was not + destroyed, but rather strengthened, by the incoming of Norman + influence; and of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries there is + abundant material to show that English book-decoration was then at + least equal to that of neighbouring countries. For our art of the + early fourteenth century we claim a still higher position, and + contend that no other nation could at that time produce such + graceful drawing. Certainly inferior to this high standard of + drawing was the work of the latter part of that century; but still, + as we have seen, in the miniatures of this time we have examples of + a rising school of painting which bid fair to attain to a high + standard of excellence, and which only failed for political + causes.'[1] + +To this judicial pronouncement on the excellence of English manuscripts +on their decorative side, we may fairly add the fact that manuscripts of +literary importance begin at an earlier date in England than in any +other country, and that the Cotton MS. of _Beowulf_ and the +miscellanies which go by the names of the _Exeter Book_ and the +_Vercelli Book_ have no contemporary parallels in the rest of Europe. + +[Footnote 1: _English Illuminated Manuscripts._ By Sir Edward Maunde +Thompson, K. C. B. (Kegan Paul, 1895), pp. 66, 67.] + +When we turn from books, printed or in manuscript, to their possessors, +it is only just to begin with a compliment to our neighbours across the +Channel. No English bookman holds the unique position of Jean Grolier, +and 'les femmes bibliophiles' of England have been few and +undistinguished compared with those of France. Grolier, however, and his +fair imitators, as a rule, bought only the books of their own day, +giving them distinction by the handsome liveries which they made them +don. Our English collectors have more often been of the omnivorous type, +and though Lords Lumley and Arundel in the sixteenth century cannot, +even when their forces are joined, stand up against De Thou, in Sir +Robert Cotton, Harley, Thomas Rawlinson, Lord Spencer, Heber, Grenville, +and Sir Thomas Phillips (and the list might be doubled without much +relaxation of the standard), we have a succession of English collectors +to whom it would be difficult to produce foreign counterparts. Round +these _dii majores_ have clustered innumerable demigods of the +book-market, and certainly in no other country has collecting been as +widely diffused, and pursued with so much zest, as in England during +the present century. It is to be regretted that so few English +collectors have cared to leave their marks of ownership on the books +they have taken so much pleasure in bringing together. Michael Wodhull +was a model in this respect, for his book-stamp is one of the most +pleasing of English origin, and his autograph notes recording the prices +he paid for his treasures, and his assiduous collation of them, make +them doubly precious in the eyes of subsequent owners. Mr. Grenville +also had his book-stamp, though there is little joy to be won from it, +for it is unpleasing in itself, and is too often found spoiling a fine +old binding. Mr. Cracherode's stamp was as graceful as Wodhull's; but, +as a rule, our English collectors, though, as Mr. Fletcher is +discovering, many more of them than is generally known have possessed a +stamp, have not often troubled to use it, and their collections have +never obtained the reputation which they deserve, mainly for lack of +marks of ownership to keep them green in the memory of later possessors. +That this should be so in a country where book-plates have been so +common may at first seem surprising. But book-plates everywhere have +been used rather by the small collectors than the great ones, and the +regrettable peculiarity of our English bookmen is, not that they +despised this rather fugitive sign of possession, but that for the most +part they despised book-stamps as well. + +Of book-plates themselves I have no claim to speak; but for good taste +and grace of design the best English Jacobean and Chippendale specimens +seem to me the most pleasing of their kind, and certainly in our own day +the work of Mr. Sherborn has no rival, except in that of Mr. French, +who, in technique, would, I imagine, not refuse to call himself his +disciple. + +I have purposely left to the last the subject of Bindings, as this, +being more immediately cognate to Mr. Davenport's book, may fairly be +treated at rather greater length. If the French dictum 'la reliure est +un art tout français' is not without its historical justification, it is +at least possible to show that England has done much admirable work, and +that now and again, as in the other bookish arts, she has attained +preeminence. + +The first point which may fairly be made is that England is the only +country besides France in which the art has been consistently practised. +In Italy, binding, like printing, flourished for a little over half a +century with extraordinary vigour and grace, and then fell suddenly and +completely from its high estate. From 1465 to the death of Aldus the +books printed in Italy were the finest in the world; from the beginning +of the work of Aldus to about 1560 Italian bindings possess a freedom of +graceful design which even the superior technical skill quickly gained +by the French does not altogether outbalance. But just as after about +1520 a finely printed Italian book can hardly be met with, so after +1560, save for a brief period during which certain fan-shaped designs +attained prettiness, there have been no good Italian bindings. In +Germany, when in the fifteenth century, before the introduction of gold +tooling, there was a thriving school of binders working in the mediæval +manner, the Renaissance brought with it an absolute decline. Holland, +again, which in the fifteenth century had made a charming use of large +panel stamps, has since that period had only two binders of any +reputation, Magnus and Poncyn, of Amsterdam, who worked for the +Elzéviers and Louis XIV. Of Spanish bindings few fine specimens +have been unearthed, and these are all early. Only England can boast +that, like France, she has possessed one school of binders after +another, working with varying success from the earliest times down to +the present century, in which bookbinding all over Europe has suffered +from the servility with which the old designs, now for the first time +fully appreciated, have been copied and imitated. + +In this length of pedigree it must be noted that England far surpasses +even France herself. The magnificent illuminated manuscripts, the finest +of their age, which were produced at Winchester during the tenth +century, were no doubt bound in the jewelled metal covers of which the +rapacity of the sixteenth century has left hardly a single trace in this +country. But early in the twelfth century, if not before, the Winchester +bookmen turned their attention also to leather binding, and the school +of design which they started, spreading to Durham, London, and Oxford, +did not die out in England until it was ousted by the large panel stamps +introduced from France at the end of the fifteenth. The predominant +feature of these Winchester bindings (of which a fine example from the +library of William Morris recently sold for £180), and of their +successors, is the employment of small stamps, from half an inch to an +inch in size, sometimes circular, more often square or pear-shaped, and +containing figures, grotesques, or purely conventional designs. A +circle, or two half-circles, formed by the repetition of one stamp, +within one or more rectangles formed by others, is perhaps the commonest +scheme of decoration, but it is the characteristic of these bindings, as +of the finest in gold tooling, that by the repetition of a few small +patterns an endless variety of designs could be built up. The British +Museum possesses a few good examples of this stamp-work, but the finest +collections of them are in the Cathedral libraries at Durham and +Hereford. Any one, however, who is interested in this work can easily +acquaint himself with it by consulting the unique collection of rubbings +carefully taken by Mr. Weale and deposited in the National Art Library +at the South Kensington Museum. In these rubbings, as in no other way, +the history of English binding can be studied from the earliest +Winchester books to the charming Oxford bindings executed by Thomas +Hunt, the English partner of the Cologne printer, Rood, about 1481. + +During the first half of this period the English leather binders were +the finest in Europe; during the second, the Germans pressed them hard, +and when the large panel stamps, three or four inches square and more, +were introduced in Holland and France, the English adaptations of them +were distinctly inferior to the originals. The earliest English bindings +with gold tooling were, of course, also imitative. The use of gold +reached this country but slowly, as the first known English binding, in +which it occurs, is on a book printed in 1541, by which time the art had +been common in Italy for a generation. The English bindings found on +books bound for Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary I., all of which are +roughly assigned to Berthelet as the Royal binder, resemble the current +Italian designs of the day, with sufficient differences to make it +probable that they were produced by Englishmen. We know, however, +that until the close of the century there were occasional complaints +of the presence of foreign binders in London, and it is probable that +the Grolieresque bindings executed for Wotton were foreign rather than +English. Where, however, we find work on English books distinctly unlike +anything in France or Italy, it is reasonable to assign it to a native +school, and such a school seems to have grown up about 1570, in the +workshop of John Day, the helper of Archbishop Parker in so many of his +literary undertakings. These bindings attributed to Day, especially +those in which he worked with white leather on brown, although they have +none of the French delicacy of tooling, perhaps for this reason attack +the problem of decoration with a greater sense of the difference between +the styles suitable for a large book and a small than is always found in +France, where the greatest binders, such as Nicholas Eve and Le Gascon, +often covered large folios with endless repetitions of minute tools whose +full beauty can only be appreciated on duodecimos or octavos. The English +designs with a large centre ornament and corner-pieces are rich and +impressive, and we may fairly give Day and his fellows the palm for +originality and effectiveness among Elizabethan binders. In the next +reign the French use of the semé or powder, a single small stamp, of a +fleur-de-lys, a thistle, a crown, or the like, impressed in rows all over +the cover, was increasingly imitated in England, very unsuccessfully, +and, save for a few traces of the style of Day, the leather bindings of +the first third of the century deserve the worst epithets which +can be given them. + +Until, however, French fashions came into vogue after the Restoration, +English binders had never been content to regard leather as the sole +material in which they could work. Embroidered bindings had come early +into use in England, and a Psalter embroidered by Anne Felbrigge towards +the close of the fourteenth century is preserved at the British Museum, +and shown in one of Mr. Davenport's illustrations. In the sixteenth +century embroidered work was very popular with the Tudor princesses, +gold and silver thread and pearls being largely used, often with very +decorative effect. The simplest of these covers are also the best--but +great elaboration was often employed, and on a presentation copy of +Archbishop Parker's _De Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ_ we find a +clever but rather grotesque representation of a deer-paddock. Under the +Stuarts the lighter feather-stitch was preferred, and there seems to +have been a regular trade in embroidered Bibles and Prayer-books of +small size, sometimes with floral patterns, sometimes with portraits of +the King, or Scriptural scenes. A dealer's freak which compelled the +British Museum to buy a pair of elaborate gloves of the period rather +than lose a finely embroidered Psalter, with which they went, was +certainly a fortunate one, enabling us to realise that in hands thus +gloved these little bindings, always pretty, often really artistic, must +have looked exactly right, while their vivid colours must have been +admirably in harmony with the gay Cavalier dresses. + +Besides furnishing a ground for embroidery, velvet bindings were often +decorated, in England, with goldsmith work. One of the most beautiful +little bookcovers in existence is on a book of prayers, bound for Queen +Elizabeth in red velvet, with a centre and corner pieces delicately +enamelled on gold. Under the Stuarts, again, we frequently find similar +ornaments in engraved silver, and their charm is incontestable. + +Thus while for English bindings of this period in gilt leather we can +only claim that Berthelet's show some freedom in their adaptation of +Italian models, and Day's a more decided originality, we are entitled to +set side by side with this scanty record a host of charming bindings in +more feminine materials, which have no parallel in France, and certainly +deserve some recognition. After the Restoration, however, leather +quickly ousted its competitors, and a school of designers and gilders +arose in England, which, while taking its first inspiration from Le +Gascon, soon developed an individual style. In effectiveness, though not +in minute accuracy of execution, this may rank with the best in Europe. +We can trace the beginnings of this lighter and most graceful work as +early as the thirties, and it might be contended with a certain +plausibility that it began at the Universities. Certainly the two +earliest examples known to me--the copy of her _Statutes_ presented to +Charles I. by Oxford in 1634, and the Little Gidding _Harmony_ +of 1635, the tools employed in which have been shown by Mr. Davenport to +have been used also by Buck, of Cambridge--are two of the finest English +bindings in existence, and in both cases, despite the multiplicity of +the tiny tools employed, there is a unity and largeness of design which, +as I have ventured to hint, is not always found even in the best French +work. The chief English bindings after the Restoration, those associated +with the name of Samuel Mearne, the King's Binder, preserve this +character, though the attempt to break the formality of the rectangle by +the bulges at the side and the little penthouses at foot and head +(whence its name, the 'cottage' style) was not wholly successful. The +use of the labour-saving device of the 'roll,' in preference to +impressing each section of the pattern by hand, is another blot. +Nevertheless, it is almost impossible to find an English or Scotch +binding of this period which is less than charming, and the best of them +are admirable. At the beginning of the eighteenth century a new grace +was added by the inlaying of a leather of a second colour. These inlaid +English bindings are few in number (the British Museum has not a single +fine example), but those who know the specimens exhibited at the +Burlington Fine Arts Club, two of which are figured in its Catalogue, +will readily allow that their grace has never been surpassed. The fine +Harleian bindings let us down gently from this eminence, and then, after +a period of mere dulness, with the rise of Roger Payne we have again an +English school (for Payne's traditions were worthily followed by Charles +Lewis) which, by common consent, was the finest of its time. Payne's +originality is, perhaps, not quite so absolute as has been maintained, +for some of his tools were cut in the pattern of Mearne's, and it would +be possible to find suggestions for some of his schemes of arrangement +in earlier English work. If he borrowed, however, he borrowed from his +English predecessors, and he brought to his task an individuality and an +artistic instinct which cannot be denied. + +After Payne and Lewis, English binding, like French, became purely +imitative in its designs; but while in our own decade the French artists +have endeavoured to shake themselves free from old traditions by mere +eccentricity, in England we have several living binders, such as Mr. +Cobden Sanderson and Mr. Douglas Cockerell, who work with notable +originality and yet with the strictest observance of the canons of their +art. + +Moreover in the application of decorative designs to cloth cases England +has invented, and England and America have brought to perfection, an +inexpensive and very pleasing form of book-cover, which gives the +bookman ample time to consider whether his purchase is worth the more +permanent honours of gilded leather, and also, by the facts that it is +avowedly temporary, and that its decoration is cheaply and easily +effected by large stamps, renders forgivable vagaries of design, which +when translated, as they have been of late years in France, into the +time-honoured and solemn leather, seem merely incongruous and +irreverent. + +In binding, then, as in the other bookish arts, the part which English +workers have played has been no insignificant or unworthy one, and the +development of this art, as of the others, in our own country is worthy +of study. In this case much has already been done, for the illustrations +of _English Bookbindings at the British Museum_, edited, with +introduction and descriptions by Mr. W. Y. Fletcher, present the student +with the best possible survey of the whole subject, while the excellent +treatises of Miss Prideaux and Mr. Horne bring English bookbinding into +relation with that of other countries. Here, then, there is no need of a +new general history, but rather of special monographs, treating more in +detail of the periods at which our English binders have done the best +work. The old stamped bindings of the days of manuscript, the +embroidered bindings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the +leather bindings of Mearne and his fellows under the later Stuarts, and +the work of Roger Payne--all these seem to offer excellent subjects for +unpretentious monographs, and it is hoped that others of them besides +the _English Embroidered Bindings_, with which Mr. Davenport has made a +beginning, may be treated in this series. + +In other subjects the ground has not yet been cleared to the same +extent, and for the history of English Book-Collectors and English +Printing, not special monographs, but good general surveys are the first +need. To say much on this subject might bring me perilously near to +re-writing the prospectus of this series. It is enough to have pointed +out that the bookish arts in England are well worth more study than they +have yet been given, and that the pioneers who are endeavouring to +enlarge knowledge, each in his own section, may fairly hope that their +efforts will be received with indulgence and good-will. + +ALFRED W. POLLARD. