Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries / Second Edition

Fig. 68.—Embroidery Picture. A Squire and his Lady. Signed M. C. Dated 1657.
Mr Minet.

This embroidery, which bears the initials “M. C.” and the date 1657 in pearls, is notable for the variety of stitches which find a place upon it. The central figures are dressed in elaborate costumes, the lady’s robe of yellow satin being embroidered with coloured flowers and decked with pearls, laces, and flowers, an attire altogether inconsistent with the Puritanical times in which she lived.

Fig. 69.—Hair of Unravelled Silk:
Enlargement of Portion of Embroidery reproduced in Fig. 64.

Bead Embroidery

The actual stitchery in the old embroideries that are worked entirely, or almost entirely, in beads, is of an extremely simple description. In the majority of pieces the work is applied as in the case of the stump embroideries, the beads being threaded and sewn down on the framed linen, either flatly or over padding. In the less elaborate class of embroideries, however, the beads are sewn directly on the satin ground; but when this plan has been adopted the design is rarely padded at all, although small portions of it, such as cravats, girdle-tassels, and garter-knots, are found to be detached from the rest of the work. This is for the most part executed with long strings of threaded beads couched down in close-set rows. Plate XXI. represents an excellent specimen of flat and raised bead-work combined with purl embroidery. See also Fig. 52.

Groundwork Tracings

The first stage of an embroidered picture is well illustrated in Fig. 70, which is worthy of careful study. The original is a piece of satin measuring 9½ × 8 in., and on this the design has been traced by a pointed stylus, the deep incised lines made in the thick material having been coloured black, probably by a transferring medium similar to carbonised paper. The shadows have been added with a brush, evidently wielded by an experienced hand, for not only are they gradated in the original, but there are no signs of any difficulty in dealing with the flow of colour on the absorbent textile. The subject of the picture is said to be the Princess Mary and the Prince William of Orange.

Plate XXII.—Tapestry Embroidery. Dated 1735.

In no Embroidery in the whole of this volume has a more determined endeavour been made to imitate Tapestry than in the little piece here illustrated. So deftly has this been carried out that experts have declined to believe that it is needlework, or that the gradation of blues in the background have been obtained except through stain or dye. The workmanship of that portion of the sky over which the bird flies appeared also too fine for manual execution. An examination of the back has disproved both suppositions. The piece is noteworthy for the border at the top, which is a link connecting it with the Sampler. A date, 1735, can be distinguished through the stain in the upper right corner.

Implements Used

Fig. 70.—Groundwork Tracing for Embroidered Picture. 17th Century.
Mr E. Hennell.

It is probable that some details in the picture—acorns, fruit, and the like—were worked with the aid of the curious little implements shown in Fig. 71. These are thimble-shaped moulds of thin, hard wood, which have two rows of holes pierced round their base. Through these holes are passed the threads which form the foundation of the rows of lace or knotting-stitches that are worked with the needle round and round the mould until it is completely covered. The knotted purses of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were possibly made on moulds of this kind. The plate shows two of these queer little objects, as well as a long spool or bobbin with ancient silks of various colours still wound on it, the spool-case belonging to it, and two pieces of knotted-work in different stages of development.

Plate XXIII.—Specimen of Purl Embroidery. 16th-17th Century.
Formerly in the Author’s Collection.

A specimen of stitchery of various kinds, much of it in high relief, and of purl work. The reproduction, whilst translating very faithfully the colours, gives but little idea of the relief. Size, 12 × 16½.

II.—The Stitchery of Samplers, with a Note on their Materials

Cut and Drawn-Work

The open-work stitchery, which is so important and pleasing a feature of the seventeenth-century sampler, is of two kinds; that is, double cut-work—the Italian punto tagliato—in which both warp and woof threads are removed, save for a few necessary connecting bars, and single cut-work—punto tirato—wherein but one set of threads is withdrawn. The first type (which is probably the “rare Italian cut-work” mentioned in “The Needle’s Excellency”) is the immediate ancestor of needle-point lace, and is the kind that is oftenest met with in the oldest and finest samplers; the second approaches more nearly to the drawn-thread embroidery worked both abroad and at home at the present day.

In executing real double cut-work, after the surplus material has been cut away, the supporting or connecting threads are overcast, the edges of the cut linen buttonholed, and the spaces within this framework filled in with lace-stitches, simple or elaborate. In the best specimens of samplers the effect is sometimes enhanced by portions of the pattern being detached from the ground, as in the upper part of the beautiful sampler illustrated in Fig. 72.[14] These loose pieces usually have as basis a row of buttonhole-stitches worked into the linen, but in some examples the lace has been worked quite separately and sewn on. The mode of working both double and single cut-work is shown plainly in the two enlargements (Figs. 73 and 74), which are of parts of samplers probably worked about 1660.

