Embroidered binding, also referred to as needlework or textile binding, describes a book bound in cloth and decorated with a design on one or both covers and sometimes the spine. [1] The binding is created for the individual book. [2] [3]
Embroidered binding, also referred to as needlework or textile binding, describes a book bound in cloth and decorated with a design on one or both covers and sometimes the spine. [1] The binding is created for the individual book. [2] [3]
Embroidered bindings were produced by professional as well as amateur embroiderers or needleworkers. [4]
Examples of embroidered bookbindings are known throughout England and Europe from the 13th century to the present, and were most popular in England during the first half of the 17th century. [3] These bindings were most often created for prayer books, Bibles, devotional texts, and as presentation copies for clergy or the royal family. [2]
Designs include flowers and foliage, sacred emblems or royal portraits, [4] arabesque, heraldic, or figural elements. [3] "The most common designs were Old Testament scenes featuring Adam and Eve, Moses and Aaron, Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, or David playing his harp, and New Testament scenes and figures of the saints. There were also allegorical figures, such as Peace and Plenty or Faith and Hope, flora and fauna, and heraldic subjects. The use of portraits came into fashion in the 17th century. Initials and coats of arms were added to personalize the work." [2]
The individual design elements consisted of purls, lizzarding, and spangles (now frequently called sequins). [5] Purls are made from metal thread (usually silver or gold) that has been coiled into a tight spiral and sewn on top of the base fabric. [5] Lizzarding is the process of attaching small pieces of metal to the base fabric with cross stitches. [6]
Embroidered bindings use one of three materials as the base for the design: satin, velvet, or canvas. [6] Canvas covers are typically covered entirely by the embroidery. [6] Satin and velvet covers usually allow some of the base material to show through, due to their decorative nature. [6] Velvet bindings often featured embroidered appliqués, with little to no embroidery done on the velvet itself. [6] "The cloth was embroidered separately before it was glued or stitched to the boards of a ready bound book; embroidered covers do not form part of the binding structure." [2]
The type of threads used varies, but most covers use silk thread, gold thread, or silver thread. [5] The silver and gold threads were made by twisting thin pieces of silver or gold around a strand of silk or flax. [5]
Embroidery is the art of decorating fabric or other materials using a needle to stitch thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as pearls, beads, quills, and sequins. In modern days, embroidery is usually seen on caps, hats, coats, overlays, blankets, dress shirts, denim, dresses, stockings, scarfs, shoes, handbags and golf shirts. Embroidery is available in a wide variety of thread or yarn colour. It is often used to personalize gifts or clothing items.
A needlework sampler is a piece of embroidery or cross-stitching produced as a 'specimen of achievement', demonstration or a test of skill in needlework. It often includes the alphabet, figures, motifs, decorative borders and sometimes the name of the person who embroidered it and the date. The word sampler is derived from the Latin exemplum, which means 'example'.
Blackwork, sometimes historically termed Spanish blackwork, is a form of embroidery generally worked in black thread, although other colours are also used on occasion, as in scarletwork, where the embroidery is worked in red thread. Originating in Tudor period England, blackwork typically, though not always, takes the form of a counted-thread embroidery, where the warp and weft yarns of a fabric are counted for the length of each stitch, producing uniform-length stitches and a precise pattern on an even-weave fabric. Blackwork may also take the form of free-stitch embroidery, where the yarns of a fabric are not counted while sewing.
Crewel embroidery, or crewelwork, is a type of surface embroidery using wool. A wide variety of different embroidery stitches are used to follow a design outline applied to the fabric. The technique is at least a thousand years old.
Needlepoint is a type of canvas work, a form of embroidery in which yarn is stitched through a stiff open weave canvas. Traditionally needlepoint designs completely cover the canvas. Although needlepoint may be worked in a variety of stitches, many needlepoint designs use only a simple tent stitch and rely upon color changes in the yarn to construct the pattern. Needlepoint is the oldest form of canvas work.
Armenian needlelace is a pure form of needle lace made using only a needle, thread and pair of scissors.
A treasure binding or jewelled bookbinding is a luxurious book cover using metalwork in gold or silver, jewels, or ivory, perhaps in addition to more usual bookbinding material for book covers such as leather, velvet, or other cloth. The actual bookbinding technique is the same as for other medieval books, with the folios, normally of vellum, stitched together and bound to wooden cover boards. The metal furnishings of the treasure binding are then fixed, normally by tacks, onto these boards. Treasure bindings appear to have existed from at least Late Antiquity, though there are no surviving examples from so early, and Early Medieval examples are very rare. They were less used by the end of the Middle Ages, but a few continued to be produced in the West even up to the present day, and many more in areas where Eastern Orthodoxy predominated. The bindings were mainly used on grand illuminated manuscripts, especially gospel books designed for the altar and use in church services, rather than study in the library.