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CHAPTER I + +EMBROIDERED BOOKS + + +The application of needlework to the embellishment of the bindings of +books has hitherto almost escaped special notice. In most of the works +on the subject of English Bookbinding, considered from the decorative +point of view in distinction from the technical, a few examples of +embroidered covers have indeed received some share of attention. Thus in +both Mr. H. B. Wheatley's and Mr. W. Y. Fletcher's works on the bindings +in the British Museum, in Mr. Salt Brassington's _Historic Bindings in +the Bodleian Library_ and _History of the Art of Bookbinding_, and in my +own _Portfolio_ monograph on 'Royal English Bookbindings,' some of the +finer specimens of embroidered books still existing are illustrated and +described. But up to the present no attempt has been made to deal with +them as a separate subject. In the course, however, of the many lectures +on Decorative Bookbinding which it has been my pleasure and honour to +deliver during the past few years, I have invariably noticed that the +pictures and descriptions of embroidered specimens have been the most +keenly appreciated, and this favourable sign has led me to examine and +consider such examples as have come in my way more carefully than I +might otherwise have done. Very little study sufficed to show that in +England alone there was for a considerable period a regular and large +production of embroidered books, and further, that the different styles +of these embroideries are clearly defined, equally from the +chronological and artistic points of view. A peculiarly English art +which thus lends itself to orderly treatment may fairly be made the +subject of a brief monograph. + +With the exception of point-lace, which is sometimes made in small +pieces for such purposes as ladies' cuffs or collars, decorative work +produced by the aid of the needle is generally large. Certainly this is +so in its finest forms, which are probably to be found in the +ecclesiastical vestments and in the altar frontals of the Renaissance +period, or even earlier. On the other hand, such work as exists on books +is always of small size, and, unlike the point-lace, it almost +invariably has more than one kind of 'stitchery' upon it--chain, split, +tapestry, satin, or what not. + +Thus it can be claimed as a distinction for embroidered book-covers that +as a class they are the smallest complete embroideries existing, ranging +upwards from about 6 inches by 3-1/2 inches--the size of the smallest +specimen known to me, when opened out to its fullest extent, sides and +back in one. This covers a copy of the Psalms, printed in London in +1635, and is of white satin, with a small tulip worked in coloured silk +on each side. + +An 'Embroidered Book,' it should be said, means for my purpose a book +which is covered, sides and back, by a piece of material ornamented with +needlework, following a design made for the purpose of adorning that +particular book. A cover consisting of merely a piece of woven stuff, or +even a piece of true embroidery cut from a larger piece, is not, from my +point of view, properly to be considered an 'embroidered book,' it being +essential that the design as well as the workmanship should have been +specially made for the book on which they are found; and this, in the +large majority of instances, is certainly the case. + +With regard to the transference of bindings to books other than those +for which they were originally made, such a transference has often taken +place in the case of mediæval books bound in ornamental metal, but even +in these instances it must be recognised that such a change can seldom +be made without serious detriment. It is chiefly indeed from some +incongruity of style or technical mistake in the re-putting together +that we are led to guess that the covers have been thus tampered with. +Now and then such a transference occurs in the case of leather-bound +books, and in such instances is usually easy for a trained binder to +detect. Embroidered covers, on the other hand, have rarely been changed, +the motive for such a proceeding never having been strong, and the risk +attending it being obvious enough. We may, in fact, feel tolerably sure +that the large majority of embroidered covers still remain on the boards +of the books they were originally made for. + +All the embroidered books now extant dating from before the reign of +Queen Elizabeth have gone through the very unfortunate operation of +'re-backing,' in the course of which the old embroidered work is +replaced by new leather. The old head and tail bands, technically very +interesting, have been replaced by modern imitations, and considerable +damage has been done in distorting the work left on the sides of the +book. It would seem obvious that a canvas, velvet, or satin embroidered +binding, if it really must be re-backed or repaired at all, should be +mended with a material as nearly as possible of the same make and colour +as that of the original covering; but this has rarely been done, the +large majority of such repairs being executed in leather. But in the +case of such old bindings we must be grateful for small mercies, and +feel thankful that even the sides are left in so many cases. It is +indeed surprising that we still possess as much as we do. If all our +great collectors had been of the same mind as Henry Prince of Wales, the +Right Hon. Thomas Grenville, or even King George III., we +should have been far worse off, as although several fine old bindings +exist in their libraries, many which would now be priceless have been +destroyed, only to be replaced by comparatively modern bindings, +sometimes the best of their kind, but often in bad taste. + + +_Division of Embroidered Books according to the designs upon them._ + +The designs on embroidered books may be roughly divided into four +classes--Heraldic, Figure, Floral, and Arabesque. + +The Heraldic designs always denote ownership, and are most frequently +found on Royal books bound in velvet, rarely occurring on silk or satin, +and never, as far as I have been able to ascertain, on canvas. The +Figure designs may be subdivided into three smaller classes, viz.:-- + + I. Scriptural, _e.g._ representations of Solomon and the + Queen of Sheba, Jacob wrestling with the Angel, David, etc. + + II. Symbolical, _e.g._ figures of Faith, Hope, Peace, + Plenty, etc. + + III. Portraits, _e.g._ of Charles I., Queen + Henrietta Maria, Duke of Buckingham, etc. + +The Scriptural designs are most generally found on canvas-bound books; +the Symbolical figures, and Portraits, on satin, rarely on velvet. The +Floral and Arabesque designs are most common on small and unimportant +works bound in satin, but they occur now and then on both canvas and +velvet books. The true arabesques have no animal or insect forms among +them, the prophet Mohammed having forbidden his followers to imitate any +living thing. + +It may further be noted that heraldic designs on embroidered books are +early, having been made chiefly during the sixteenth century, and that +the figure, floral, and arabesque designs most usually belong to the +seventeenth century. There are, of course, exceptions to these +divisions, notably in the case of the earliest existing embroidered +book, which has figure designs on both sides, but also maintains its +heraldic position, inasmuch as its edges are decorated with +coats-of-arms. + +Naturally, again, it may be sometimes difficult to decide whether a +design should be classed as heraldic or floral. Such a difficulty occurs +as to the large Bible at Oxford bound in red velvet for Queen Elizabeth, +and bearing a design of Tudor and York roses. I consider it heraldic, +but it might, with no less appropriateness, be called floral. If it had +belonged to any one not a member of the Royal family it would +undoubtedly be properly counted as a floral specimen. Again, in many of +the portrait bindings flowers and arabesques are introduced, but they +are clearly subordinate, and the chief decorative motive of such designs +must be looked for, and the work classed accordingly. Thus it is evident +that the arrangement of the embroidered books by their designs cannot +be too rigidly applied, although it should not be lost sight of +altogether. + + +_Division of Embroidered Books according to the material on which they +are worked._ + +A more useful and accurate classification may however be found by help +of the material on which the embroidered work is done, and this division +is obvious and easy. With very few exceptions all embroidered books, +ancient and modern, are worked on _canvas_, _velvet_, or _satin_, and +while canvas was used continuously from the fourteenth century until the +middle of the seventeenth century, velvet was most largely used during +the Tudor period, and satin during that of the early Stuarts. + +Broadly speaking, the essential differences in the kind of work found +upon these three materials follow the peculiarities of the materials +themselves. Canvas, in itself of no decorative value, is always +completely covered with needlework. Velvet, beautiful even when alone, +but difficult to work upon, usually has a large proportion of appliqué, +laid, or couched work, in coloured silk or satin, upon it, showing +always large spaces unworked upon, and such actual work as occurs +directly on the velvet is always in thick guimp or gold cord. Satin, +equally beautiful in its way, is also freely left unornamented in +places; the needlework directly upon it is often very fine and delicate +in coloured floss silks, generally closely protected by thick raised +frames or edges of metallic threads or fine gold or silver cords. + +[Illustration: FIG. 1. Silken thread closely wound round with strip of +flat metal.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 2. Silken thread loosely wound round with strip of +flat metal.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 3. Strips of flat metal cut into shapes and kept +down by small stitches at regular intervals. Called 'Lizzarding.'] + +By 'metallic' threads, when they are not simply fine wires, I mean +strands of silk closely (Fig. 1) or loosely (Fig. 2) wound round with +narrow coils of thin metal, mostly silver or silver gilt. The use of +such threads, alone, or twisted into cords, is common on all styles of +embroidered books, and it is largely due to their use that pieces of +work apparently of the greatest delicacy are really extremely +durable--far more so than is generally supposed. Certainly if it had not +been for the efficient protection of these little metal walls we should +not possess, as we actually do, delicate-looking embroidered books, +hundreds of years old, in almost as good condition, except in the matter +of colour, as when they were originally made. + +Thin pieces of metal are sometimes used alone, caught down at regular +intervals by small cross stitches; this is, I believe, called +'Lizzarding' (Fig. 3). Metal is also found in the form of 'guimp,' in +flattened spirals (Fig. 4), and also in the 'Purl,' or copper wire +covered with silk (Fig. 5), so common on the later satin books (compare +p. 46). + +[Illustration: FIG. 4. Edging made with a piece of spiral wire +hammered flat, appearing like a series of small rings.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 5. Loop made of a short length of Purl +threaded, the ends drawn together.] + +Spangles appear to have been introduced during the reign of Elizabeth, +but they were never freely used on velvet, finding their proper place +ultimately on the satin books of a later time. The spangles are +generally kept in position either by a small section of purl (Fig. 6) or +a seed pearl (Fig. 7), in both cases very efficaciously, so that the use +of guimp or pearl was not only ornamental but served the same protective +purpose as the bosses on a shield, or those so commonly found upon the +sides of the stamped leather bindings of mediæval books. + +[Illustration: FIG. 6. Spangle kept in place by a stitch +through a short piece of Purl.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 7. Spangle kept in place by a stitch +through a seed pearl.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 8. Binder's stamp for gold tooling, cut in +imitation of a spangle.] + +It may be mentioned that the seventeenth-century Dutch binders, Magnus +and Poncyn, both of Amsterdam, invented a new tool for gilding on +leather bindings, used, of course, in combination with others. This was +cut to imitate the small circular spangles of the embroidered books +(Fig. 8), and the English and French finishers of a later period used +the same device with excellent effect for filling up obtrusive spaces on +the sides and backs of their decorative bindings. Thus it may be taken +as an axiom that, for the proper working of an embroidered book, except +it be tapestry-stitch or tent-stitch, on canvas, which is flat and +strong of itself, there should invariably be a liberal use of metal +threads, these being not only very decorative in themselves, but also +providing a valuable protection to the more delicate needlework at a +lower level, and to the material of the ground itself. + +The earliest examples of embroidered bindings still existing are not by +any means such as would lead to the inference that they were exceptional +productions--made when the idea of the application of needlework to the +decoration of books was in its infancy. On the contrary, they are +instances of very skilled workmanship, so that it is probable that the +art was practised at an earlier date than we now have recorded. There +are, indeed, frequent notes in 'Wardrobe Accounts' and elsewhere of +books bound in velvet and satin at a date anterior to any now existing, +but there is no mention of embroidered work upon them. + + +_The Forwarding of Embroidered Books._ + +The processes used in the binding of embroidered books are the same as +in the case of leather-bound books; but there is one invariable +peculiarity--the bands upon which the different sections of the paper +are sewn are never in relief, so that it was always possible to paste +down a piece of material easily along the back without having to allow +for the projecting bands so familiar on leather bindings (Fig. 9). The +backs, moreover, are only rounded very slightly, if at all. + +This flatness has been attained on the earlier books either by sewing on +flat bands, thin strips of leather or vellum (Fig. 10), or by flattening +the usual hempen bands as much as they will bear by the hammer, and +afterwards filling up the intermediate spaces with padding of some +suitable material, linen or thin leather. + +In several instances the difficulty of flattening the bands has been +solved, in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century embroidered books, in a way +which cannot be too strongly condemned from a constructive point of +view, although it has served its immediate purpose admirably. + +A small trench has been cut with a sharp knife for each band, deep +enough to sink it to the general level of the inner edges of the +sections (Fig. 11). + +[Illustration: FIG. 9. Back of book sewn on raised bands.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 10. Band of flat vellum sometimes found on +old books with flat backs.] + +[Illustration: FIG. 11. Typical appearance of a book, before it +is sewn, with small trenches cut in the back in which the bands are to +be laid; a bad method, but often used to produce a flat back.] + +This cutting of the back to make room for the bands was afterwards more +easily effected by means of a saw--as it is done now--and in the +eighteenth century was especially used by the French binder Derome le +Jeune, who is usually made responsible for its invention. + +The existence of the sunken bands on early embroidered books probably +marks the beginning of this vicious system, but here there is some +excuse for it, whereas in the case of ordinary leather-bound books there +is none, except from the commercial standpoint. + +In the case of vellum books there may be some reason for using the +'sawn in' bands, as it is certainly difficult to get vellum to fit +comfortably over raised bands, although numerous early instances exist +in which it has been successfully done. Again in the case of 'hollow +backs,' the bands are kept flat with some reason. But for all valuable +or finely bound books the system of 'sawing in' cannot be too strongly +condemned. + +'Sawing in' can be detected by looking at the threads in the centre of +any section of a bound book from the inside. It will show as a small +hole with a piece of hemp or leather lying transversely across it, under +which the thread passes (Fig. 12). + +[Illustration: FIG. 12. +Typical appearance of the sewing of a book with 'sawn in' bands, as seen +from the inside of each section. The bands just visible.] + +In the case of a properly sewn book, the bands themselves cannot be seen +at all from the inside of the sections, unless, indeed, the book is +damaged (Fig. 13). If the covering of the back is off, or even loose, +the method of sewing that has been used can very easily be seen; and if +it appears that the bands are sunk in a small trench, that is the form +of sewing that is called 'sawn in,' or analogous to it. + +[Illustration: FIG. 13. +Typical appearance of the sewing of a book on raised bands, as seen from +the inside of each section. The bands invisible. Known as 'flexible.'] + +Although in the embroidered books the bands of the backs do not show on +the surface, it is common enough to find the lines they probably follow +indicated in the work on the back, which is divided into panels by as +many transverse lines, braid or cord, as there are bands underneath +them. But in some cases the designer has used the back as one long +panel, and decorated it accordingly as one space. The headbands in some +of the earlier books were sewn at the same time as the other bands on +the sewing-press and drawn in to the boards, but in most early bindings +the ravaging repairer has been at work and made it impossible to know +for certain what was the state of the headbands before the book came +into his hands. Most of the existing headbands are made by hand in the +usual way, with the ends simply cut off, not indeed a very satisfactory +finish. It would be better if these ends were somehow drawn in to the +leather of the back, as for instance they still often are on thin vellum +books. + +The great majority of embroidered books, both large and small, have had +ties of silk on their front edges--generally two, but sometimes only +one, which wraps round. These ties have generally worn away from the +outer side of the boards, but their ends can usually be traced (if the +book has not been repaired) in the inner side, covered only by a thin +piece of paper; and if this paper is loose, as often happens, and the +ends show well, it may often be advisable not to paste it down again at +that particular place. + +The backs of old embroidered books are by far the weakest parts about +them. If they exist at all in their old forms they are always much worn, +and the work upon them so much damaged that it is often difficult to +make out even the general character of the design, to say nothing of the +details of the workmanship. + +The edges of the leaves of books bound in England in embroidered +bindings are always ornamentally treated, sometimes simply gilded, +often further adorned with 'gauffred' work, that is to say, small +patterns impressed on the gold, and sometimes beautifully decorated with +elaborate designs having colour in parts as well. The earliest English +ornamentation of this kind in colour is found on the Felbrigge Psalter +and on some of the books embroidered for Henry VIII., one of +which is richly painted on the fore edges with heraldic designs, and +another with a motto written in gold on a delicately coloured ground. + + +_Cases for Embroidered Books._ + +Common though the small satin embroidered books must have been in +England during the earlier part of the seventeenth century, it is still +certain that the finer specimens were highly prized, and beautifully +worked bags were often made for their protection. These bags are always +of canvas, and most of them are decorated in the same way, the +backgrounds of silver thread with a design in tapestry-or tent-stitch, +and having ornamental strings and tassels. To describe one of these is +almost to describe all. The best preserved specimen I know belongs to a +little satin embroidered copy of the Psalms, printed in London in 1633, +and measures 5 inches long by 4 inches in depth. + +[Illustration: 1--Embroidered Bag for Psalms. London, 1633.] + +The same design is repeated on each side. A parrot on a small grass-plot +is in the middle of the lower edge. Behind the bird grow two curving +stems of thick gold braid, each curve containing a beautifully-worked +flower or fruit. In the centre is a carnation, and round it are arranged +consecutively a bunch of grapes, a pansy, a honeysuckle, and a double +rose, green leaves occurring at intervals. From the lower edge depend +three ornamental tassels of silver loops, with small acorns in silver +and coloured silks, one from the centre and one from each corner. + +The top edge has two draw-strings of gold and red braid, each ending in +an ornamental oval acorn of silver thread and coloured silks, probably +worked on canvas over a wooden core, ending in a tassel similar to those +on the lower edge. + +A long loop of gold and silver braid serves as a handle, or means of +attachment to a belt, and is fixed at each side near a strong double +loop of silver thread, used when pulling the bag open. The lining is of +pink silk. This particular bag is perfect in colour as well as +condition, but usually the silver has turned black, or nearly so. +Besides these very ornamental bags, others of quite simple workmanship +are occasionally found, worked in outline with coloured silks. 