Fig. 72—Drawn-work Sampler.
17th Century.

There is a third and much simpler type of open-work occasionally found on seventeenth-century samplers, which is carried out by piercing the linen with a stiletto and overcasting the resulting holes so as to produce a series of bird’s-eye or eyelet stitches. All three varieties of open-stitch are frequently seen in combination with that short, flat satin-stitch, which, when worked in a diaper pattern with white thread or silk on a white ground, is sometimes called damask-stitch. This pretty combination of stitches appears in Plate VI., and also in the enlargement (Fig. 74) already referred to.

The samplers illustrated in Plates III. and VII. are noticeable for their good bands of back-stitching. A small section of Fig. 5 is shown on an enlarged scale in Fig. 75. In some modern text-books of embroidery, it may be added, the old reversible or two-sided back-stitch is distinguished as Holbein-stitch.

Fig. 74.—Satin-stitch and Combination of Types of Open-work:
Enlarged from the Sampler reproduced in Fig. 4. 17th Century.

Alphabet-Stitches

The stitches used for the lettering on samplers are three in number, to wit, cross-stitch, bird’s-eye-stitch and satin-stitch. Of the first there are two varieties, the ordinary cross-stitch, known in later years as sampler-stitch, and the much neater kind, in which the crossed stitches form a perfect little square on the wrong side. This daintiest of marking stitches is rarely seen on samplers later than the eighteenth century.

The satin-stitch alphabets are worked in short flat stitches, not over padding, according to the modern method of initial embroidering, and the letters are generally square rather than curved in outline. The bird’s-eye-stitch, when used for alphabets, varies greatly in degree of fineness. In some instances the holes are very closely overcast with short, even stitches, but in others the latter are alternately long and short, so that each “eyelet” or “bird’s-eye” is the centre, as it were, of a star of ray-like stitches.

Plate XXIV.—Darning Sampler. 1788.

Darning Samplers of unpretentious form date back a long way, but those where they were conjoined to decoration, as in the specimens reproduced here, appeared to cluster round the end of the eighteenth century. Not only are a variety of stitches of a most intricate kind set out on them, but they are done in gay colours, and any monotony is averted by delicately conceived borderings. Whilst “Darning Samplers” cannot be considered as rare, they certainly are not often met with in fine condition. They are a standing testimony to the assiduity and dexterity of our grandparents in the reparation of their household napery.

Darning-Stitches

The stitches exemplifying the mode of darning damask, cambric, or linen had usually a sampler entirely devoted to them, and at one period—the end of the eighteenth century—it seems to have been a fairly general custom that a girl should work one as a companion to the ordinary sampler of lettering and patterns. The specimen darns on such a sampler are, as a rule, arranged in squares or crosses round some centre device, a bouquet or basket of flowers for instance, or it may be merely the initials of the worker in a shield. The two samplers (Fig. 76 and Plate XXIV.) are typical examples of their kind, although perhaps the ornamental parts of the designs are a little more fanciful than in the majority of those met with.

Fig. 75.—Back-stitch:
Enlargement of Portion of Sampler in Fig. 5.
17th Century. Twice Actual Size.

The best worked—not necessarily the most elaborately embellished—of this particular class of sampler has small pieces of the material actually cut out and the holes filled up with darning, but in inferior ones the stuff is left untouched, and the darn is simply worked on the linen, tammy cloth, or tiffany itself. This is a very much easier method and the appearance is better; but the darns so made are, after all, but imitations of the real thing. For the damask darns fine silk of two colours is invariably used, and in the properly worked examples both sides are alike, save, of course, for the reversal of the damask effect, as in woven damask.

The centre designs in the two samplers illustrated are worked in fine darning-stitches of divers kinds, outlined with chain and stem stitches. Here and there a few other stitches are introduced, as in the stem of the rose in Fig. 76, where French knots are used to produce the mossy appearance. The centre basket in this sampler is worked in lines of chain-stitching crossing each other lattice fashion. Both the samplers have the initials of their workers, and in that shown in Fig. 76 the date (1802) also, neatly darned into one of the crosses formed by the damask patterns.

