Transcriber's Note:
A number of typographical errors have been corrected. They areshown in the text with mouse-hover popups.
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ART IN NEEDLEWORK
TEXT-BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN
ART IN NEEDLEWORK
A BOOK ABOUT EMBROIDERY
BY
LEWIS F. DAY
AUTHOR OF 'WINDOWS,' 'ALPHABETS,'
'NATURE IN ORNAMENT' AND OTHER
TEXT-BOOKS OF ORNAMENTAL DESIGN
& MARY BUCKLE
LONDON:
B. T. BATSFORD 94 HIGH HOLBORN
1900
BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS,
LONDON AND TONBRIDGE.
PREFACE.[v]
Embroidery may be looked at from more points of view than it would bepossible in a book like this to take up seriously. Merely to hover roundthe subject and glance casually at it would serve no useful purpose. Itmay be as well, therefore, to define our standpoint: we look at the artfrom its practical side, not, of course, neglecting the artistic, forthe practical use of embroidery is to be beautiful.
The custom has been, since woman learnt to kill time with the needle, tothink of embroidery too much as an idle accomplishment. It is more thanthat. At the very least it is a handicraft: at the best it is an art.This contention may be to take it rather seriously; but if one esteemedit less it would hardly be worth writing about, and the book, whenwritten, would not be worth the attention of students of embroidery,needleworkers, and designers of needlework to whom it is addressed. Itsets forth to show what decorative stitching is, how it is done, andwhat it can do. It is illustrated by samplers of stitches;[vi] by diagrams,to explain the way stitches are done; and by examples of old and modernwork, to show the artistic application of the stitches.
A feature in the book is the series of samplers designed to show notonly what are the available stitches, but the groups into which theynaturally gather themselves, as well as the use to which they may beput: and the back of the sampler is given too: the reader has only toturn the page to see the other side of the stitching—which to aneedlewoman is often the more helpful. Lest that should not be enough,the stitches are described in the text, and a marginal note shows at aglance where the description is given. This should be read needle andthread in hand—or skipped. Samplers and other examples of needleworkare uniformly on a scale large enough to show the stitch quite plainly.The examples of old work illustrate always, in the first place, somepoint of workmanship; still they are chosen with some view to theirartistic interest.
In other respects Art is not overlooked; but it is Art in harness.Design is discussed with reference to stitch and stuff, and stitch andstuff with reference to their use in ornament. It has been endeavouredalso to show the effect needlework has had upon pattern, and the ways inwhich design is affected by the circumstance that it is to beembroidered.
The joint authorship of the work needs, perhaps,