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 16-1/2 by +9-1/4 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. + +In the centre is a double red rose with separate petals, and among the +other flowers are corn-flowers, honeysuckles, carnations, strawberries, +and several leaves, all worked in the same way, and appliqués at their +edges. Some, however, of the larger leaves and petals are ornamentally +fastened down to the linen by small coloured stitches arranged in lines +or patterns over their surfaces, as well as by the edge stitches. There +are several spangles scattered about in the spaces on the linen, and the +edge is bound with green silk and gold. On the book itself to which this +cover belongs there is a good deal of the same needle-point work, +probably executed by the same hand; but the cover is a finer piece +altogether than the book,--in fact it is the finest example of such work +I have ever seen. + +[Illustration: 2--Embroidered Cover for New Testament. London, 1640.] + +Abroad there have been made at various times embroidered bindings for +books, but in no country except England has there been any regular +production of them. I have come across a few cases in England of +foreign work, the most important of which I will shortly describe. In +the British Museum is an interesting specimen bound in red satin, and +embroidered with the arms of Felice Peretti, Cardinal de Montalt, who +was afterwards Pope Sixtus V.; the coat-of-arms has a little +coloured silk upon it, but the border and the cardinal's hat with +tassels are all outlined in gold cord. The work is of an elementary +character. The book itself is a beautiful illuminated vellum copy of +Fichet's _Rhetoric_, printed in Paris in 1471, and presented to the then +Pope, Sixtus IV. In the same collection are a few more instances of +Italian embroidered bindings, always heraldic in their main +designs, the workmanship not being of any particular excellence or +character. Perhaps altogether the most interesting Italian work of this +kind was done on books bound for Cardinal York, several of which still +remain, embroidered with his coat-of-arms, one of them being now in the +Royal Library at Windsor. Although the actual workmanship on these books +is foreign, we may perhaps claim them as having been suggested or made +by the order of the English Prince himself, inheriting the liking for +embroidered books from his Stuart ancestors. + +French embroidered books are very rare, and I do not know of any +examples in England. Two interesting specimens, at least, are in the +Bibliothèque Nationale, and are described and figured in Bouchot's work +on the artistic bindings in that library. The earlier is on a book of +prayers of the fifteenth century, bound in canvas, and worked with +'tapisserie de soie au petit point,' or as I should call it, tent-, or +tapestry-, stitch. It represents the Crucifixion and a saint, but M. +Bouchot remarks of it, 'La composition est grossière et les figures des +plus rudimentaires.' + +The other instance occurs on a sixteenth-century manuscript, 'Les Gestes +de Blanche de Castille.' It is bound in black velvet, much worn, and +ornamented with appliqué embroideries in coloured silks, in shading +stitch, probably done on fine linen. The design on the upper cover shows +the author of the book, Etienne le Blanc, in the left-hand corner, +kneeling at the feet of Louise de Savoie, Regent of France, to whom the +book is dedicated. Near her is a fountain into which an antlered stag is +jumping, pursued by three hounds. + +The Dutch, in the numerous excellent styles of bindings they have so +freely imitated from other nations, have not failed to include the +English embroidered books. In the South Kensington Museum is a charming +specimen of their work on satin, finely worked in coloured silks with +small masses of pearls in a rather too elaborate design of flowers and +animals. In the British Museum, besides other instances of Dutch +needlework, there is a very handsome volume of the _Acta Synodalis +Nationalis Dordrechti habitæ_, printed at Leyden in 1620, and bound in +crimson velvet. It has the royal coat-of-arms of England within the +Garter, with crest, supporters, and motto, all worked in various kinds +of gold thread; in the corners are sprays of roses and thistles +alternately, and above and below the coat are the crowned initials J. R., +all worked in gold thread. + + +_Hints for Modern Broiderers._ + +Many book-covers have been embroidered during the last few years in +England by ladies working on their own account, or by some of the +students at one or other of the many excellent centres now existing for +the study and practice of the fascinating art of bookbinding. + +Although a large proportion of modern work of this kind has been only +copied from older work, I see no reason why original designs should not +be freely and successfully invented. But I think that the ancient work +may be advantageously studied and carefully copied as far as choice of +threads and manner of working them goes. The workers of our old +embroidered books were people of great skill and large experience, and +from a long and careful examination of much of their work, I am +impressed with the conviction that they worked on definite principles. +If I allude briefly to some of these I may perhaps give intending +workwomen a hint or two as to some minor points which may assist their +work to show to the best advantage when _in situ_, and also insure, as +far as possible, that it will not be unduly damaged during the operation +of fixing to the back and boards of the book for which it is intended. + +(1) Before the operation of fixing on the book is begun, it will always +be found best to mount the embroidered work on a backing of strong fine +linen. The stage at which it is best to add the linen will vary +according to the kind of work it is to strengthen. In the case of canvas +it will only be necessary to tack it on quite at the last; with velvet a +backing from the first may be used with advantage, all the stitches +being taken through both materials. As to satin, it will be best to do +all the very fine work, if any, in coloured silks first, and when the +stronger work in cord or braid comes on, the linen may be then added. +The value of the linen is twofold: it strengthens the entire work and +protects the finer material from the paste with which it is ultimately +fastened on to the book. + +(2) A book must be sewn, the edges cut, and the boards fixed, before the +sizes of the sides and back can be accurately measured. These sizes must +be given to the designer most carefully, as a very small difference +between the real size and the embroidered size will entirely spoil the +finished effect, however fine the details of the workmanship may be. +When the exact size is known the designer will fill the spaces at his +disposal according to his taste and skill, making his sketches on paper, +and, when these are complete, transferring the outlines to the material +on which the work is to be done. If the designer is also to be the +worker it is artistically right, and he, or she, will put in the proper +stitches as the work progresses; but if another person is to execute the +needlework it will be best that very detailed description of all the +threads and stitches that are to be used should be given, as every +designer of an embroidery design intends it to be carried out in a +particular way, and unless this way is followed, the design does not +have full justice done to it. + +(3) In the working itself the greatest care must be taken, especially as +to two points: the first and perhaps the more important, because the +more difficult to remedy, is that the needlework on the _under_ side of +the material must be as small and flat as possible, and all knots, +lumps, or irregularities here, if they cannot be avoided or safely cut +off, had best be brought to the upper side and worked over. With satin, +especially, attention to this point is most necessary, as unless the +plain spaces lie quite flat, which they are very apt not to do, the +proper appearance of the finished work is spoiled, and however good it +may be in all other points, can never be considered first-rate. + +The second pitfall to avoid is any pulling or straining of the material +during the operation of embroidering it. Success in avoiding this +depends primarily upon the various threads being drawn at each stitch to +the proper tension, so that it may just have the proper pull to keep it +in its place and no more--and although a stitch too loose is bad enough, +one too tight is infinitely worse. + +(4) The preponderance of appliqué work, and raised work in metal guimps +on embroidered books, especially on velvet, is easily accounted for when +the principles they illustrate are understood, the truth being that in +both these operations the maximum of surface effect is produced with the +minimum of under work. + +If the piece appliqué is not very large, a series of small stitches +along all the edges is generally enough to keep it firm; such edge +stitches are in most cases afterwards masked by a gold cord laid over +them. If, however, the appliqué piece is large it will be necessary to +fix it as well with some supplementary stitches through the central +portions. These stitches will generally be so managed that they fit in +with, or under, some of the ornamental work; at the same time, if +necessary, they may be symmetrically arranged so as to become themselves +of a decorative character. + + +_The Embroidered Books here illustrated._ + +For the purposes of illustration I have chosen the most typical +specimens possible from such collections as I have had access to. The +chief collections in England are, undoubtedly, those at the British +Museum and at the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The collection at the +British Museum is especially rich, the earlier and finer specimens +almost invariably having formed part of the old Royal Library of England +given by George II. to the Museum in 1757. + +The more recent specimens have been acquired either by purchase or +donation, but as there has been no special intention at any time to +collect these bindings, it is remarkable that such a number of them +exist in our National Library. The Bodleian is rich in a few fine +specimens only, and most of these are exhibited. My illustrations are +made from photographs from the books themselves in all instances; to +show them properly, however, all should be in colour, and it should not +be forgotten that an embroidered book represented only by a half-tint +print, however good, inevitably loses its greatest charm. However, if +the half-tint is unworthy, the colour prints are distinctly flattering. +I think that almost any old book well reproduced in colour gains in +appearance, and in two of my colour plates I have actually restored some +parts. In the beautiful fourteenth century psalter, supposed to have +been worked by Anne de Felbrigge, I have made the colours purposely much +clearer than they are at present. If it were possible to clean this +volume, the colours would show very nearly as they do on my plate; but, +actually, they are all much darker and more indistinct, being in fact +overlaid with the accumulated dirt of centuries. The other instance +where I have added more than at present exists on the original is the +green velvet book which belonged to Queen Elizabeth, and forms my +frontispiece. Here I have put in the missing pearls, each of which has +left its little impression on the velvet, so nothing is added for which +there is not the fullest authority. Moreover, some of the gold cord is +gone on each of the three volumes of this work, but I have put it in its +proper place for the purpose of illustration. The other plates are not +in any way materially altered, but it may be allowed that the colour +plates show their originals at their best. + +The books illustrated are selected out of a large number, and I think it +may fairly be considered that the most favourable typical specimens now +left in England are shown. It may well be that a few finer instances +than I have been able to find may still be discovered hidden away in +private collections, but it is now so rarely that a really fine ancient +embroidered book comes into the sale-room, that we may safely conclude +the best of them are already safely housed in one or other of our great +national collections. Where not otherwise stated, the specimens +described are in the British Museum. + +In the following detailed descriptions I have used the words 'sides' and +'boards' to mean the same thing, and the measurements refer to the size +of the boards themselves, not including the back. These measurements +must be taken as approximate only, as from wear and other causes the +actual sizes would only be truly given by the use of small fractions of +inches. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +BOOKS BOUND IN CANVAS + + +English books bound in embroidered canvas range over a period of about +two hundred and fifty years, the earliest known specimen dating from the +fourteenth century, and instances of the work occurring with some +frequency from this time until the middle of the seventeenth century. +The majority of these bindings are worked in tapestry-stitch, or +tent-stitch, in designs illustrating Scriptural subjects in differently +coloured threads. + +Very often the outlines of these designs are marked by gold threads and +cords, of various kinds, and parts of the work are also frequently +enriched with further work upon them in metal threads. Spangles are very +rarely found on canvas-bound books. The backgrounds of several of the +later specimens are worked in silver threads, sometimes in chain-stitch +and sometimes in tapestry-stitch; others again have the groundwork of +silver threads laid along the surface of the canvas and caught down at +regular intervals by small stitches--this kind of work is called 'laid' +or 'couched' work. Books bound with this metal ground have always strong +work superimposed, usually executed in metal strips, cords, and thread. +The silver is now generally oxidised and much darkened, but when new +these bindings must have been very brilliant. + +[Illustration: 3--The Felbrigge Psalter. 13th-century MS.] + + +_The Felbrigge Psalter._ 13th-century MS. Probably bound in the +14th century. + +The earliest example of an embroidered book in existence is, I believe, +the manuscript English Psalter written in the thirteenth century, which +afterwards belonged to Anne, daughter of Sir Simon de Felbrigge, K. G., +standard-bearer to Richard II. Anne de Felbrigge was a nun in +the convent of Minoresses at Bruisyard in Suffolk, during the latter +half of the fourteenth century, and it is quite likely that she herself +worked the cover--such work having probably been largely done in +monasteries and convents during the middle ages. + +On the upper side is a very charming design of the Annunciation, and, on +the under, another of the Crucifixion, each measuring 7-3/4 by 5-3/4 +inches. In both cases the ground is worked with fine gold threads +'couched' in a zigzag pattern, the rest of the work being very finely +executed in split-stitch by the use of which apparently continuous lines +can be made, each successive stitch beginning a little _within_ that +immediately preceding it--the effect in some places being that of a very +fine chain-stitch. The lines of this work do not in any way follow the +meshes of the linen or canvas, as is mostly the case with book-work upon +such material, but they curve freely according to the lines and folds +of the design. It will be recognised I think by art workwomen skilled in +this kind of small embroidery, that the methods used for ornamenting the +canvas binding of this book are the most artistic of any of the various +means employed for a similar purpose, and I know of no other instance +which for appropriateness of workmanship, or charm of design, can +compare with this, the earliest of all. + +The figure of the Virgin Mary, on the upper side, is dressed in a pale +red robe, with an upper garment or cloak of blue with a gold border. On +her head is a white head-dress, and round it a yellow halo; just above +is a white dove flying downwards, its head having a small red nimbus or +cloud round it. The Virgin holds a red book in her hand. The figure of +the angel is winged, and wears an under robe of blue with an upper +garment of yellow; round his head he has a green and yellow nimbus, his +wings are crimson and white. + +Between these two figures is a large yellow vase, banded with blue and +red; out of it grows a tall lily, with a crown of three red blossoms. + +The drawing of both of the figures is good, the attitudes and the +management of the folds of the drapery being excellently rendered, and +the execution of the technical part is in no way inferior to the design. + +On the lower side, on a groundwork of gold similar to that on the upper +cover, is a design of the Crucifixion. Our Saviour wears a red garment +round the loins, and round his head is a red and yellow nimbus, his feet +being crossed in a manner often seen in illuminations in ancient +manuscripts. + +The cross is yellow with a green edge, the foot widening out into a +triple arch, within which is a small angel kneeling in the attitude of +prayer. On the right of the cross is a figure of the Virgin Mary, in +robes of pale blue and yellow, with a white head-dress and green and +yellow nimbus. On the left is another figure, probably representing St. +John, dressed in robes of red and blue, and having a nimbus round his +head of concentric rings of red and yellow. This figure is unfortunately +in very bad condition. The edges of the leaves of the book are painted +with heraldic bearings in diamond-shaped spaces, that of the Felbrigge +family 'Gules, a lion rampant, or' alternately with another 'azure, a +fleur-de-lys, or.' The embroidered sides have been badly damaged by time +and probably more so by repair. The book has been rebound in leather, +the old embroidered back quite done away with, and the worked sides +pulled away from their original boards and ruinously flattened out on +the new ones. After the Felbrigge Psalter no other embroidered binding +has been preserved till we come to one dating about 1536, which is in +satin, and will be described under that head. + + +_The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul._ MS. by the +Princess Elizabeth. 1544. + +The Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen, in her eleventh year, copied +out in her own handwriting the _Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul._ +She says it is translated 'out of frenche ryme into english prose, +joyning the sentences together as well as the capacitie of my symple +witte and small lerning coulde extende themselves.' It is also most +prettily dedicated: 'From Assherige, the last daye of the yeare of our +Lord God 1544 ... To our most noble and vertuous Quene Katherin, +Elizabeth her humble daughter wisheth perpetuall felicitie and +everlasting joye.' + +The book is now one of the great treasures of the Bodleian Library; it +is bound in canvas, measures about 7 by 5 inches, and was embroidered in +all probability by the hands of the Princess herself. The Countess of +Wilton in her book on the art of needlework says that 'Elizabeth was an +accomplished needlewoman,' and that 'in her time embroidery was much +thought of.' The Rev. W. Dunn Macray in his _Annals of the Bodleian +Library_ considers this binding to be one of 'Elizabeth's bibliopegic +achievements.' + +[Illustration: 4--The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul. MS. by the +Princess Elizabeth. 1544.] + +[Illustration: 5--Prayers of Queen Katherine Parr. MS. by the Princess +Elizabeth. 1545.] + +The design is the same upon both sides. The ground is all worked over in +a large kind of tapestry-stitch in thick pale blue silk, very evenly and +well done, so well that it has been considered more than once to be a +piece of woven material. On this is a cleverly designed interlacing +scroll-work of gold and silver braid, in the centre of which are the +joined initials K. P. + +In each corner is a heartsease worked in thick coloured silks, purple +and yellow, interwoven with fine gold threads, and a small green leaflet +between each of the petals. The back is very much worn, but it probably +had small flowers embroidered upon it. + + +_Prayers of Queen Katherine Parr._ MS. by the Princess +Elizabeth. 