Darning-samplers are usually square, or nearly square, in shape, and are simply finished with a single line of hem-stitching at the edge, but some of the older ones are ornamented with a broader band of drawn-work as border; while a few have examples of drawn-work, alternating with squares and crosses of darning, in the body of the sampler. A small section of such a sampler, dated 1785, is illustrated on an enlarged scale in Fig. 77. It has a series of small conventional leaf patterns worked in single drawn-work, and edged with a scalloping worked in chain-stitch with green silk. The ground of this particular sampler is thin linen, but the muslin-like stuff known as tiffany is that used for the foundation of nine darning-samplers out of ten.

Tent and Cross Stitches

Neither tent-stitch nor tapestry-stitch appears to have been largely introduced in sampler-embroidery at any period; still, portions of a few specimens worked during the early and middle years of the eighteenth century are executed in one or other of these stitches. Tent-stitch, for instance, plays an important part in the wreath border of Fig. 8. The beautifully shaded leaves are all worked in this way, as are many of the flowers, other varieties of grounding or cushion-stitches being used for the rest of the border. The Commandments, which the wreath enframes, are worked in cross-stitch. This last-named stitch in its earliest form is worked over a single thread, and produces a close and solid effect when closely massed, or, as may be seen in many sampler maps, very fine lines when worked in single rows. Ordinary cross-stitch taken over two threads is, of course, the familiar stitch in which nineteenth-century samplers are entirely worked, whence arises its second name of sampler-stitch.

Fig. 76.—Darning Sampler. Signed M. M., T. B., J. F.
Dated 1802.
The late Mrs Head.

Fig. 77.—Enlarged Portion of a Darning Sampler.
Dated 1785.

A pretty and—in sampler embroidery—uncommon stitch is that in which the crowned lions in the samplers of Mary and Lydia Johnson (Figs. 35 and 36) are worked. This stitch is formed of two cross-stitches superimposed diagonally, and since its revival in the Berlin wool era has been known by the names of star-stitch and leviathan-stitch.

Various Stitches

Besides the stitches already enumerated and described, sundry and divers others are found on samplers of various periods. Satin-stitch, for instance, is used for borders and other parts of designs, as well as for alphabets. Long-and-short stitch, frequently very irregularly executed, seems to have been popular for the embroidery of the wreaths and garlands that make gay many of the later eighteenth-century samplers. Stem-stitch, save for such minor details as flower-stalks and tendrils, is not often seen; but the wreath-borders of a limited number of eighteenth-century samplers are done entirely in this stitch, worked in lines round and round, or up and down, each leaf and petal until the whole is filled in. Stem-stitch, it should be explained, is, to all intents and purposes, the same as “outline” or “crewel” stitch. The latter name, however, is likewise applied to long-and-short or plumage stitch by some writers on embroidery.

Laid-stitches may also be included in the list of stitches occurring occasionally in samplers, although it is rarely met with in its more elaborate forms. A sampler dated 1808 has two baskets (of flowers) worked in long laid-stitches of brown silk couched with yellow silk, the effect of wicker-work being produced with some success by this plan, and similar unambitious examples appear in some samplers of rather earlier date.

The portion of a sampler shown in Fig. 2 is interesting by reason of the fact that it is worked in knots, a form of stitchery comparatively rare, save in those unclassifiable pieces of embroidery which are neither pictures nor samplers, but possess some of the features of both.

Materials

Linen, bleached or unbleached, but, of course, always hand-woven, is the foundation material of the early samplers. It varies greatly in texture, from a coarse, canvas-like kind to a fine and closely woven sort of about the same stoutness as good modern pillow-case linen. The stitchery of these oldest samplers is executed in linen thread or a somewhat loosely twisted silk, often scarcely coarser than our nineteenth-century “machine silk,” although, on the other hand, a very thick and irregularly spun type is occasionally seen.

About 1725 linen of a peculiar yellow colour and rather harsh texture came into vogue; but this went out of fashion in a few years, and towards the end of the eighteenth century the strong and durable linen was almost entirely superseded by an ugly and moth-attracting stuff called indifferently tammy, tammy cloth, bolting cloth, and, when woven in a specially narrow width, sampler canvas. The stitchery on samplers of this date is almost invariably executed with silk, although in a few of the coarser ones fine untwisted crewel is substituted. Tiffany, the thin, muslin-like material mentioned in connection with darning-samplers, was at this period used also for small delicately wrought samplers of the ordinary type.

Early in the nineteenth century very coarsely woven linen and linen canvas came into fashion again, and for some time were nearly as popular as the woollen tammy; while, about 1820, twisted crewels of the crudest dyes replaced in a great measure the soft toned silks. Next followed the introduction of cotton canvas and Berlin wool, and with them vanished the last remaining vestige of the exquisite stitchery and well-balanced designs of earlier generations, and the sampler, save in a most degraded form, ceased to exist.