Opus Anglicanum or English work is fine needlework of Medieval England done for ecclesiastical or secular use on clothing, hangings or other textiles, often using gold and silver threads on rich velvet or linen grounds. Such English embroidery was in great demand across Europe, particularly from the late 12th to mid-14th centuries and was a luxury product often used for diplomatic gifts.
Embroidery in India includes dozens of embroidery styles that vary by region and clothing styles. Designs in Indian embroidery are formed on the basis of the texture and the design of the fabric and the stitch. The dot and the alternate dot, the circle, the square, the triangle, and permutations and combinations of these constitute the design.
Embroidery thread is yarn that is manufactured or hand-spun specifically for embroidery and other forms of needlework. Embroidery thread often differs widely, coming in many different fiber types, colors and weights.
Goldwork is the art of embroidery using metal threads. It is particularly prized for the way light plays on it. The term "goldwork" is used even when the threads are imitation gold, silver, or copper. The metal wires used to make the threads have never been entirely gold; they have always been gold-coated silver or cheaper metals, and even then the "gold" often contains a very low percent of real gold. Most metal threads are available in silver and sometimes copper as well as gold; some are available in colors as well.
The Felbrigge Psalter is an illuminated manuscript Psalter from mid-13th century England that has an embroidered bookbinding which probably dates to the early 14th century. It is the oldest surviving book from England to have an embroidered binding. The embroidery is worked in fine linen with an illustration of the Annunciation on the front cover and an illustration of the Crucifixion on the back.
The Miroir or Glasse of the Synneful Soul is a manuscript book that was given to Katherine Parr by her stepdaughter, the future Elizabeth I of England in 1544, when Elizabeth was eleven years old. Elizabeth translated the poem from the French work Miroir de l'âme pécheresse by Marguerite de Navarre, into English prose and wrote the manuscript with her own hand, dedicating it with the words, "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," Elizabeth probably also embroidered the bookbinding. This book is now owned by the Bodleian Library.
In needlework, a slip is a design representing a cutting or specimen of a plant, usually with flowers or fruit and leaves on a stem. Most often, slip refers to a plant design stitched in canvaswork (pettipoint), cut out, and applied to a woven background fabric. By extension, slip may also mean any embroidered or canvaswork motif, floral or not, mounted to fabric in this way.
English embroidery includes embroidery worked in England or by English people abroad from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day. The oldest surviving English embroideries include items from the early 10th century preserved in Durham Cathedral and the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry, if it was worked in England. The professional workshops of Medieval England created rich embroidery in metal thread and silk for ecclesiastical and secular uses. This style was called Opus Anglicanum or "English work", and was famous throughout Europe.
Queen Elizabeth II's coronation took place on 2 June 1953. Ordered in October 1952, her gown took eight months of research, design, workmanship, and intricate embroidery to complete. It featured the floral emblems of the countries of the United Kingdom and those of the other states within the Commonwealth of Nations, including the English Tudor rose, Scots thistle, Welsh leek, Irish shamrock, Canadian maple leaf, Australian wattle, New Zealand silver fern, South African protea, Indian lotus flower for India, the Lotus flower of Ceylon, and Pakistan's wheat, cotton, and jute.
Cieszyn folk costume, also known as Valachian, is a Silesian folk costume, which used to be worn within majority of the area of Cieszyn Silesia, but mostly by Cieszyn Vlachs. Taking into consideration ornamentation, cutting and materials, it can be observed that it is a replica of historical costumes of the Renaissance. The male folk costume was worn only to the late 19th century, whereas the female folk costume was more popular and spread in the vicinity of the Wisła, Istebna and Koniaków. Previously in this area the costumes of Silesian Gorals prevailed. Female folk costumes in Cieszyn were subjected to many changes, especially in respect to ornamentations and better quality of materials. Due to its richness and elegance the costume quickly became a target of artists and specialists in folk culture.
The Oxburgh Hangings are needlework bed hangings that are held in Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, England, made by Mary, Queen of Scots and Bess of Hardwick, during the period of Mary's captivity in England.
Embroidery was an important art in the Islamic world from the beginning of Islam until the Industrial Revolution disrupted traditional ways of life.
Bed hangings or bed curtains are fabric panels that surround a bed; they were used from medieval times through to the 19th century. Bed hangings provided privacy when the master or great bed was in a public room, such as the parlor. They also kept warmth in, and were a way of showing one's wealth. When bedrooms became more common in the mid-1700s, the use of bed hangings diminished.