1545. + +Another manuscript beautifully written by the Princess Elizabeth about a +year later is now at the British Museum. It is on vellum, and contains +prayers or meditations, composed originally by Queen Katherine Parr in +English, and translated by the Princess into Latin, French, and Italian. +The title as given in the book reads, 'Precationes ... ex piis +scriptoribus per nobiliss. et pientiss. D. Catharinam Anglie, Francie, +Hibernieq. reginam collecte, et per D. Elizabetam ex anglico converse.' +It is, moreover, dedicated to Henry VIII., the wording being, +'Illustrissimo Henrico octavo, Anglie, Francie, Hibernieq. regi,' etc., +and dated Hertford, 20th December 1545. + +It is bound in canvas, and measures 5-3/4 by 4 inches, the groundwork +being broadly worked in tapestry-stitch, or some stitch analogous to it, +in red silk, resembling in method the work on the ground of _The Miroir +of the Synneful Soul_ already described. On this, in the centre of each +side, is a large monogram worked in blue silk, interwoven with silver +thread, containing the letters K, probably standing for Katherine, A, F, +H, and R, possibly meaning 'Anglie, Francie, Hibernieque, Reginæ,' but +like most monograms this one can doubtless be otherwise interpreted. +Above and below the monogram are smaller H's, worked in red silk, +interwoven with gold thread. In each corner is a heartsease of yellow +and purple silk, interwoven with gold thread, and having small green +leaves between each of the petals. The work which was once on the back +is now so worn that it cannot be traced sufficiently to tell what it +originally was. The designs of these two volumes, credited to the +Princess Elizabeth, resemble each other to some extent; they both have a +monogram in the centre, they both have heartsease in the corners and +groundwork of a like character. They are, as far as workmanship goes, +still more alike, similar thick silk is used for the ground, and threads +and braids of a thick nature, with metal interwoven, are used on both +for the ornamental work. Speaking of this British Museum book, the +Countess of Wilton says, 'there is little doubt that Elizabeth's own +needle wrought the ornaments thereon.' + + +_Books embroidered by the Princess Elizabeth._ + +It cannot be said that there is any actual authority for saying that the +two covers just described are really the work of Elizabeth's own hand, +although she is known to have been fond of embroidery, it being recorded +that she made and embroidered a shirt for her brother Edward when she +was six. There is little doubt, however, that the same designer and the +same workwoman worked both these covers, and the technique, as well as +the design, are peculiar for the time in which they were done. Canvas +bindings were rare--most of the embroidered work on books of that period +were splendid works on velvet--so that if these two manuscripts had been +'given out' to be bound in embroidered covers we should have expected to +find them in rich velvet, like Brion's _Holy Land_, or Christopherson's +_Historia Ecclesiastica_, instead of a very elementary braid work. +Without attaching too much importance to the various statements +concerning their royal origin, I am inclined to think that there is no +impossibility, or even improbability, in the supposition that the +Princess designed and worked them herself, thereby adding to her +exquisite manuscript the further charm of her clever needle. The idea of +both writing and embroidering such valued presents as these two books +must have been is likely to have strongly appealed to an affectionate +and humble daughter, and there is an artistic completeness in the idea +which, I think, tells strongly in its favour. + +Probably enough no proof of their having been worked by Elizabeth will +now ever be forthcoming, but it is equally unlikely that any positive +disproof will be found. + +The two 'Elizabeth' books stand alone--there are no others resembling +them; but the next kind of embroidered work I shall describe is one +which includes a large number of books, generally small in size, and +usually copies of the Bible or the Psalms. The canvas in these cases is +embroidered all over in small tapestry-stitch, the design being shown by +means of the different colours of the silks used. The work being all +flat it is very strong, and often books bound in this way are in a +marvellous state of preservation. The most interesting designs are those +which represent Scriptural scenes. Some of these are very curious and +almost grotesque, but there is much excuse for this. To work a face any +way in embroidery is troublesome enough, but to work it on a small scale +in tent-stitch is especially difficult, the result being somewhat +similar in effect to that of a glass or marble mosaic, each little +stitch being nearly square and of an uniform colour. The designers of +these embroideries do not appear to have had a very fertile imagination, +as again and again the same subject is represented. Perhaps the most +favourite of all is Jacob wrestling with the angel; of figure subjects +'Faith and Hope' are the most frequently met with, but 'Peace and +Plenty' are also common enough. + +[Illustration: 6--Christian Prayers. London, 1581.] + + +_Christian Prayers._ London, 1581. + +A _Book of Christian Prayers_ with illustrated borders, printed in +London in 1581, is bound in coarse canvas worked in tapestry-stitch in +colours, and measures 7 by 5 inches. The same design is on each side--a +kind of flower-basket in two stories, out of the lower part of which, +rectangular in shape, grow two branches, one with lilies and another +with white flowers, and out of the upper, oval in shape, rise two sprays +of roses, one white the other red. + +In the lower corners are a large lily, a blue flower, and a large +double-rose spray. All the design is outlined with silver cord or +thread, and the veinings of the leaves are indicated in the same way. +There are remains of two green velvet ties on the front edges of each of +the boards. The back is not divided into panels, but has a design upon +it of the letters E and S repeated five times. The edges are gilt and +gauffred. + + +_Psalms and Common Praier._ London, 1606-7. + +During the seventeenth century little 'double' books were rather +favourite forms for Common Prayer and Psalms especially. These curious +bindings open opposite ways and have two backs, two ornamental boards, +and one unornamented board enclosed between the two books, which are +always of the same size. + +There are several instances where embroidered books have been bound in +this way, the earliest I know being a copy of the Psalms and Common +Prayer, printed in 1606-7. + +This is bound in canvas, and measures 3-1/4 by 2 inches, each side +having the same design embroidered on each of the ornamented sides and +backs. The flowers and leaves are worked in long straight stitches in +coloured silks, outlined with silver twist. A large pansy plant occupies +the place of honour, growing out of a small green mound, from which also +spring two short plants with five-petalled yellow flowers. The main +stems and ribs of the leaves are made with strong silver twist. Round +about the central spray are several coloured buds. On the backs are four +panels, each containing a small four-petalled flower. The ground is +worked all over with silver thread irregularly stitched, and the edges +are bound with a broad silver thread. There was originally one ribbon to +twist round both books and keep them together, but it is now quite +gone. The edges are gilt, gauffred, and slightly coloured. + +[Illustration: 7--Psalms and Common Praier. London, 1606.] + +[Illustration: 8--Bible, etc. London, 1612.] + + +_Bible, etc._ London, 1612. + +A copy of the Bible, with the Psalms, printed in London in 1612, and +measuring 6-3/4 by 4-1/4 inches, is bound in fine canvas, and bears upon +it designs embroidered in coloured silks in tapestry-stitch. + +On the upper side is King Solomon seated in an elaborate throne on a +dais, all outlined with gold cord. He wears a golden crown and a dress +which more nearly approaches the style worn at the date of the +production of the book than that which was probably worn by Solomon +himself. Before the King kneels a figure, no doubt intended for the +Queen of Sheba, in a red and orange robe of a curious fashion. She holds +out two white and red roses to the King, who bends to take them. The +ground is patterned in green and blue diamonds. The distant landscape +shows a castle with turrets, trees, a tower, a house, and a sun with +rays. The groundwork on both sides and the back is worked in silver +thread. + +The lower side has in the centre Jacob wrestling with the angel. Jacob +has a beard and a blue cloak; his staff lies on the ground. The angel +wears a red flowing robe, and his wings are many-coloured, and enriched +with various threads and spirals of gold. The landscape is elaborate. In +the foreground is a river with a bridge of planks, a gabled cottage, +hospitably smoking from its chimneys, a red lily, and a tree. In the +middle distance is a castle with tower and flag, and on the horizon are +a windmill, a castle with two towers, and some trees, above all a red +cloud. The back is divided into six panels, on each of which is a +different design in coloured silks. These designs are small, and +although they are in perfectly good condition, the subjects represented +are doubtful. The upper and lower panels seem to represent only castles +with towers. Then apparently come Jonah and the whale, the creation, the +temple, and the deluge with the ark, but it is quite possible that other +interpretations might be made. There are remains of two red silk ties on +the front edges of each board, and the edges of the leaves are gilded +simply. + +[Illustration: 9--Sermons by Samuel Ward. London, 1626-7.] + + +_Sermons by Samuel Ward._ London, 1626-7. + +Mr. Yates Thompson has kindly allowed me to describe and illustrate an +embroidered book belonging to him, bound in canvas, and measuring 5-3/4 +by 4-1/4 inches. It is a collection of sermons preached by 'Samuel +Ward, Bachelour of Divinity,' and printed in London, 1626-7, the binding +being probably of about the latter date. On the upper cover is a lady in +a blue dress, seated, and holding a hawk on her left wrist, and a branch +with apples in her right. Round her are scattered flower sprays, +honeysuckle, foxglove, a stalk with two large pears, a cluster of +grapes, a twig with a butterfly upon it, and a wild-rose spray. The +lady, the petals of the flowers, and the leaves are all worked in +tapestry-stitch; the bird and the lady's hair in long straight stitches; +the stalks, fruits, and grasses are worked in variously coloured silk +threads, thickly and strongly bound round with very fine silver wire. +The lady has a coif, cuff, and belt of short pieces of silver and gold +guimp arranged like a plait. + +The under side shows a seated lady in a green dress, playing a lute +left-handed. This most unusual position is probably not really +intentional, but the drawing has accidentally been reversed. She is +surrounded, like her companion with the hawk, by flower sprays, a +thistle, cornflower, strawberries, a rose, lily, bluebell, and small +bunch of grapes, making a kind of arbour, with a wreath of red cloud at +the top. The lady, the petals of the flowers, and the leaves are worked +in fine tapestry-stitch; the stalks and fruits in coloured silks, mixed +with silver wire. The lady has a coif and a cuff of silver guimp +arranged in the same way as that on the other side. + +The back is divided into four panels by silver guimp, each containing a +flower worked in tapestry-stitch, a blue flower, a wild rose, a pansy, +and a thistle. The ground of the whole is loosely overcast with silver +thread, the constructive lines of the book being marked by rows of +silver guimp arranged in small arches. The edges are bound by a strong +silver braid. The head and tail bands are worked in silver thread--an +unusual method--and the edges are gilt and gauffred. + +There are two ties on each board of striped silk, much frayed and worn, +but the embroidered work itself is in excellent condition, and very +strong. + + +_New Testament, etc._ London, 1625-35. + +[Illustration: 10--New Testament, etc. London, 1625-35.] + +A small copy of the New Testament, printed in London in 1625, bound +together with the Psalms, 1635, is covered with canvas, all worked in +tapestry-stitch, and measures 4-1/4 by 3 inches. + +On the upper cover is a full-length figure of Hope, with dark hair, +dressed in a red dress with large falling collar, having a blue flower +at the point. In her left hand she holds an anchor. In the distant +background is a cottage and a gibbet on a hill, the sun with rays just +appearing under a cloud. On the hilly foreground is a red lily, and +further afield a caterpillar and a strawberry plant. On the lower cover +is a full-length figure of Faith, with fair hair, dressed in a blue +dress with large falling collar, having a red flower at the point. In +her left hand she holds an open book with the word 'FAITH' +written across it. On the hilly foreground is a large red tulip and a +plant with red blooms, further afield are a pear-tree and two +caterpillars. + +On the back are four panels, containing respectively a bird, a blue +flower, a squirrel, and a red flower. + +On the front edge of the upper cover can be seen the remains of one tie +of green silk, and the edges are protected all round by a piece of green +silk braid. The edges of the leaves are plainly gilt. + +This cover is one of the rare instances of a book bound in embroidered +work not made for it, the embroidery being clearly made for a book of +about half the present thickness. It is possible that it was intended +for either the New Testament or the Psalms separately, and, as an +after-thought, was made to do double duty. But as it now is, the worked +back is just a strip down the middle of the back itself, the designs of +the sides encroaching considerably inwards. + + +_The Daily Exercise of a Christian._ London, 1623. + +_The Daily Exercise of a Christian_, printed in London in 1623, and +measuring 4-3/4 by 2-3/4 inches, is ornamented with a single flower +spray, with buds and leaves. The flower is a double rose with curving +stem, one large half-opened bud and one smaller, and a few leaves, all +worked in tent-stitch. The spray rises from a small bed of grass, out of +which grows a small blue flower. In the upper right-hand corner is a +small blue cloud. The same design is on both sides. The back is divided +into four panels, the divisions being marked and bounded by a thick +silver braid, which is also used as an edging all round the book; the +designs, beginning at the top, are a fly and a flower alternately, +differently coloured. + +The background is all worked in with silver thread in chain-stitch. With +this book is one of the now rare ornamental markers, which, no doubt, +often went with embroidered books. It is fastened to an ornamental +oblong cushion, probably made of light wood, and is worked in silver +thread and coloured silks in the same manner as the rest of the +embroidered work, and finished off at the ends with small red tassels. + +[Illustration: 11--The Daily Exercise of a Christian. London, 1623.] + +[Illustration: 12--Bible. London, 1626.] + + +_Bible._ London, 1626-28. + +A copy of the Bible, printed in London in 1626, is bound in canvas, +and measures 6 by 3-1/2 inches. + +The embroidery is in coloured silks, silver cords and threads, and +silver guimp. On the upper cover is a small full-length figure of St. +Peter, with short beard, holding a key in his left hand. He is dressed +in a blue under-garment, with red and orange robe over it, all the edges +being marked by a silver twist, some of which has come off. The ground +is green and in hillocks. All this work is done in coloured silks and +silver threads in shading stitch. + +On the under side is a figure of St. Paul, with long beard, holding a +silver sword in his right hand. He wears a blue under-garment, with red +and orange upper robe, all edged with silver twist. The feet of both +figures are bare. The rest of the design is the same on both sides. The +skies are worked in large stitches of blue and yellow silk and silver +threads, graduating from dark to light; above these are canopies of +silver thread, couched, and vandyked at the edge. Enclosing the figures +are arches with columns, in high relief in silver cords and threads. The +inner edge of the arch is curiously marked by a line of brown silk +worked over a strip of vellum in the manner used for hand-worked +head-bands, and the outer edge has 'crockets' of silver guimp. The +columns rest upon 'rams-horn' curves, heavily worked in relief with +silver threads, the insides of the curves worked in brown silk over +vellum like the inner edge of the arch. + + +_Metal Threads used on Embroidered Books._ + +Guimp and gold threads are largely used, as has already been noticed, +in embroidered books from early times, but on the next specimen of a +canvas-bound book I have chosen for description, dated 1642, a kind of +metal thread occurs which is very curious. It is used at an earlier date +on satin books, and it is also found more commonly upon them; but as I +have put the canvas books first for the purpose of description, and the +'thread' occurs in one of them, this is the best place to put its +description. This thread I call 'Purl,' and a thread with this name is +mentioned in several places as having been used in England in the +seventeenth century; but there is no description of it, so that this +thread may not be the 'purl' mentioned by the seventeenth-century +writers, but if it is not, I do not know what purl is, neither do I know +any other special name for the thread. In order that there may be no +doubt as to what I mean by purl, I will shortly describe the thread as I +know it. + +First there is a very fine copper wire; this is closely bound round with +coloured silk, also very fine, and in this state it looks simply like a +coloured thread. Then this coloured thread is itself closely coiled +round something like a fine knitting-needle--in fact I have made it on +one--and then pushed off in the form of a fine coiled tube. The thread +is always cut into short lengths for use, and on books these short +lengths are generally threaded and drawn together at their ends, +making, so to speak, little arches--so that although on the under side +of the material there is only a tiny thread, on the upper side there is +a strong arch, practically of copper. On boxes and other ornamental +productions of this same period, pieces of purl are not infrequently +found laid flat like little bricks; and houses, castles, etc., are often +represented by means of it; but on books the general use is either for +flowers, grounds, or (in very small pieces) to keep on spangles. +Obviously any coloured silk can be used in making this thread, so that +it may be said that for coloured silk work, where strength is required, +flowers worked in purl are the best. The colours used when roses are +represented are usually graduated,--yellow or white in the centre, then +gradually darkening outward, yellow, pale pink, and red, or pale yellow, +pale blue, and dark blue. Purl flowers are usually accessories to some +regular design, but, in one instance at least, to be described later on, +it supplies the entire decoration of a small satin book. + + +_Bible, etc._ London, 1642. + +The design on a Bible with Psalms, printed in London in 1642, bound in +fine canvas, and measuring 6 by 3-1/2 inches, is the same on both sides. +The ground is all laid, or couched, with silver threads, caught down at +intervals by small white stitches. In the centre is a circular silver +boss, and out of this grow four lilies worked with silver thread in +button-hole stitch; each of these lilies has a shape similar to its own +underneath it, outlined with fine gold cord, and filled in with red +silk; representing altogether white flowers with a red lining. These +four red and white lilies make together the form of a Maltese cross, and +between each of the arms is a purl rose with yellow centre and graduated +blue petals. A double oval, with the upper and lower curves larger than +the side ones, marked with a thick gold cord, encloses the central +cross, and the remaining spaces are filled with ovals and lines of gold +guimp, with here and there a little patch of red or yellow purl, the +extremities of the upper and lower ovals being filled with threads of +green silk loosely bound with a silver spiral, worked to represent a +green plot. + +[Illustration: 13--Bible, etc. London, 1642.] + +The upper and lower curves of the oval are thickened by an arch of gold +thread laid lengthwise, and kept in place by little radiating lines of +red silk. In each corner is a purl rose, with blue centre, the petals +graduating in colour from pale yellow to dark red, with leaf forms and +stalks of gold cord and guimp. At the top and bottom of the oval is a +many-coloured purl rose, and the spaces still left vacant are dotted +with little pieces of red, blue, and yellow purl and spangles. On the +front edges are the remains of two red silk ties. + +[Illustration: 14--Bible. London, 1648.] + +The back is divided into four panels by a thick gold twist. The upper +and lower panels have each a blue purl rose worked in them, with a white +and red lily in the same silver thread as those on the sides, with gold +leaves and stalks; the two inner panels contain each three purl roses, +with gold leaves and stems. The upper of these panels has a large rose +of blue, yellow, and red, and two smaller ones yellow with blue centres; +the lower panel has a large rose of red, pink, and yellow, and two +smaller ones of red, with yellow centres. + +Dotted about the groundwork of the panels are several spangles and short +lengths of coloured purl. + +The edges of the leaves are plainly gilt. + + +_Bible._ London, 1648. + +A Bible, printed in London in 1648, formerly the property of George +III., is bound in canvas, and has embroidered upon the boards +emblematic representations of Faith and Hope. It measures 6-3/4 by 4-3/4 +inches. + +On the upper side is a full-length figure of Faith. She has fair hair, +and is dressed in an orange and red dress cut low, and showing in the +front a pale blue under garment. She has a large white collar and cuffs, +both in point-lace, and bears in her right hand an open book with the +word 'FAITH' written upon it, while her left hand rests upon a +pointed shield, pale purple with a yellow centre. She is standing upon a +rounded hillock, on which are a strawberry plant with two fruits, two +caterpillars, a red tulip, and another flower. + +In the right-hand upper corner is a turreted and gabled house, the +windows of which are marked with little glittering pieces of talc. Below +the house is a caterpillar and a large blue butterfly. In the left-hand +upper corner is the sun, in gold, just appearing under a blue cloud. +Underneath this, in succession, come a tree with a butterfly upon it, a +bird, most likely meant for a wren, and another caterpillar. The remains +of two red tie-ribbons are near the front edges. The background is +worked in silver thread, and the edges of the boards are bound with +silver braid having a thread or two of red silk on the innermost side. + +On the under cover Hope appears in a curiously worked upper garment of +blue and white, short in the sleeves, in needlepoint, with a belt. Under +this is a dress of red and orange, showing a blue under skirt in front. +A scarf of the same colour as the dress is gracefully folded over the +shoulders and hangs over the left arm; a rather deep collar and cuffs +are both worked in needlepoint. The right hand rests upon an anchor with +a 'fouled' rope. + +Hope stands upon a rounded hillock, on which are a snail and spray of +possible foxglove, and out of which grow a red carnation and another +flower. In the upper right-hand corner is a gabled cottage with a tree, +and under it a moth, flower, and caterpillar. Towards the upper +left-hand corner is a bank of cloud with red and yellow rays issuing +therefrom, and under it a pear-tree with flower and fruit, and a +many-coloured butterfly. All the background is worked in silver thread. + +The five panels of the back, indicated with silver cord, are each filled +with a different design. Beginning at the top, these are: a rose, a +parrot with a red fruit, a double rose, a lion, and a lily. The edges +are plainly gilt. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +BOOKS BOUND IN VELVET + + +It seems probable that velvet was a favourite covering for royal books +in England from an early period. Such volumes as remain 'covered in +vellat' that belonged to Henry VII. are, however, not embroidered, +the ornamentation upon them being worked metal, or enamels +upon metal. It is not until the time of Henry VIII. that we +have any instances remaining of books bound in embroidered velvet. + +Velvet is very troublesome to work upon, the pile preventing any +delicate embroidery being done directly upon it, hence the prevalence of +gold cords and appliqué work on canvas or linen, on which of course the +embroidery may be executed as delicately as may be desired. + + +_Tres ample description de toute la terre Saincte, etc._ [By Martin de +Brion.] MS. of the sixteenth century, probably bound about +1540. + +[Illustration: 15--Tres ample description de toute la terre Saincte, +etc. MS. 1540.] + +The earliest extant English binding in embroidered velvet covers this +manuscript, which belonged to Henry VIII., and is dedicated to +him. The manuscript is on vellum, and is beautifully illuminated. It is +bound in rich purple velvet, and each side, measuring 9 by 6 inches, is +ornamented with the same design. In the centre is a large royal +coat-of-arms, surrounded by the garter, and ensigned with a royal crown. +The coat-of-arms and the garter are first worked in thick silks of the +proper colours, red and blue, laid or couched, with small stitches of +silk of the same colour, arranged so as to make a diamond pattern, on +fine linen or canvas. On the coat are the arms of France and England +quarterly; the bearings, respectively three fleur-de-lys and three +lions, are solidly worked in gold cord, and the whole is appliqué on to +the velvet with strong stitches. On the blue garter the legend 'Honi +soit qui mal y pense' is outlined in gold cord, between each word being +a small red rose, the buckle, end, and edge of the garter being marked +also in gold cord, and the whole appliqué like the coat. The very +decorative royal crown is solidly worked in gold cords of varying +thickness directly on to the velvet. The rim or circlet has five square +jewels of red and blue silk along it, between each of these being two +seed pearls. From the rim rise four crosses-patée and four +fleurs-de-lys, at the base of each of which is a pearl, and also one in +each inner corner of the crosses-patée. Four arches also rise from the +rim, the two outer ones each having three small scrolls with a pearl in +the middle; at the top is a mound and cross-patée, with a pearl in each +of its inner corners. There is a letter H on each side of the +coat-of-arms, and these letters were originally doubtless worked with +seed pearls, but the outlines of them alone are now left. In each corner +is a red Lancastrian rose worked on a piece of satin, appliqué, the +centres and petals marked in gold cord, and the whole enclosed in an +outer double border of gold cord. On the front edges of each side are +the remains of two red silk ties. + +This is certainly a very handsome piece of work, and is wonderfully +preserved. It is the earliest example of a really fine embroidered book +on velvet in existence, and it has perhaps been more noticed and +illustrated than any other book of its kind. The crown has an +interesting peculiarity about it, which does not appear, as far as I +have observed, on any other representation of it, namely, that the four +arches take their rise directly from the rim. They generally rise from +the summits of the crosses-patée, but I should fancy that the rise from +the circlet itself is more correct. + +[Illustration: 16--Biblia. Tiguri, 1543.] + + +_Biblia._ Tiguri, 1543. + +This Bible also belonged to Henry VIII. It is bound in velvet, +originally some shade of red or crimson, but now much faded. It measures +15 by 9-1/4 inches. It is ornamented with arabesques and initials all +outlined with fine gold cord. In the centre are the initials H. R., bound +together by an interlacing knot, within a circle. Arabesques above and +below the circle make up an inner panel, itself enclosed by a broad +border of arabesques, with a double, or Tudor, rose in each corner. The +edges of the leaves of the book are elaborately painted with heraldic +designs. + +It has been re-backed with leather, but still retains the original +boards. + +[Illustration: 17--Il Petrarcha. Venetia, 1544.] + + +_Il Petrarcha._ Venetia, 1544. + +Another fine example of the decorative use of Heraldry occurs on a copy +of Petrarch printed at Venice in 1544, and probably bound about 1548, +after the death of Henry VIII. It belonged to Queen Katherine +Parr, and bears her arms with several quarterings--worked appliqué on +rich blue purple velvet, and measures 7 by 6 inches. The first coat is +the 'coat of augmentation' granted to the Queen by Henry +VIII.--'Argent, on a pile gules, between six roses of the same, +three others of the field'--and the next coat is that of 'Parr.' + +The various quarterings on this coat are worked differently from those +on the last book described. Here the red and blue are well shown by +pieces of coloured satin--except in the first, fifth, and seventh coats, +where there is some couched work in diamond pattern, just like that on +Martin Brion's book. The entire coat, which is of an ornamental shape, +is appliqué in one large piece, and edged by a gold cord. The crown +surmounting it is heavily worked in gold guimp--the cap being +represented in crimson silk thread and all appliqué. There are two +supporters--that on the right, an animal breathing flame, and gorged +with a coronet from which hangs a long chain, all worked in coloured +silks on linen and appliqué, belongs to the Fitzhugh family, the coat of +which is shown on the third quarter; that on the left, a wyvern argent, +also gorged with a coronet, from which depends a long gold chain, is +that of the Parr family. The wyvern is a piece of blue silk, finished in +gold and silver cords, in appliqué. The gold cord enclosing the armorial +design is amplified at each corner into an arabesque scroll. The book +has been most unfortunately rebound, and the work is badly strained in +consequence--the back being entirely new; nevertheless it is in a +wonderful state of preservation. It is said to have been worked by Queen +Katherine Parr herself. The design is too large for the book, and the +crown is too large for the coat-of-arms. It is probable that the binding +of the book was done after the death of Henry VIII., otherwise +the supporters would have been the lion and the greyhound; also the +coat-of-arms would have been different; also, as the Seymour coat does +not appear, it is likely that the binding was done before Queen +Katherine Parr's marriage with Lord Seymour of Sudley, in 1547. The +design is the same on both sides. + +[Illustration: 18--Queen Mary's Psalter. 14th-century MS.] + + +_Queen Mary's Psalter._ 14th-century MS. Bound about 1553. + +The beautiful English manuscript of the fourteenth century known as +'Queen Mary's Psalter' was presented to her in 1553. It is bound in +crimson velvet, measuring 11 by 6-3/4 inches, and appliqué on each side +is a large conventional pomegranate-flower worked on fine linen in +coloured silks and gold thread. This flower is much worn, but enough is +left to show that it was originally finely worked. Queen Mary used the +pomegranate as a badge in memory of her mother, Katharine of Aragon. The +volume has been re-backed in plain crimson velvet, and still retains the +original gilt corners with bosses, and two clasps, on the plates of +which are engraved the Tudor emblems,--portcullis, dragon, lion, and +fleur-de-lys. + + +Christopherson, _Historia Ecclesiastica_. Lovanii, 1569. + +Many fine bindings in embroidered velvet of the time of Queen Elizabeth +still remain, several of them having been her own property. + +One of the most decorative of these last is unfortunately in a very bad +state, owing possibly to the fact that there were originally very many +separate pearls upon it, and that these have from time to time been +wilfully picked off. The book is in three volumes, and is a copy of the +_Historia Ecclesiastica_, written by Christopherson, Bishop of +Chichester, and printed at Louvain in 1569. Each of these volumes is +bound in the same way, so the description of one of them will serve for +all, except that no one volume is perfect, so the description must be +taken as representing only what each originally was. + +It is covered in deep green velvet, and measures 6 by 3-1/2 inches, the +design being the same on each side. In the centre the royal coat-of-arms +is appliqué in blue and red satin, on an ornamental cartouche of pink +satin, with scrolls of gold threads and coloured silks, richly dotted +with small pearls. The bearings on the coats-of-arms are solidly worked +in fine gold threads. + +From each corner of the sides springs a rose spray, with Tudor roses of +red silk mixed with pearls, and Yorkist roses all worked in pearls +clustering tight together, the leaves and stems being made in gold cord +and guimp. A decoratively arranged ribbon outlined with gold cord and +filled in with a line of small pearls set near each other, encloses the +design, and numerous single pearls are set in the spaces between the +roses and their leaves and stems. + +[Illustration: 20--Christian Prayers. London, 1570.] + +The back is divided into five panels bearing alternately Yorkist roses +of pearls and Tudor roses of red silk and pearls, all worked in the +same way as the roses on the sides. + +The illustration I give of this binding (Frontispiece) is necessarily a +restoration. But there is nothing added which was not originally on the +book. Each pearl that has disappeared has left a little impress on the +velvet, and so has each piece of gold cord which has been pulled off. +The back is still existing; but bad though both sides and back now are, +it is much better they should be in their present condition than that +they should have been mended or replaced in parts by newer material. + + +_Christian Prayers._ London, 1570. + +A simpler binding, but still one of great richness, covers a copy of +_Christian Prayers_, printed in London in 1570. + +This is covered in crimson velvet, measuring 6 by 3-1/2 inches, and is +worked largely with metal threads, mixed with coloured silks. In the +centre is the crest of the family of Vaughan--a man's head with a snake +round the neck. The crest rests on a fillet, and is enclosed in a +twisted circle of gold with four coloured bosses. From the upper and +lower extremities of this circle spring two flower forms in gold and +silver guimp, with sprays issuing from them bearing strawberries, grape +bunches, and leaves, in the upper half, and roses and leaves in the +lower. The grapes are represented by rather large spangles, and the +leaves, worked in gold, have a few strands of green silk in them; large +spangles, kept down by a short piece of guimp, are used to fill in +spaces here and there. This is the first instance of the use of spangles +on a velvet book. The back is tastefully ornamented with gold cord +arranged diamond-wise, and having in each diamond a flower worked in +gold. + + +Parker, _De antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ_. London, 1572. + +This is one of the embroidered books that belonged to Queen Elizabeth, +and has been frequently illustrated and described. It is remarkable in +other respects than for its binding, as it is one of a number of +probably not more than twenty copies of a work by Matthew Parker, +Archbishop of Canterbury, _De antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ_, printed +for him by John Day in London, 1572. It was the first instance of a +privately printed book being issued in England. + +[Illustration: 21--Parker, De antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ. +London, 1572.] + +Archbishop Parker had a private press, and his books were printed with +types cast at his own cost, John Day being sometimes employed as his +workman. No two copies of this particular work are alike, and it is +supposed that the Archbishop continually altered the sheets as they came +from the press and had the changes effected at once. The book has two +title-pages, each of which, as well as a leaf containing the arms of +the Bishops in vellum, the ornamental borders, and coats-of-arms +throughout the book, are emblazoned in gold and colours. + +The biographies of sixty-nine Archbishops are contained in the book, but +not Parker's own. This omission was supplied afterwards by a little +satirical tract published in 1574, entitled 'Histriola, a little storye +of the actes and life of Matthew, now archbishop of Canterbury.' + +But the Archbishop not only had his printing done under his own roof, +but also had in his house 'Paynters ... wryters, and Boke-binders,' so +that it may fairly enough be considered that he bound the splendid copy +of his great work which was intended for the Queen's acceptance, in a +specially handsome manner, under his own direct supervision, and in +accordance not only with his own taste but also with that of his royal +mistress. The volume is a large one, measuring 10 by 7 inches, and is +covered in dark green velvet. On both sides the design is a rebus on the +name of Parker, representing in fact a Park within a high paling. The +palings are represented as if lying flat, and are worked in gold cord +with flat strips of silver, on yellow satin appliqué. There are gates +and other small openings in the continuity of the line of palings. On +the upper cover within the paling is a large rose-bush, bearing a large +Tudor rose and two white roses in full bloom, with buds and leaves, +some tendrils extending over the palings. The stalks are of silver twist +edged with gold cord, the red flowers are worked with red silk and gold +cord, the white ones made up with small strips of flat silver and gold +cord. Detached flowers and tufts of grass grow about the rose-tree; +among these are two purple and yellow pansies, Elizabeth's favourite +flowers, and in each corner is a deer, one 'courant,' one 'passant,' one +feeding, and one 'lodged.' + +The design fills the side of the book very fully, and the workmanship is +everywhere excellent. This upper cover is much faded, as it has been for +many years exposed to the light in one of the Binding show-cases in the +King's Library at the British Museum. + +[Illustration: 22--The Epistles of St. Paul. London, 1578. +(_From a drawing_).] + +The under side is much fresher, but the design not so elaborate. There +is a similar paling to that on the other side, the 'Park' being dotted +about with several plants, ferns, and tufts of grass. Near each corner +is a deer, one feeding, one 'couchant,' one 'tripping,' and one +'courant,' and one 'lodged' in the centre. There are also two snakes +worked in silver thread with small colour patches in silk. + +The back is badly worn, but the original design can be easily traced +upon it. There were five panels, in each of which is a small rose-tree, +bearing one large flower, with leaves and buds, and tufts of grass. The +first, third, and fifth of these are white Yorkist roses; the second and +third are Tudor roses of white and red. + + +_The Epistles of St. Paul._ London, 1578. + +If this book of Archbishop Parker's is one of the most elaborately +ornamented embroidered books existing, and perhaps one of the greatest +treasures of its kind in the British Museum, the next velvet book to +describe is one of the simplest, yet it also is one of the greatest +treasures of its kind at the Bodleian Library. + +It is a small copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, printed by Barker in +London, 1578, and measuring 4-1/2 by 3-1/2 inches, and it belonged to +Queen Elizabeth. Inside she has written a note in which she says: 'I +walke manie times into the pleasant fieldes of the Holy Scriptures, +where I plucke up the goodlie greene herbes of sentences by pruning, +eate them by reading, chawe them by musing, and laie them up at length +in the hie seat of memorie by gathering them together, so that having +tasted thy swetenes I may the less perceive the bitterness of this +miserable life.' + +The Rev. W. D. Macray, in the _Annals of the Bodleian Library_, says, +'This belonged to Queen Elizabeth, and is bound in a covering worked by +herself'; and the Countess of Wilton, in the _Art of Embroidery_, says, +'The covering is done in needlework by the Queen herself.' + +It is also described by Dibdin in _Bibliomania_. He says, 'The covering +is done in needlework by the Queen herself.' + +The black velvet binding is much worn, and has been badly repaired. The +work upon it is all done in silver cord or guimp, and the designing, as +well as the work, is such as may well have been done by the Queen. + +On both covers borders with legends in Latin, enclosed in lines of gold +cord, run parallel to the edges. Beginning at the right-hand corners of +each side, these legends read, 'Beatus qui divitias scripturæ legens +verba vertit in opera--Celum Patria Scopus vitæ XPUS--Christus +via--Christo vive.' In the centre of the upper side is a ribbon outlined +in gold cord, with the words, 'Eleva sursum ibi ubi,' a heart being +enclosed within the ribbon, and a long stem with a flower at the top +passing through it. In the centre of the lower side a similar ribbon +with the motto, 'Vicit omnia pertinax virtus,' encloses a daisy, a badge +previously used by Henry VIII. and Edward VI., probably in memory of +their ancestress, Margaret Beaufort. Both these inner scrolls have the +initial letter E interwoven with them. + +[Illustration: 23--Christian Prayers, etc. London, 1584.] + +There is no doubt that the usual royal embroidered bindings of the +time of Elizabeth were elaborately designed and richly worked, in +decided contrast to this small book; and this difference of style makes +it more probable that the Queen worked it herself. + +There is no resemblance between this book and the two canvas-bound books +already described which are attributed to her, except the use of cord +alone in the embroidery; but the difference of material might perhaps be +considered sufficient to account for this. No real evidence seems to be +forthcoming as to the authorship of the embroidered work, but there is +no doubt that the book was a favourite one of Queen Elizabeth's, and if +the needlework had been done for her by any of the ladies of her Court, +it would be likely that she would have added a note to that effect to +the words she has written inside. + + +_Christian Prayers, etc._ London, 1584. + +A copy of _Christian Prayers_, with the Psalms, printed in London in +1581 and 1584, is curiously bound in soft paper boards strengthened on +the inner side with pieces of morocco and covered with pale tawny +velvet. It measures 7-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches. The edges of the leaves are +gilt and gauffred. + +The arrangement of the design is unusual. It starts from the centre of +the back in the form of a broad ornamental border, extending towards +the front edges along the lines of the boards. This border is +handsomely ornamented by a wavy line of silver cords, filled out with +conventional flowers and arabesques worked in gold and silver cords and +threads, with a little bit of coloured silk here and there. A +symmetrical design of flower forms and arabesques starts, on each board, +from the centre of the inner edge of the border, and is worked in a +similar way. Some of the leaves, however, have veinings marked by strips +of flat silver, and others made by a flattened silver spiral, having the +appearance of a succession of small rings. There are the remains of two +pale orange silk ties on the front edges of each board, and the edges +are gilt and gauffred with a little colour. + +The petals of the flowers are worked in guimp, whether gold or silver is +difficult to say. Indeed in many instances of the older books it is +difficult to be sure whether a metal cord or thread was originally +gilded or not, as all these 'gold' threads are, or were, silver gilt, so +that when worn the silver only remains. If the cord or thread has been +protected in any corners, however, or if it can be lifted a little, the +faint trace of gold can often be seen on what would otherwise have been +surely put down as originally silver. + +[Illustration: 24--Orationis Dominicæ Explicatio, etc. +Genevæ, 1583.] + + +_Orationis Dominicæ Explicatio, etc._ Genevæ, 1583. + +There is in the British Museum a copy of _Orationis Dominicæ Explicatio, +per Lambertum Danæum_, printed at Geneva in 1583, which belonged to +Queen Elizabeth. It is bound in black velvet, measures 6-3/4 by 4-1/4 +inches, and is ornamented most tastefully, each side having an arabesque +border in gold cord and silver guimp, enclosing a panel with a design of +white and red roses, with stems and leaves worked in gold cord and +silver guimp with a trifle of coloured silk on the red roses and on the +small leaves showing between the petals. On the front edge are the +remains of red and gold ties. The design of this charming little book is +excellent, and the colour of it when new must have been very effective. +The design is the same on both sides. The back is in bad condition, and +is panelled with arabesques in gold and silver cord. + + +_Bible._ London, 1583. + +The most decorative, and in