Index

Abraham on sampler, 58. Fig. 16

Acorn, 58, 68, 109. Plate III. Fig. 16

Adam and Eve on samplers, 21, 62, 109;
on embroideries, 128

Africa, map of, 97. Fig 41

Age of sampler, how to estimate, 15

Age of sampler workers, 80

Agur’s prayer. Plate XI.

Alphabets on samplers, 19, 22, 84;
stitches, 164

America, samplers from, 24, 97 (Plate XIII., Figs. 42-51);
map of, 92. Fig. 39

Anchors, Fig. 23

Animals on samplers, 65

Ascension Day samplers, 38


Background-stitches, 144

Back-stitches, 109, 163. Plates III. and VII. Fig. 75

Bead embroidery, 158 (Plate XXII.);
sampler, Fig. 53

Belief, the, 28

Belgian samplers, 110

Biblical subjects in tapestry embroideries, 128

Bird’s-eye-stitch, 164

Borders to samplers, 75

Boston, U.S.A., samplers from, 89. Fig. 50

Boxers, 61. Plate III. Fig. 18

Boys, samplers by, 84. Fig 34

Brontës, samplers by, 28. Figs. 10, 11, 12

Brooklyn, U.S.A., sampler from, 89. Fig. 47

Buttonhole-stitch, 146


Calcutta, samplers from, 35. Fig. 3

Carnation, see “Pink”

Caterpillar, 140

Charles I., Plates XVI. and XVIII.

Charles II., Plate XXI.

Children, samplers by, 80

Christening samplers, 109

Christmas samplers, 38

Colouring of samplers, 52

Commandments, the, 27. Fig. 9

Corn blue-bottle, 78

Coronet, see “Crowns”

Costume on tapestry embroideries, 132

Crewel-stitch, 170

Cross-stitch, 109, 166

Crowns on samplers, 68. Figs. 20-22

Crucifixion on samplers, 108, 109

Cupids on samplers, Fig. 23

Cushion-stitch, 144. Fig. 62

Cut and drawn work stitches, 161. Figs. 4, 7, 16, 24, 42, 72, 73


Darned samplers, Fig. 76. Plate XXIV.

Darning-stitches, 110, 165. Plate XXIV. Figs. 76, 77

David and Abigail, 128, 130;
and Goliath, 130

Deer, see “Stags”

Design on samplers, 51

Dogs on samplers, Fig. 17. Plate III.

Drawn-work, 58, 135. Fig. 16

Dress, value of tapestry embroideries as patterns of, 132

Dutch samplers, 110


Earliest samplers, 10, 13, 16

Easter samplers, 36

Embroiderers’ Company, 127

Embroideries in the manner of tapestry pictures, 123;
subjects of, 127;
as mirrors of fashion, 132

England, maps of, 94. Fig. 40

Esther and Ahasuerus, 128, 130. Plate XVIII.

Evolution of samplers, 12, 15

Eyelet-stitch, 146. Fig. 63


Fig on samplers, 68. Plate III.

Fine Art Society’s Exhibition of samplers, 4, 28, 66, 89, 119;
of embroideries, 123

Fleur de Lys on samplers, 21

Florentine-stitch, 145

Flowers on samplers, 65;
on tapestry embroideries, 139

Foreign flavour in embroideries, 131

Foreign samplers, 104

Fountains on tapestry embroideries, 136

French knot-stitches, 151. Figs. 21 and 67

French samplers, 111


Gardening, illustrations of, on tapestry embroideries, 135

German samplers, 108

Glove, embroidered. Fig. 55

Gobelin-stitch, 145

Gold and silver passing, 154

Grubs on tapestry embroideries, 140


Hagar and Ishmael, 129. Plate XV.

Hearts on samplers, 75. Figs. 21-23

Hollie point lace cap, Fig. 61;
stitch, 157

Honeysuckle on samplers, 66, 79. Fig. 30

Horticulture, see “Gardening”

House on samplers, 118 (Figs. 14, 46, 48);
on tapestry embroidery, 135. Fig. 56

Human figure, 57

Hungary-stitch, 145


Implements used in stitchery, 159. Fig. 71

Indian samplers, 113. Figs. 3 and 52

Inscriptions on samplers, 23, 91

Italian samplers, 111


Judgment of Paris, 128. Fig. 56


Knot-stitches, 109, 151. Figs. 21 and 67


Lace-stitches, 154. Figs. 61, 68-70

Laid-stitch, 146

Last of the samplers, 117

Lettering on samplers, 22

Leviathan-stitch, 169

Life and death, inscriptions referring to, 41

Lion on sampler, 65. Fig. 44

Literature sampler, 115

Little Gidding, nuns, 131, 149

Long-and-short-stitch, 170

Looped-stitches, 152

Lord’s Prayer, the, 27


Maidstone Museum, tapestry picture. Plate I.