many ways the finest, of all the remaining +embroidered books of the time of Elizabeth is now at the Bodleian +Library at Oxford. It is one of the 'Douce' Bibles, printed in London in +1583, and probably bound about the same time. It was the property of the +Queen herself, and is bound in crimson velvet, measuring 17 by 12 +inches. The design is the same on both sides, and consists of a very +cleverly arranged scroll of six rose stems, bearing flowers, buds, and +leaves springing from a large central rose, with four auxiliary scrolls +crossing the corners and intertwining at their ends. The large rose in +the centre as well as those near the corners are Tudor roses, the red +shown in red silk and the white in silver guimp, both outlined with gold +cord. Small green leaves are shown between each of the outer petals. +These flowers are heavily and solidly worked in high relief. The smaller +flowers are all of silver, the buds, some red, some white. The stems are +of thick silver twist enclosed between finer gold cords, and the leaves +show a little green silk among the gold cord with which they are +outlined and veined. Immediately above and below the centre rose are two +little T's worked in small pearls. + +[Illustration: 25--Bible. London, 1583.] + +The narrow border round the edges is very pretty; it is a wavy line of +gold cord and green silk, the hollows within the curves being filled +with alternate 'Pods' with pearls, and green leaves. The back is divided +into four panels by wavy lines of gold cord and pearls, and the upper +and lower panels have small rose-plants with white roses, buds, and +leaves; the inner panels have each a large Tudor rose of red and white, +with leaves and buds. The drawing and designing of this splendid book +are admirable, and the workmanship is in every way excellent. Many of +the pearls are gone, and some of the higher portions of the large roses +are abraded, the back, as usual, being in a rather bad state; but in +spite of all this, and the inevitable fading, the work remains in a +sufficiently preserved condition to show that at this period the art +of book-embroidery reached its highest decorative point. It is rather +curious to note that Henry VIII. used the red Lancastrian rose +by preference, but that on Elizabeth's books the white rose always +appears, and I know of very few instances where the red rose appears on +her books. Of course both sovereigns used the combined, double, or Tudor +rose as well. + +[Illustration: 26--The Commonplaces of Peter Martyr. +London, 1583.] + + +_The Commonplaces of Peter Martyr._ London, 1583. + +An embroidered book designed in a manner which is characteristic of a +gold tooled book is found but rarely. An instance of this however is +found on a copy of _The Commonplaces of Peter Martyr_, translated by +Anthonie Marten, and printed in London in 1583. It is covered in blue +purple velvet measuring 13-1/2 by 9 inches, and the design upon it is a +broad outer border doubly outlined with a curious and effective braid, +apparently consisting of a close series of small silver rings, but +really being only a silver spiral flattened out. This border is dotted +at regular intervals with star-shaped clusters of small pieces of +silver guimp symmetrically arranged. The centre of the inner panel is a +diamond-shaped ornament made with similar 'ring' braid and small pieces +of silver guimp, and the corner-pieces are quarter circles worked in the +same way. This design of centre-piece and corner-pieces is distinctly +borrowed from leather work, and I have never seen another example of the +kind executed in needlework. The colouring of this book is very good, +the purple and silver harmonising in a very pleasing manner. + +[Illustration: 27--Biblia. Antverpiæ, 1590.] + + +_Biblia._ Antverpiæ, 1590. + +A beautiful binding of green velvet covers a Bible printed at Antwerp in +1590, measuring 7 by 4 inches. The design is the same on both sides, and +the book was apparently bound for 'T. G.,' whose initials are worked into +the design; a conventional arrangement of curving stems and flower forms +worked in gold cord, guimp, and small pearls thickly encrusted; the same +on both boards. The centre is a large conventional flower, in form +resembling a carnation, with serrated petals, having a garnet below it, +and flanked by the letters T. G., all thickly worked with reed pearls. In +each corner is a smaller flower--conventionalised forms probably of +honeysuckle and rose--joined together by curving stems of gold cord, +filled out with leaves and arabesques, all together forming a very +decorative panel. The outer border is richly worked with leaves and +arabesques in guimp and pearls, the outer line of gold cord being +ornamented with small triple points marked with pearls. The back is +divided into three spaces by curving lines of gold cord, and in each of +these spaces is worked one of the same conventionalised flower forms as +occur on the boards, _i.e._ a honeysuckle, cornflower, and rose, with +leaves and smaller curves of gold cord. + +[Illustration: 28--Udall, Sermons. London, 1596. (_From a drawing_).] + +The ground of the entire work is freely ornamented with gilt spangles +held down by small pieces of guimp, and with single pearls; the larger +of these are enclosed within circles of guimp, the smaller are simply +sewn on one by one. + +There are remains of gilt clasps on the front edges of each of the +boards, and the edges of the leaves are gilt and gauffred, with a little +pale colour. + + +Udall, _Sermons_. London, 1596. + +A few specimens of embroidered books were exhibited at the Burlington +Fine Arts Club in 1891. Among them was a charming velvet binding that +belonged to Queen Elizabeth, lent by S. Sandars, Esq., and now in the +University Library, Cambridge. It is a copy of Udall's _Sermons_, +printed in London in 1596, and is covered in crimson velvet, measuring +about 6 by 4 inches. The design is the same on each side, the royal +coat-of-arms appliqué, with the initials E. R., and a double rose in each +corner with stalks and leaves. The coat-of-arms is made up with pieces +of blue and red satin, the bearings heavily worked with gold thread, and +the ground also thickly studded with small straight pieces of guimp, +doubtless put there to insure the greater flatness of the satin. The +crown with which the coat-of-arms is ensigned is all worked in guimp, +and is without the usual cap. The ornaments on the rim are only +trefoils, and there are five arches. + +The initials flanking the coat are worked in guimp, as are the corner +roses and leaves. The guimp used is apparently silver, and the cord used +for the outlines and stems is gold. The back has a gold line down the +middle and along the joints, with a wavy line of gold cord each side of +it. + +[Illustration: 29--Collection of Sixteenth-Century Tracts.] + + +_Collection of Sixteenth-Century Tracts._ Bound about 1610. + +To Henry, Prince of Wales, we owe a great debt of gratitude, as he was +the first person of much consequence in our royal family to take any +real interest in the Old Royal Library. + +Indeed it may be considered that the existence to-day of the splendid +'Old Royal' Library of the kings of England, which was presented to +the nation in 1759 by George II., is largely due to the +attention drawn to its interest and value by Prince Henry, who moreover +added considerably to it himself. + +This Prince used as his favourite and personal badge the beautiful +design of three white ostrich feathers within a golden coronet, and with +the motto 'ICH DIEN' on a blue ribbon. With regard to the +origin of this badge there is unfortunately a good deal of obscurity. +The usual explanation is that it was the helmet-crest of the blind king +of Bohemia, who was killed at Crécy in 1346, and that in remembrance of +this it was adopted by the Black Prince as his badge. But, as a matter +of fact, the ostrich feather was used as a family badge by all the sons +of Edward III. and their descendants. It appears to have been +the cognisance of the province of Ostrevant, a district lying between +Artois and Hainault, and the appanage of the eldest sons of the house of +Hainault. In this way it may have been adopted by the family of Edward +III. by right of his wife, Philippa of Hainault. + +An early notice of the ostrich feather as a royal badge occurs in a note +in one of the Harleian MSS. to the effect that 'Henrye, son to +the erle of Derby, fyrst duke of Lancaster, gave the red rose crowned, +whose ancestors gave the fox tayle in his proper cooler, and the ostrych +fether, the pen ermine,' the Henry here mentioned being the father of +Blanche, wife of John of Gaunt. + +On the tomb of Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII., at Worcester, +the feather is shown both singly and in plume, and it occurs in the +triple plume form within a coronet and a scroll with the words 'ICH +DIEN' upon it, on bindings made by Thomas Berthelet for Prince +Edward, son of Henry VIII., who never was Prince of Wales. + +It really seems as if the first 'Prince of Wales' actually to use the +ostrich feather plumes as a personal badge of that dignity was Prince +Henry, and it occurs largely on such books belonging to his library as +he had rebound, and also on books that were specially bound for +presentation to him. + +This is the case in one of the most decorative bindings he possessed, +enclosing a collection of tracts originally the property of Henry +VIII., but which somehow or other became the property of +Magdalen College, Cambridge, the governing body of which had it bound in +embroidered velvet and presented to Prince Henry. + +[Illustration: 30--Bacon, Opera. Londini, 1623.] + +The cover is of crimson velvet, the edges of which extend freely beyond +the edges of the book, bound all round with a fringe of gold cord. It +measures about 8 by 6 inches. The design is the same on each side. In +the centre is a large triple plume of ostrich feathers, thickly and +beautifully worked in small pearls, within a golden coronet, and having +below them the motto 'ICH DIEN' in gold upon a blue silk +ribbon. + +The badge is enclosed in a rectangular panel of gold cords, in each +corner of which is an ornamental spray of gold cords, guimp, and a +flower in pearls. A broad border with a richly designed arabesque of +gold guimp or cord, with pearl flowers, encloses the central panel. The +design is filled in freely with small pearls enclosed in guimp circles +and small pearls alone. + +The back has an ornamental design in gold cord and guimp. This cover is +a beautiful specimen of later decorative work on velvet, and the general +effect is extremely rich, the design and workmanship being equally well +chosen as regards the materials to which they are applied, and with +which they are worked. + + +Bacon, _Opera_. Londini, 1623. + +A copy of the works of Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, printed in +London in 1623, is bound in rich purple velvet, and measures 13-1/4 by +8-3/4 inches. The design is a central panel with arabesque centre and +corners, surrounded by a deep border of close curves and arabesques, all +worked in gold cord and guimp. There are several gold spangles used, +kept down by a small piece of gold guimp. The front edges of each board +have only the marks left where two ties originally were, and the edges +of the book are simply gilt. + +[Illustration: 31--Bacon, Essays. 1625.] + + +Bacon, _Essays_. 1625. + +A copy of another work by the same author, the Essays printed in 1625, +was given by him to the Duke of Buckingham, and is now at the Bodleian +Library at Oxford. It is bound in dark green velvet, measuring about 7 +by 5 inches, the same design being embroidered on each side. In the +centre is a small panel portrait of the Duke of Buckingham, with short +beard, and wearing the ribbon of the Garter. The portrait is mostly +worked with straight perpendicular stitches, except the hair and collar, +in which the stitches are differently arranged. The background merges +from nearly white just round the head to pink at the outer edge; the +coat is brownish. The framework of the portrait is solidly worked in +gold braids and silver guimp in relief, the design being of an +architectural character. Two columns, with floral capitals and +pediments, spring from a scroll-work base and support what may perhaps +be intended for a gothic arch with crockets. Immediately above the crown +of the arch is a ducal coronet, and a handsome border of elaborate +arabesques reaching far inwards is worked all round the edges. The +outlines of these arabesques, the stalks and curves, are all worked in +gold cords, the petals and leaves in silver guimp in relief. The back +is divided into eight panels by gold and silver cords, and in each of +these panels is a four-petalled flower with small circles. There are +several gilt spangles kept down by a small piece of guimp. + +[Illustration: 32--Common Prayer. London, 1638.] + + +_Common Prayer._ London, 1638. + +Among the few older royal books in the library at Windsor Castle is an +embroidered one that belonged to Prince Charles, afterwards Charles +II. It is a copy of the _Book of Common Prayer_, printed in +London in 1638, and is bound in blue velvet with embroidered work in +gold cord and silver guimp, similar in character to that on the copy of +Bacon's _Essays_ just described. It measures 8 by 6 inches. The design +is heraldic. In the centre is the triple plume of the Prince of Wales, +with coronet and label, no motto being apparent on the latter. The plume +is encircled by the Garter appliqué, on pale blue silk, the motto, +worked in silver cord, being nearly worn off. Resting on the top of the +Garter is a large princely coronet, flanking which are the letters +'C. P.' In the lower corners are a thistle and a rose. A broad border +with arabesques encloses the central panel. This book was exhibited by +Her Majesty at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1891. It is in very bad +condition, which is curious, as it is not so very old, and as it is +still among the royal possessions it might well have been imagined that +it would have been better preserved than other and older books of a like +kind which we know have been considerably moved about. The colour is +however very charming still, and books have rarely been bound in blue +velvet, black, green, or crimson being most usual. + +After 1649, or thereabouts, there was a full stop for a time to any art +production in the matter of bookbinding. Indeed, for the embroidered +books as a class that is the end, but nevertheless a few examples are +found at a later date, but no regular production and no original +designs. + +[Illustration: 33--Bible. Cambridge, 1674.] + + +_Bible._ Cambridge, 1674. + +A large Bible printed at Cambridge in 1674, in two volumes, was bound in +crimson velvet for James II., presumably about 1685. The work +upon it, each volume being the same, is of a showy character, good and +strong, but utterly wanting in any of the artistic qualities either of +design or execution which characterised so many of the earlier examples. +In the centre are the initials 'J. R.' surmounted by a royal crown, +heavily worked in gold braid, guimp, and some coloured silks. Enclosing +the initials and crown are scrolls in thick gold twist; these again are +surrounded by a curving ribbon of gold, intertwined with roses and +leafy sprays. In each corner is a silver-faced cherub with beads for +eyes and gold wings, and at the top a small blue cloud with sun rays, +tears dropping from it. There are two broad silk ties to the front of +each board, heavily fringed with gold. + +The back is divided into nine panels, each containing an arabesque +ornament worked in gold cord and thread, the first and last panels being +larger than the others and containing a more elaborate design. The edges +of the leaves are simply gilt, and the boards measure 18 by 12 inches +each, the largest size of any embroidered book known to me. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BOOKS BOUND IN SATIN + + +_Collection of Sixteenth-Century Tracts._ Bound probably about 1536. + +[Illustration: 34--Collection of Sixteenth-Century Tracts.] + +Perhaps the earliest existing English book bound in satin is a +collection of sixteenth-century tracts that belonged to Henry +VIII., and is now part of the Old Royal Library in the British +Museum. It is covered in red satin, measures 12 by 8 inches, and is +embroidered in an arabesque design, outlined with gold cord. On the +edges the words 'Rex in aeternum vive Neez' are written in gold. The +word 'Neez' or 'Nez,' as it is sometimes spelt, may mean Nebuchadnezzar, +as the other words were addressed to him. On books bound in leather by +Thomas Berthelet, royal binder to Henry VIII. and his immediate +successors, the motto often occurs, and as he is known to have bound +books in 'crymosyn satin,' this is most likely his work. The pattern is +worked irregularly all round the boards, and a sort of arabesque bridge +crosses the centres. The back is new, and of leather, but the boards +themselves are the original ones, and the embroidery is in a very fair +condition. + +[Illustration: 35--New Testament in Greek. Leyden, 1570.] + + +_New Testament in Greek._ Leyden, 1576. + +If early bindings in satin are rare, still rarer is the use of silk. One +example worked on white ribbed silk still remains that belonged to Queen +Elizabeth. It measures 4-3/4 by 2-3/4 inches, and in its time was no +doubt a very decorative and interesting piece of work, but it is now in +a very dilapidated state, largely due to improper repairing. The book +has actually been rebound in leather, and the old embroidered sides +stuck on. So it must be remembered that my illustration of it is +considerably restored. The design, alike on both sides, is all outlined +with gold cords and twists of different kinds and thicknesses, and the +colour is added in water-colours on the silk. In the centre is the royal +coat-of-arms within an oval garter ensigned with a royal crown, in the +adornment of which a few seed pearls are used, as they are also on the +ends of the garter. + +Enclosing the coat-of-arms is an ornamental border of straight lines and +curves, worked with a thick gold twist, intertwined with graceful sprays +of double and single roses, outlined in gold and coloured red, with buds +and leaves. A few symmetrical arabesques, similarly outlined and +coloured, fill in some of the remaining spaces. The work on this book, a +_New Testament in Greek_, printed at Leyden in 1576, is like no other; +but the general idea of the design, rose-sprays cleverly intertwined, is +one that may be considered characteristic of the Elizabethan embroidered +books, as it frequently occurs on them. The use of water-colour with +embroidery is very rare, and it is never found on any but silk or satin +bindings, generally as an adjunct in support of coloured-silk work over +it, but in this single instance it is used alone. + + +_Seventeenth-Century Embroidered Books._ + +The books described hitherto have been specimens of rare early +instances, but in the seventeenth century there is a very large field to +choose from. Small books, mostly religious works, were bound in satin +from the beginning of the century until the time of the Commonwealth in +considerable numbers; so much so, in fact, that their value depends not +so much upon their designs or workmanship as upon their condition. + +It is generally considered that embroidered books are extremely +delicate, but this is not so; they will stand far more wear than would +be imagined from their frail appearance. The embroidered work actually +protects the satin, and such signs of wear as are visible are often +found rather in the satin itself, where unprotected, than in the work +upon it. In many cases a peculiar appearance, which is often mistaken +for wear, is seen in the case of representations of insects, +caterpillars, or butterflies particularly. These creatures, or parts of +them, appear to consist only of slight stitches of plain thread, +suggesting either that the work has never been finished, or else that +the finished portions have worn away. The real fact is, however, that +these places have been originally worked with small bright pieces of +peacock's feather, which have either tumbled out or been eaten away by +minute insects, a fate to which it is well known peacocks' feathers are +particularly liable. + +The late Lady Charlotte Schreiber, who was a great collector of pieces +of old embroidery, among a host of other curious things possessed the +only perfect instance of work of this kind of the seventeenth century I +have ever been fortunate enough to find. It was a very realistic +caterpillar, closely and completely worked with very small pieces of +peacocks' feathers, sewn on with small stitches, quite confirming the +opinion I had already formed as to the original filling in of the usual +'bald' spaces representing such objects. + + +_Bible._ London, 1619. + +A copy of a Bible, printed in London in 1619, is bound in white satin, +and measures 6 by 3-1/2 inches. On each side is an emblematic figure +enclosed in an oval; the figures are different, but their surroundings +are alike. On the upper side a lady holding a palm branch in her right +hand is worked in shading-stitch. She is full length, and wears an +orange skirt with purple robe over it confined by a blue belt, and over +her shoulders a pink jacket--all these garments are outlined by a gold +cord. Her fair hair is covered by an ornamental cap of red and gold, and +her feet are bare. + +The ground is worked with coloured silks and threads of fine wire +closely twisted round with coloured silks, and the sky, painted in +gradations of pink in water-colours, is worked sparsely with long +stitches of blue silk. + +[Illustration: 36--Bible. London, 1619.] + +The lower side shows a female figure worked in a similar way; in this +case she bears in her right hand some kind of wand or spray, which has +nearly worn off, and in her left a bunch of corn or grapes, or something +of that kind which has also badly worn away. If the first figure may be +considered to represent Peace, this one may perhaps be Plenty. She wears +a deep purplish skirt, with full over-garment and body of the same +colour, with an under-jacket of white and gold. On her dark hair she has +a blue flower with red leaves. Her feet are bare. The ground and sky are +both worked in the same way as the other side. Both figures are +enclosed in a flat oval border of gold thread, broad at the top and +narrowing towards the foot. In the corners are symmetrical arabesques +thickly worked in gold, and within the larger spaces in each +corner-piece are the 'remains' of feathered caterpillars, now skeleton +forms of threads only. The back of the book is particularly good, and +most beautifully worked. It is divided into five panels, within each of +which is a conventional flower, a cornflower alternating with a +carnation, and the colours of all of these are marvellously fresh and +effective. Among embroidered panelled backs it is probably the finest +specimen existing. + +[Illustration: 37--Emblemes Chrestiens. MS 1624.] + + +_Emblemes Chrestiens_, par Georgette de Montenay. MS. à +Lislebourg. [Edinburgh] 1624. + +Charles I., when he was Prince of Wales, often used the +book-stamps that had been cut for his brother Henry, and he also +particularly liked the triple plume of ostrich feathers. It occurs, as +has been shown, on one of Prince Henry's velvet-bound books, and it +forms the central design on the satin binding of an exquisite manuscript +written by Esther Inglis, a celebrated calligraphist, who lived in the +seventeenth century. It is a copy of the _Emblemes Chrestiens_, by +Georgette de Montenay, dedicated to Prince Charles, covered in red satin +embroidered with gold and silver threads, cords, and guimp, with a few +pearls, measuring 11-1/4 by 7-3/4 inches. In the centre is the triple +ostrich plume within a coronet, enclosed in an oval wreath of laurel +tied with a tasselled knot. A rectangular border closely filled with +arabesques runs parallel to the edges of the boards, and there is a +fleuron at each of the inner corners. In all cases the design is +outlined in gold cord, and the thick parts of the design are worked in +silver guimp. There are several spangles, and on the rim of the coronet +are three pearls. + + +_New Testament._ London, 1625. + +One of the most curious embroidered satin bindings still left is now in +the Bodleian Library, and a slightly absurd tradition about it says that +the figure of David, which certainly is something like Charles +I., is clothed in a piece of a waistcoat that belonged to that king. + +[Illustration: 38--New Testament. London, 1625.] + +It is a New Testament, printed in London in 1625, and covered in white +satin, with a different design embroidered on each side. It measures +4-1/2 by 3-1/2 inches. On the upper board is David with a harp. He wears +a long red cloak lined with ermine, with a white collar, an +under-garment of pale brown, and high boots with spur-straps and red +tops. On his head is a royal crown of gold with red cap, and he is +playing upon a golden harp. The face of this figure resembles that of +Charles I. The red cloak is worked in needlepoint lace, and is +in deep folds in high relief. These folds are actually modelled in waxed +paper, the needlework being stretched over them, and probably fixed on +by a gentle heat. The other parts of the dress are worked in the same +way, but without the waxed paper, and the edges of the garments are in +some places marked with what might be called a metal fringe, made in a +small recurring pattern. + +David is standing upon a grass plot, represented by small arches of +green purl, and before him is sitting a small dog with a blue collar. +Above the dog is a small yellow and black pansy, then a large blue +'lace' butterfly, on a chenille patch, and a brown flying bird. Behind +David there is a tall conventional lily and a flying bird. The sky is +overcast with heavy clouds of red and blue, but a golden sun with tinsel +rays is showing under the larger of them. On the lower board is a +representation of Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham is dressed +in a red under-garment on waxed paper, in heavy folds with a belt and +edge of stamped-out metal, a blue flowing cape and high boots, all +worked in needlepoint lace in coloured silks. + +In his right hand he holds a sword, and his tall black hat is on the +ground beside him. On the ground towards the left is Isaac in an +attitude of prayer, his hands crossed, with two sheaves of firewood. He +wears a red coat with a small blue cape. The ground is green and brown +chenille. Above Isaac is a gourd, and above this a silver ram caught in +a bush, on a patch of grass indicated by green purl. The sky is occupied +by a large cloud, out of which leans an angel with wings, the hands +outstretched and restraining Abraham's sword. + +On the back are four panels, containing respectively from the top a +butterfly, a rose, a bird, and a yellow tulip, all worked in needlepoint +and appliqué. The pieces that are in high relief all over the book are +edged with gold twist, and have moreover their counterparts under them +closely fastened down to the satin. There are several gold spangles in +the various spaces between the designs; the whole is edged with a strong +silver braid, and there are two clasps with silver attachments. + +Considering the high relief in which much of this work is done, the +binding is in wonderful preservation, but many of the colours are badly +faded, as it has been exposed to the action of light in one of the +show-cases for many years. Although no doubt it is advisable to expose +many treasures in this way, it must be admitted that in the case of +embroidered books it is frequently, if not always, a cause of rapid +deterioration, so much so that I should almost think in these days of +good chromo-printing it would be worth the while of the ruling powers of +our great museums to consider whether it would not be wiser to exhibit +good colour prints to the light and keep the precious originals in safe +obscurity, to be brought out, of course, if required by students. + +[Illustration: 39--New Testament and Psalms. London, 1630.] + + +_New Testament and Psalms._ London, 1630. + +Several small English books of the seventeenth century were bound +'double,' _i.e._ two volumes side by side, so as to open different ways +(compare p. 38). Each of the books, which are always of the same size, +has a back and one board to itself, the other board, between them, being +common to both. As already stated, this form of book occurs rarely in +canvas bindings, and it is of commoner occurrence in satin. + +A design which is frequently met with is well shown in the case of a +double specimen containing the New Testament and the Psalms, printed in +London in 1630, and covered in white satin, measuring 4-1/4 by 2 inches, +the ornamentation being the same on both sides. In the centre, in an +oval, is a delicately worked iris of many colours in feather-stitch, the +petals edged with fine silver cord. The oval is marked by a silver cord, +beyond which are ornamental arabesques outlined in cord and filled in +solidly, in high relief, with silver thread. + +The backs are divided into five panels, containing alternately flowers +in red, blue, and green silks, and star shapes in silver thread in high +relief. Silver spangles have been freely used, but most of them have now +gone; the edges of the leaves are gilt and gauffred in a simple dotted +pattern. To the middle of the front edge of one of the boards is +attached a long green ribbon of silk which wraps round both volumes. + + +Henshaw, _Horæ Successivæ_. London, 1632. + +[Illustration: 40--Henshaw, Horæ Successivæ. London, 1632.] + +Henshaw's _Horæ Successivæ_, printed in London in 1632, is bound in +white satin, and measures 4-1/2 by 2 inches. It is very delicately and +prettily worked in a floral design, the same on both sides, and is +remarkable for its simplicity--a flower with stalk and leaves in the +centre, one in each corner, and an insect in the spaces between them. +The centre flower is a carnation, round it are pansy, rose, cornflower, +and strawberry, while between them are a caterpillar, snail, butterfly, +and moth. All of these are delicately worked in feather-stitch in the +proper colours, and edged all round with fine gold cord; the stalks are +of the same cord used double. On the strawberries there is some fine +knotted work. + +The back is divided into four panels, containing a cornflower, rose, +pansy, and strawberry, worked exactly in the same way as their +prototypes on the sides. There were several gold spangles on sides and +back, but many of them have been broken off, and on the front edges of +each board are the remains of pale green ties of silk. + +[Illustration: 41--Psalms. London, 1633.] + + +_Psalms._ London, 1633. + +A copy of the Psalms, printed in London in 1633, is bound in white +satin, embroidered in coloured silks worked in satin-stitch, and +measures 3 by 2 inches. On the upper board is a gentleman dressed in the +style of the period, with trunk hose of red and yellow, a short jacket +of the same colouring, and a long, reddish cape. He has a broad-brimmed +hat with coloured feathers, a large white collar, and a sword in his +right hand. Near him is a beetle, and in the sky a blue cloud, and he is +standing upon a grass mound. On the lower board is the figure of a lady +in a deep pink dress, with white collar and cap. She holds a tall red +lily in her right hand, and in the upper left-hand corner is a small +cloud under which the sun is just appearing, and in the lower corner is +a small flower. The lady is standing upon a small green mound. The +outlines of both figures, as well as the inner divisions between the +various garments, are marked with a gold or silver thread. + +The back is divided into four panels, in which are a fly, a rose, a +larger fly, and a blue flower. The outlines and legs of both the insects +were marked originally with small pieces of peacocks' feathers, but the +upper fly has lost most of these; the lower one, however, more +ornamental, shows them clearly, and has the thorax still in excellent +preservation, glittering with little points of green and gold. There is +one broad ribbon of striped silk attached to the lower board. + +This little book, which is in a wonderful state of preservation, has +been always kept in the beautiful embroidered bag which I have described +already on p. 16. + + +_Psalms._ London, 1635. + +One of the most finely embroidered bindings existing on satin occurs on +a small copy of the Psalms, printed in London in 1635, and measuring +3-1/2 by 3 inches. The design is one which has been repeated in other +sizes with small differences. There is a larger specimen at the +Bodleian, but the British Museum example is the finer altogether. + +[Illustration: 42--Psalms. London, 1635.] + +On each side there is an oval containing an elaborate design most +delicately worked in feather-stitch, the edges and outlines marked with +very fine gold twist. On the upper board there is a seated allegorical +figure with cornucopia, probably representing Plenty. Behind her is an +ornamental landscape with a piece of water, the bright lines of which +are feelingly rendered with small stitches of silver thread, hills with +trees, and a castle in the distance. The other side has a similarly +worked figure of Peace, a seated figure holding a palm branch; the +landscape is of a similar character to that on the upper board, but the +river or lake has a bridge over it. The work itself is of the same very +delicate kind, the edges and folds of the dress being marked with fine +gold twist. + +Each of these ovals is marked by a solid framework with scrolls, +strongly made with silver threads, and in high relief; in each corner is +a very finely worked flower or fruit, pansy, strawberry, tulip, and +lily. The back is divided into four panels, a very decorative +conventional flower being worked in each, representing probably a red +lily, a tulip, a blue and yellow iris, and a daffodil. The edges of the +boards are bound with a broad silver braid, the edges of the leaves are +gilded and prettily gauffred, and there are remains of four silver ties. + + +_Psalms._ London, 1633. + +There is often much speculation as to who can have worked the English +embroidered books, and it is very rarely that any reliable information +on this interesting point is available. + +There is, however, a manuscript note in a copy of the Psalms, printed in +1633 and bound in embroidered white satin, that the work upon it was +done by 'Elizabeth, wife of Matthew Wren, Bishop of Ely,' who was an +uncle of the architect. The volume still belongs to a member of the +family, Dr. W. T. Law of Portland Place, who has most kindly allowed me +to give an illustration of this beautiful book. It measures 4 by 3 +inches. The design is different in details on each board, the central +design, however, being in each case contained within a strongly worked +gold border in high relief, widening out at each extremity into a +crownlike form, and richly augmented at intervals with clusters of seed +pearls. On the upper board within the oval is a double rose with curving +stem, leaves, and a bud; the petals are worked in needlepoint, with fine +gold twist at the edges, and a cluster of pearls in the centre. In the +upper corners are a butterfly, with needlepoint wings, and a bird, with +needlepoint wing and tail. In the lower corners are a unicorn and an +antlered stag, both recumbent, and in high relief. + +[Illustration: 43--Psalms. London, 1633.] + +On the lower board within the oval is a vine, with curving stem and two +large grape clusters, tendrils, and leaves, growing from a small green +mound. The edges of the petals are bound with a fine gold twist, as are +also the edges and outlines of the leaves, and most of these parts are +worked in coloured silks, mixed with fine metal threads, in needlepoint +lace-stitch. + +A few hazel-nuts are scattered about outside the gold oval, and in each +corner is a further ornamentation: a reddish butterfly with wings of +needlepoint lace in relief and edged with a gold cord, a green parrot +with red wings and tail, are in the two top corners, and in the two +lower are a rabbit and a dog, each on a small green ground. Innumerable +gold spangles are all over the sides and back, each kept in place by a +small pearl stitched through. + +The back is divided into five panels, by rows of pearls, and a +conventional flower is in each, except the centre one which has an +insect. These are all worked in needlepoint and edged with gold twist, +the stems of some of them strongly made by a kind of braid of gold +cords. + +This little book is certainly one of the most ornamental specimens of +any of the smaller satin-bound books of the seventeenth century, and +although here and there some of the pearls are gone, altogether it is in +very good condition, and it is rarely that such a fine example can now +be met with in private hands. + + +_Bible._ London, 1638. + +[Illustration: 44--Bible. London, 1638.] + +Several of the embroidered books on satin are worked chiefly in metal +threads, and the designs on such books are not as a rule good. Whether +the knowledge that the work was to be executed in strong threads has +hampered the designer or not cannot be said, but certainly there is +often a tinselly effect about these bindings that is not altogether +pleasing. + +In the case of a Bible printed in London in 1638, bound in white satin, +and measuring 6 by 3 inches, one of the chief ornaments is a cherub's +head, the face in silver and the hair and wings in gold. The working of +this head and wings seems to me wrong. The face is, possibly enough, as +well done as the material would allow, but the hair is made in small +curls of gold thread, and the feathers of the wings are rendered in a +naturalistic way with pieces of flat gold braid. This kind of realism is +out of place in embroidery, and it is unfortunately characteristic of +the English embroidered work of about this period, occurring generally +on boxes, mirror frames, or the like, but only rarely on book-covers. +The design is the same on both sides; a narrow arch of thick gold cord +reaches about three-quarters up the side, and interwoven with it is a +kind of cusped oval, with leaves, reaching up to the top of the book. +The lower half of the arch is enclosed in a rectangular band of silver +threads, broad and kept in place by transverse bars at regular +intervals, and beyond it another row, made of patches of red and blue +silk alternately. In the lower part of the oval is a ground of green +silk, on which grow two double roses made of red purl. In the space +enclosed between the top of the arch and the lower point of the oval +is a bird worked in high relief in gold with a touch of red silk on +his wings. Over the bird is a blue cloud, heavily worked in blue silk, +and beneath is a small grass plot. The cherub's head already described +is in the space between the top of the arch and the upper extremity of +the oval; it is flanked by two small red purl roses. The two upper +corners have undulating clouds in blue silk, and a red and yellow purl +rose between them. There are several gold spangles all about, and +innumerable small pieces of coloured purl. + +The back is divided into four panels, in which are, alternately, a +rose-tree on which are two red roses with yellow centres and green +leaves, growing from a grass plot, and a blue rose with yellow centre +and green leaves under a red cloud with silver rays. There are several +spangles and some small pieces of coloured purl scattered about in the +spaces. + +The book is in excellent condition, owing, no doubt, to the fact that +most of it is in metal, but it is representative of the lowest level to +which the art of the embroidered book in England has ever fallen. + + +_Psalms._ London, 1639. + +A charming little piece of delicate workmanship occurs in a copy of the +Psalms, printed in London in 1639, and bound in white satin. It measures +3 by 2 inches. The design on each side is the same, but the work is +slightly different. A tall rose-tree, with gold stem, grows from a small +chenille base, the rose petals beautifully worked in the finest of +stitches, as well as the leaves, all of which are outlined with fine +gold thread. From the lower branches of the rose-tree hang on one side a +violet, and on the other a pansy, each worked in the same way as the +rose, and edged with fine gold thread. The back is divided into four +panels, containing respectively a cornflower, a pomegranate, a fruit, +perhaps meant for an apple, and a honeysuckle, all conventionally +treated and very delicately worked. The edge is bound all round with a +strong braid, and there is one tie of broad, cherry-silk ribbon. With +this book is its canvas bag, embroidered in silver ground with +coloured-silk flowers and tassels of silver, the general design and +workmanship of which nearly resembles that of the finer bag already +described at page 16. The silver has turned nearly black, as is usually +the case with these bags. + +[Illustration: 45--Psalms. London, 1639.] + +[Illustration: 46--The Way to True Happiness. London, 1639.] + + +_The Way to True Happiness._ London, 1639. + +A copy of _The Way to True Happiness_. printed in London in 1639, is +bound in white satin, and embroidered with figures of David and a Queen. +It is a little larger than the majority of the satin-embroidered books, +measuring 7 by 4-1/2 inches, and is, for its time, a very fine specimen. +Both figures stand under an archway with columns, all worked heavily in +silver cord, guimp, and thread. The columns have ornamental capitals and +a spiral running round their shafts, and the upper edge of the arch is +ornamented with crockets of a peculiar shape. Within this archway, on +the upper cover, is a full-length figure of a Queen, finely worked in +split-stitch with coloured silks. She wears a red dress with long, +falling sleeves, a purple body and gold collar. On her head is a golden +crown, with six points. She carries, in her left hand, a golden sceptre, +and has also a golden belt. The outlines are everywhere marked either +with a gold or silver twist. On the ground, which is in small hillocks, +grow a strawberry and two other small plants; a snail is also shown. +Scattered about the field are a 'skeleton' caterpillar--at one time +probably filled in with peacocks' feathers,--a conventional lily, a +butterfly, and the sun, with rays, just appearing from under a cloud. In +the two upper corners are flowers, a pansy and another, and smaller ones +down each side. + +On the lower board, within the arch, is a figure of David. He wears a +short tunic of orange and silver, with vandyked edge, and a short skirt +of blue and silver, with a long cloak of cream, pink, and silver, +clasped with a silver brooch; on his