Map samplers, 92. Figs. 39-41

Materials on which samplers were worked, 171

Mermaid on sampler, Fig. 16

Metal thread, 153

Milton, mention of sampler by, 14

Mitford, Miss, on samplers, 118

Mortlake tapestries, 100

Moses in the bullrushes, 129

Mustard or canary-coloured canvas, 55



National events, samplers as records of, 90

Need of samplers, 11

Needle’s excellency, the, 115, 116, 143

Numerals on samplers, 22


Oak, see “Acorn”

Origin of samplers, place of, 88

Ornament, sampler, 51

Ornamentation, earliest date of various forms of, 21

Orpheus, 128


Parents and preceptors, duties to, 46

Passing, 154

Passion Week samplers, 38

Patternes of cut workes, 115

Peacocks’ feathers, use of, 154

Pearls, seed, on tapestry embroideries, 133—note

Pears, 109

Pineapple on samplers, 68

Pink on samplers, 66, 78, 109. Plates III., IV., VI. Fig. 28

Place of origin of samplers, 88

Plush-stitch, 153. Plate XVIII.

Portuguese samplers, 112

Poverty, inscriptions concerning, 48

Prayers on samplers, 39

Preceptors, duties to, 46

Purl, 153. Plate XXIII.


Quaint inscriptions, 49


Religious festivals, verses commemorating, 36

Rhymes on samplers, see “Verses”

Royal personages on tapestry embroideries, 133

Royal school of art needlework, 120

Rose on samplers, 58, 66, 109 (Figs. 7, 16, Plate VI.);
on tapestry embroideries, 113

Ruskin, John, on needlework in museums, 2;
on samplers, 3;
sampler by grandmother of, 3, and Plate X.

Samplers. Parts I. and III. (Sec. II.)

Satin-stitch, 122, 141, 146

Scottish samplers, 71, 84, 89. Figs. 21, 34

Sex of sampler workers, 80

Shakespeare, mention of sampler by, 13

Sidney, Sir P., mention of sampler by, 14

Signatures on samplers, 23

Size of samplers, 84

Smoke (chimney) on embroideries, 135. Fig. 57

Spanish samplers, 112

Spectator on decay of needlework, 117

Spies to Canaan, 21

Split-stitch, 150. Figs. 65, 66

Stag on samplers, 21, 65, 80. Figs. 6, 17. Plates III., VIII.

Star-stitch, 169. Figs. 35, 36

Stem-stitch, 150

Stitchery of tapestry pictures, 143;
of samplers, 161

Stitches, background, 144;
cushion, 144;
tent, 144;
Gobelin, 145;
upright, 145;
Florentine, 145;
Hungary, 145;
satin, 146;
open, 146;
buttonhole, 146;
eyelet, 149 (Fig. 63);
split, 152 (Figs. 65, 66);
stem, 150;
knot, 151;
looped, 152;
plush, 153;
purl, 153;
passing, 154;
lace, sampler stitches, 154;
hollie point, 157 (Fig. 61);
cut and drawn-work, 161;
back-stitch, 163 (Fig. 75);
alphabet-stitch, 164;
darning-stitch, 165 (Plate XXIV. and Figs. 8, 76);
tent and cross-stitch, 166;
various, 170

Strawberry on samplers, 66. Fig. 31. Plate XIII.

Stump embroidery, 149

Susannah and the elders, 128, 130, 131. Plate XIV.

Swiss samplers, 111


Talc, 154. Plate XIV.

Tammy cloth, 171

Tapestry, history of, 125;
stitch, 145

Tapestry pictures—see embroideries in the manner of

Tent-stitch, 166

Thistle on sampler, 71. Fig. 21

Tracing, groundwork, 158. Fig. 70

Tree of knowledge on samplers, 18n, 62n, 109. Figs. 17, 18

Tulip on samplers, 78. Figs. 27, 59


Upright-stitch, 145


Verses on samplers, 27, 36-51

Vice, inscription concerning, 48

Victoria and Albert Museum, samplers in, 11, 21, 58. Fig. 7

Virtue, inscription concerning, 48


Wealth, inscription concerning, 48

Printed at The Darien Press, Edinburgh