head he wears a silver crown, with +a red cap and green and red feathers; on his feet are brown, high boots. +In his left hand is a silver harp of ornamental pattern, and in his +right a silver sceptre with a little gold about it. The ground, in +hillocks, has a few small flowers growing upon it, and a large tulip is +just in front of the King; on the field are also a moth and a snail. At +the top is a blue cloud. The upper corners have a red and yellow tulip +and a pansy with bud in them, and smaller flowers are worked down each +side. The back is very tastefully ornamented with an undulating scroll +of gold cord, widening out here and there into conventional leaves of +gold guimp in relief. On this scroll are sitting three birds, and there +are also a bunch of grapes, a tulip, daffodil, and other flowers with +leaves, conventionally treated, all worked in coloured silks. + +There are the remains of two red and yellow silk ties on the front edges +of each board, and the edges of the leaves are gilded and gauffred. With +this book is a canvas bag, simply ornamented with a design worked in red +silk. + +[Illustration: 47--New Testament. London, 1640.] + + +_New Testament._ London, 1640. + +The curious little New Testament of 1625, now at Oxford, which I have +already described, is perhaps the earliest example left on which +needlepoint lace in coloured silks is much employed. + +It occurs again largely on another small New Testament, printed in 1640, +bound in white satin, measuring 4-1/2 by 2-1/4 inches; now in the +British Museum. In this case the artist has not attempted the difficult +task of producing a satisfactory figure in needlework, but has very +properly limited her skill to the reproduction of flower and animal +forms. On the upper cover is a spray of columbine, the petals of which, +pink and blue, are each worked separately in needlepoint lace stitch, +and afterwards tacked on to a central rib. The stalks and leaves of this +spray are also worked in needlepoint, and on the top sits a bullfinch, +worked in many colours in the same way, but fastened down close to the +satin all round. In the corners are a beetle, a nondescript flower, a +bud, and a butterfly with coloured wings in needlepoint, with replicas +of them closely appliqués just underneath, on the satin. On the lower +board is a spray of a five-petalled blue flower, the petals of which +were originally worked in needlepoint and fastened on a central rib, but +they have now all gone except two, leaving the rib of thick pink braid. +The supporting replicas underneath are, however, perfect, showing what +the original upper petals were like. This spray has two leaves, +exquisitely worked in needlepoint, and fastened by a stitch at one end, +with the usual flat replicas underneath them, and there is also a bud. +The stem is a piece of green braid. Above the spray is a parrot in +needlepoint, most of him fastened down round the edges, but his wings +and tail left free. In the upper corner are two strawberries, and in the +lower a butterfly, with coloured wings, left free in needlepoint. There +are also two caterpillars on this side. + +On the back are three large flowers heavily worked in silk and metal +threads, in needlepoint, and appliqués--a pansy, lily, and rose, with +stalks of green braid. The boards are edged all round with a gold braid, +and there are two green silk ties on each for the front edges. There are +several gold spangles all about, but many more have gone. The work on +both boards is very delicate, but that on the back is curiously coarse. +Such imitative work as the needlepoint, which is perhaps seen at its +best in the columbine, and the leaves on this book, is at all times a +dangerous thing to use, except when it is only used as appliqué, as in +the beautiful cover belonging to this book, which I have described on +page 18, and the work on which is very likely by the same skilled hand +as that on the book. I believe this use of the needlepoint, or +button-hole stitch, is only found in English work; it is exactly the same +as is used on the old Venetian and other so-called 'point' laces, but +executed in fine-coloured silk instead of linen thread, and without +open spaces. + +[Illustration: 48--Psalms. London, 1641.] + + +_Psalms._ London, 1641. + +Nicholas Ferrar's establishment at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire is +often credited with having produced embroidered books, but there is +really no authority for the belief. All the authentic bindings which +came from Little Gidding have technical shortcomings from a bookbinding +point of view, none of which are found on any embroidered books. + +In the _History of the Worthies of England_, by Thomas Fuller, there is +a short note about Little Gidding, and he says about the ladies there +that 'their own needles were emploied in learned and pious work to binde +Bibles.' This note and the mention of needles may have perhaps given the +start to the belief that embroidered work was intended, but in all +probability it only refers to the sewing of the leaves of the books upon +the bands of the back, which is done with needle and thread. Moreover, +the ladies of Little Gidding did actually sew the backs of their books +in a needlessly elaborate way, putting in ten or twelve bands where +three or four would have been ample. I also think that if embroidery had +been intended by the sentence above quoted, it would have been more +clearly mentioned. To 'emploie needles to bind Bibles' is hardly the +description one would expect if the meaning was that when bound the +Bibles were covered in embroidered work; but it may be safely +interpreted as it is written, the sewing being a most important part of +a bookbinding, and one likely to be much thought of by amateur binders, +as the nieces of Nicholas Ferrar were. + +The attribution of embroidered bindings to Little Gidding may also have +been strengthened by the fact that many of the bindings made there are +in velvet, the ornamentation on which, though it is actually stamped in +gold and silver, does to some extent suggest embroidery. Indeed, I have +myself heard the remark, on showing one of these books, 'Oh, yes! +Embroidery.' + +Again, a peculiarity of the Little Gidding books is, generally, their +large size, whereas the embroidered books, especially the satin ones, +are usually very small. + +[Illustration: 49--Psalms. London, 1643.] + +One of the embroidered books thus wrongly credited to Little Gidding is +a Psalter, printed in London in 1641. It is bound in white satin, very +tastefully embroidered, the same design being on each side, and measures +4 by 2 inches. In the centre is a large orange tulip, shading from +yellow to red, finely worked in silks in shading-stitch. The stem is +outlined in gold cord, and has also symmetrical curves and leaves, some +of which are filled in with silver guimp. The flower is enclosed in an +ornamental scroll and leaf border, all made with gold threads and +twists, and having leaf forms in relief at intervals in silver guimp. +The back has five panels, ornamented alternately with guimp scrolls and +small spheres of coloured silk. There have been spangles and small +pieces of guimp scattered about on the sides and back, but most of them +have gone. There are no ties, and the edges of the leaves are gilt, and +have a small gauffred pattern upon them. + +The design of this book is extremely simple and effective; the fine +stitching on the tulip contrasts well with the strong metal border +enclosing it. It may be considered a favourable specimen of the +commonest type of satin embroidered books of the seventeenth century. It +is not in very good condition. + + +_Psalms._ London, 1643. + +A very quaint design embroidered on white satin covers a copy of the +Psalms, printed in London in 1643, and measuring 4-1/4 by 3-1/4 inches. +On the upper side is a representation of Jacob wrestling with the angel, +flanked by two trees with large leaves; the angel has wings and long +petticoats. The lower board has a representation of Jacob's dream. The +patriarch is asleep on the grass, his head upon a white stone, his +staff and gourd by his side. He has pale hair and beard. Behind him is a +large tree, and in front a conventional flower with leaves and bud, and +from the clouds reaches a ladder on which are three small winged angels, +two coming down, and one between them going up. Through a break in the +clouds is seen a bright space, with rays of golden light proceeding from +it. + +The back is divided into five panels, in each of which is a flower. +These resemble, to some extent, a red tulip, a lily, a red dahlia, a +yellow tulip, and a red rose. The work here is not protected by any +strong or metal threads, and it is consequently much worn. There are no +signs of any tie ribbon, and the edges are plainly gilt. + + +_Psalms._ London, 1643. + +[Illustration: 50--Psalms. London, 1643.] + +Another copy of the Psalms, printed in London in 1643, bound in satin, +and measuring 3-1/4 by 2-1/4 inches, bears on each side, within a +circle, a miniature portrait of Charles I. worked in feather-stitch. +The king wears long hair, moustache, and small pointed beard. He is +crowned, and has a red cloak with miniver tippet, from under which +appears the blue ribbon of the Garter worn round the neck, as it +originally was, and having a small gold medallion attached to it. +The initials C. R. in gold guimp are at each side. The circle is +enclosed in a strong framework of silver cord and guimp in the form of +four thin long pointed ovals of leaf form arranged as a diamond. The +four triangular spaces between the diamond and the oval are filled with +small flowers or small pieces of guimp and spangles. Towards each corner +grows a flower, two pansies, and two others with regular petals. The +remaining spaces are filled variously with green leaves, small patches +of purl and gold spangles, and a strong gold cord encloses the whole. +The back is divided into three panels, in each of which is an ornamental +conventional flower, the upper and lower ones alike, and worked in +shades of red with guimp leaves in relief, and the centre one with six +petals worked in yellow and edged with a fine gold cord. There are no +signs of ties ever having existed, and the edges of the leaves are gilt +and slightly gauffred. It has been suggested that this little book may +have belonged to King Charles I.; but the fact of his portrait +being upon it is no proof of this, as portraits of this king are more +numerous upon the bindings of English books than those of any other +person. + + +_Psalms._ London, 1646. + +The value of 'purl' was recognised some few years back, when I had some +made, and explained its value and use to the Royal School of Art +Needlework at South Kensington, and I believe they used it considerably. + +[Illustration: 51--Psalms. London, 1646.] + +On books the use of purl is generally auxiliary, but one small book +bound in white satin, and measuring 4 by 2-1/2 inches, a copy of the +Psalms, printed in London in 1646, is entirely embroidered in this +material, helped with gold braid and cord. The design is approximately +the same on each side, a large flower with leaves in the centre, and a +smaller flower in each corner. On the upper cover the centre flower is +yellow and red, with two large green leaves, and the corner flowers are, +possibly, intended for a cornflower, a jonquil, a lily, and a rose, but +the material is so unwieldy that the forms are difficult to trace, and +flowers worked in it are likely to assume forms that are unrecognisable, +when finished, however well designed to start with. All the flowers and +leaves are made with the purl cut into short lengths, drawn together at +the ends by a thread run through, thus forming a succession of small +arches. The stalks are made in gold cord. The flowers on the other side +are, perhaps, a carnation in the centre, and round it a convolvulus, +lily, daffodil, and rose. The back is divided into five panels, in each +of which is a 'purl' flower, all worked in the same way, representing +successively a tulip, cornflower, carnation, lily, rose, or something +analogous to them; round the designs are straight pieces of brown purl, +and the edges are bound with a broad gold braid. There are no ties or +signs of any, and the edges are simply gilt. The purl is undoubtedly +very strong; I possess a small patch-box worked on white satin in a +similar way to this little book, and although it has been roughly used +for some two hundred and fifty years, the colour of the purl is still +good; the upper surfaces of the small spirals, however, show the copper +wire bare almost everywhere. The book, not having had anything like the +hard wear, is in very good condition, but it is too small for the proper +use of so much thick thread. The larger leaves and petals are made in +relief by being sewn on over a few pieces of purl laid underneath them +at right angles. + +[Illustration: 52--Bible. London, 1646.] + + +_Bible._ London, 1646. + +A Bible printed in London in 1646 is bound in white satin, and +embroidered in coloured silks and gold braid and cord, measuring 6 by +3-1/2 inches. The same design is on both sides. In the centre within an +oval of gold braid and cord is a spray of vine, with two bunches of +grapes, three leaves and a tendril, the fruit and leaves worked in silk, +and the stem in gold cord. Enclosing the oval is an arabesque design +worked in gold cord and guimp, and at each corner is an oval of thin +gold strips and gold cord; the gold strips are done in the manner known +as 'lizzarding,' and are kept down by small stitches at intervals. + +The back has four panels, in each of which is an arabesque design in +coloured silks and gold cord or braid. Although this book is +comparatively late, it is in a bad condition, and shows much wear; the +design also is weak, and the workmanship inferior. + +[Illustration] + + + + +INDEX + + +Appliqué work, remarks on, 24. + +Arthur, Prince of Wales, ostrich feather badge used by, 73. + +Bacon's 'Essays' (1625), 76; + 'Works' (1623), 75. + +Bags for embroidered books, 16. + +Berthelet, Thomas, bookbinder and printer, 74, 80. + +Bible, 1543 ed., 54; + 1583 ed., 67; + 1590 ed., 70; + 1612 ed., 39; + 1619 ed., 84; + 1626 ed., 45; + 1638 ed., 96; + 1642 ed., 48; + 1646 ed., 109; + 1648 ed., 49; + 1674 ed., 78. + +Bibliothèque Nationale, embroidered books in the, 20. + +Bodleian Library, embroidered books in the, 25. + +Brassington, Mr. W. Salt, 1. + +Brion, Martin de, 'Très ample description de la Terre Sainte,' 52. + +British Museum, embroidered books in the, 25, 27. + +Broiderers, hints for, 21. + +Buckingham, Duke of, portrait on 'Bacon's Essays, 1625,' 76. + +Canvas bindings, 6, 7, 28-51. + +Charles I., portrait on 'Psalms, 1643,' 106. + +Charles II., badge on 'Common Prayer, 1638,' 77; + 'Emblemes Chrestiens, 1624,' 86. + +'Christian Prayers,' 1570 ed., 59; + 1581 ed., 37; + 1584 ed., 65. + +Christopherson, Bishop of Chichester, 'Historia Ecclesiastica' (1569), 57. + +Collection of Sixteenth Century Tracts (1536), 80; + (1610), 72. + +'Common Prayer, 1638' (other editions are with 'Psalms'), 77. + +Covers for embroidered books, 18. + +'Daily Exercise of a Christian, 1623,' 44. + +Day, John, printer, 61. + +Derome le Jeune, French bookbinder, 12. + +Dibdin's 'Bibliomania,' mention of Queen Elizabeth's embroidery in, 64. + +'Double Books,' 38, 89. + +Dutch embroidered books, 20. + +Edges, ornamentally treated, 16. + +Elizabeth, Queen, arms embroidered, 57, 72, 81; + books embroidered by, 26, 32, 33, 35, 36. + +Embroidered books, definition of, 3. + +'Epistles of St. Paul, 1578,' 63. + +'Felbrigge Psalter,' 26, 29. + +Ferrar, Nicholas, 103. + +Fitzhugh, heraldic supporter, 56. + +Fletcher, Mr. W. Y., 1. + +Floral designs, 5, 6; + and on the following books: 'Miroir of the Soul' (1544), 32; + 'Prayers of Q. Kath. Parr' (1545), 33; + Parker, 'De Antiq. Ecc. Britannicæ' (1572), 60; + 'Prayers' (1581), 37; + 'Prayers' (1584), 66; + 'Orationis Dominicæ Explicatio' (1583), 67; + 'Psalms,' etc. (1606), 38; + 'Bible' (1619), 85; + 'Daily Exercise of a Christian' (1623), 44; + 'Henshaw, 'Horæ Successivæ' (1632), 90; + 'Psalms' (1633), 94; + 'Bible' (1638), 96; + 'Psalms' (1639), 98; + 'Psalms' (1641), 104; + 'Psalms' (1646), 108. + +Forwarding of embroidered books, 11. + +French embroidered books, 20. + +Fuller, Thomas, 103. + + +Gauffred edges, 16. + +George II., gift of the Royal Library to the British Museum in 1757, 25. + +George III., his books largely rebound, 5. + +Grenville, Right Hon. Thomas, his books largely rebound, 5. + +Guimp, description of, 9. + + +Headbands, 15. + +Henry VIII., arms on embroidered book, 52. + +Henry Benedict, Cardinal York, 19. + +Henry, Prince of Wales, his use of the ostrich feather badge, 85; + badge upon 'Tracts, 1610,' 73, 77, 86. + +Henshaw's 'Horæ Successivæ,' 90. + +Heraldic designs, 5, 6; + _Arms_ of Henry VIII., 52; + Katherine Parr, 55; + Elizabeth, 57, 72, 81; + _Badges_ of Queen Mary, 57; + Prince of Wales, 73, 77, 86; + _Crest_ of Vaughan, 59. + + +Inglis, Esther, calligraphist, 85. + +Italian embroidered bindings, 19. + +James II., initials on 'Bible, 1674,' 78. + + +Law, Dr. W. T., 94. + +Little Gidding, 'Needlework' done at, 103. + +Lizzarding, description of, 8. + + +Macray, Rev. W. D., 33, 64. + +Magnus, of Amsterdam, bookbinder, 10. + +Martyr, Peter, 'Commonplaces,' 69. + +Mary, Queen, badge on 'Psalter,' 57. + +Metal threads, 8, 29. + +'Miroir of the Synneful Soul,' 32. + +Montenay, Georgette, 'Emblemes Chrestiens,' 85. + + +New Testament, 1576 ed., 81; + 1625 ed., 42; + 1630 ed., 89; + 1640 ed., 101. + + +'Orationis Dominicæ Explicatio,' 1583, 67. + +Ostrevant, badge of the province of, 73. + +Ostrich feather badge of the Princes of Wales, origin of the, 73; + on embroidered bindings, 73, 77, 86. + + +Parr, Queen Katherine, arms on 'Petrarcha, 1544,' 55; + Prayers written by, 33. + +Parker, Archbishop, 'De Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ,' 60. + +Peacocks' feathers used in embroideries, 82. + +Pearls used in embroidered bindings: Brion (1540), 52; + Christopherson (1569), 57; + Parker (1572), 60; + 'New Testament' (1576), 81; + 'Bible' (1583), 67; + 'Bible' (1590), 70; + 'Tracts' (1610), 72; + Montenay (1624), 85; + 'Psalms' (1633), 94; + 'Common Prayer' (1638), 77. + +'Petrarcha, 1544,' 55. + +Pomegranate badge on Queen Mary's 'Psalter,' 57. + +Poncyn, of Amsterdam, bookbinder, 10. + +Portraits on embroidered books, 5; + Charles I., 106; + Duke of Buckingham, 76. + +'Psalms,' 1606 ed., 38; 1633 ed., 91, 94; + 1635 ed., 92; + 1639 ed., 98; + 1641 ed., 103; + 1643 ed., 105, 106; + 1646 ed., 108. + +Purl, description of, 9, 10, 46; + book embroidered alone with, 108. + +Satin bindings, 7, 8, 80-110. + +Schreiber, the Lady Charlotte, 83. + +Scriptural designs and figures of saints used on embroidered books, 5, 6; + Abraham and Isaac, 86; + the Annunciation, 29; + the Crucifixion, 29; + David, 86, 99; + Jacob's Dream, + Jacob wrestling with the angel, 39, 106; + St. Peter, 45; + St. Paul, 45; + Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, 39. + +Silk bindings, 81. + +South Kensington Museum, embroidered books in the, 20. + +Spangles, 9, 28. + +Stitches used on embroidered books: + _Buttonhole_ or _Needlepoint lace_ stitch, + 'New Testament' (1625), 87; + 'Psalms' (1633), 95; + 'New Testament' (1640), 101; + 'Bible' (1642), 48; + 'Bible' (1648), 50. + _Chain stitch_, + 'Daily Exercise of a Christian' (1623), 44. + _Feather stitch_, sometimes called _Shading stitch_, + 'Bible' (1626), 45; + 'New Testament' (1630), 90; + Henshaw (1632), 90; + 'Psalms' (1635), 92; + 'Psalms' (1641), 105; + 'Psalms' (1643), 106. + _Satin stitch_, + 'Psalms' (1633), 91. + _Split stitch_, + 'Felbrigge Psalter' (fourteenth century), 30; + 'Way to True Happiness' (1639), 99. + _Tapestry_ or _Tent stitch_, 28; + 'Miroir of the Synneful Soul' (1544), 33; + 'Prayers' (1545), 34; + 'Prayers' (1581), 37; + 'Bible' (1612), 39; + Ward (1626), 41. + +Symbolical figures, 5, 6; + Faith and Hope (1625, 1648), 42, 50; + Peace and Plenty (1619, 1635), 84, 93. + +Thompson, Mr. H. Yates, 41. + +Udall's 'Sermons,' 71. + +Vaughan crest, on 'Christian Prayers, 1570,' 59. + +Velvet bindings, 6, 7, 52-79. + +Victoria, Queen, embroidered book belonging to, 77. + +Wales, ostrich plumes of the Prince of, 73, 77, 86. + +Ward, Samuel, 'Sermons, 1626-7,' 41. + +Water-colours used on embroidered bindings, 81-84. + +'Way to True Happiness' (1639), 99. + +Wheatley, Mr. H. B., 1. + +Wilton, Countess of, 33, 35, 64. + +Wren, Elizabeth, book embroidered by, 94. + +York, Cardinal, 19. + + +PRINTED BY T. AND A. CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO +HER MAJESTY, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, +EDINBURGH: MARCH MDCCCXCIX + + + + +=The English Bookman's Library= + +EDITED BY ALFRED POLLARD + + +VOLUME I + +=ENGLISH EMBROIDERED BOOKBINDINGS= + +BY CYRIL DAVENPORT, F. S. A. + + +VOLUME II + +=A BRIEF HISTORY OF ENGLISH PRINTING= + +BY H. R. PLOMER + + +VOLUME III + +=ENGLISH BOOK COLLECTORS= + +BY W. Y. FLETCHER + + +LONDON +KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO., LIMITED + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of English Embroidered Bookbindings, by +Cyril James Humphries Davenport + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH EMBROIDERED BOOKBINDINGS *** + +***** This file should be named 17585-8.txt or 17585-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/7/5/8/17585/ + +Produced by K.D. 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