Part 3 (1/2)
During the Middle Ages applique was in universal use, and not confined merely to wall hangings, quilts, and bed draperies. It was used to ornament all kinds of wearing apparel, including caps, gloves, and shoes. Special designs were made for upholstery, but because of the hard wear imposed upon stools and chairs but few specimens of this work have been preserved.
Quilting also came into vogue in the making of bedspreads, of which great numbers were required during the winter nights in the poorly heated bedrooms. The quilts intended for service were made of substantial, well-wearing material. None of these strictly utilitarian quilts is left, but they were certainly plentiful. The old chroniclers give us a glimpse of what the women of these days cherished by telling us that in 1540 Katherine Howard, afterward wife of Henry VIII, was presented with twenty-three quilts of Sa.r.s.enet, closely quilted, from the Royal Wardrobe.
Tradition says that, during the reign of Henry VIII, the much used and popular ”black work” or ”Spanish work” was introduced into England by his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon. It has been found that this work did not originate in Spain but was taken there probably by the Moors or by the Crusaders, for it is known to have been perfected at a very remote period in both Persia and China. The following interesting description of black work is from Mrs. Lowes' ”Chats on Old Lace and Needlework”:
[Ill.u.s.tration: SUNBURST AND WHEEL OF FORTUNE
Comparatively modern quilts. Colours: blue and white]
[Ill.u.s.tration: TREE OF PARADISE
Made in Indiana over 75 years ago. Colours: red and green]
”The work itself was a marvel of neatness, precision, and elegant design, but the result cannot be said to have been commensurate with the labour of its production. More frequently the design was of scrollwork, worked with a fine black silk back st.i.tching or chain st.i.tch. Round and round the st.i.tches go, following each other closely.
Bunches of grapes are frequently worked solidly, and even the popular peascod is worked in outline st.i.tch, and often the pet.i.t point period lace st.i.tches are copied, and roses and birds worked separately and afterward st.i.tched to the design.” There are many examples of this famous ”Spanish work” in the South Kensington Museum in London.
Quilts, hangings, coats, caps, jackets, smocks, are all to be seen, some with a couched thread of gold and silver following the lines of the scrolls. This is said to be the Spanish st.i.tch referred to in the old list of st.i.tches, and very likely may be so, as the style and manner are certainly not English; and we know that Catherine of Aragon brought wonders of Spanish st.i.tchery with her, and she herself was devoted to the use of the needle. The story of how, when called before Cardinal Wolsey and Campeggio, to answer to King Henry's accusations, she had a skein of embroidery silk round her neck, is well known.
”The black silk outline st.i.tchery on linen lasted well through the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Very little of it is seen outside the museums, as, not being strikingly beautiful or attractive, it has been destroyed. Another phase of the same st.i.tchery was working cotton and linen garments, hangings and quilts in a kind of quilted pattern with yellow silk. The finest materials were used, the padding being placed bit by bit into its place. The quilting work was made in tiny panels, ill.u.s.trating s.h.i.+elds and other heraldic devices, and had a surface as fine as carved ivory. When, as in the case of one sample at South Kensington, the quilt is additionally embroidered with fine floss silk flowers, the effect is very lovely.”
One interesting feature of ”black work” and similar flat embroideries was their constant use in decorating furnis.h.i.+ngs for the bedroom. It was peculiarly well adapted for quilts, as its rather smooth surface admirably resisted wear.
[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD BED WITH QUILT AND CANOPY AND TRUNDLE BED BENEATH
Now in Memorial Hall, Deerfield, Ma.s.s.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO WHITE TUFTED BEDSPREADS
Both made in Pennsylvania about 100 years ago]
Fas.h.i.+ons in needlework changed, but not with the same rapidity as in clothing. Gradually ideas and customs from other countries crept into England and new influences were felt. An established trade with the Orient brought Eastern products to her markets, and oriental designs in needlework became popular. About this time ”crewel” was much in vogue. This was embroidery done with coloured woollen threads and was a step backward in the art. Some of this ”crewel” work, done in the seventeenth century, is described by M. Jourdain in ”English Secular Embroidery”: ”These hangings, bed curtains, quilts, and valances are of linen or a mixture of cotton and linen, and one type is embroidered with bold, freely designed patterns in worsted. They are worked almost always in dull blues and greens mixed with more vivid greens and some browns, but rarely any other colouring.”
A very curious custom of these days was the use of ”mourning beds,”
with black hangings, coverlets, and even sheets. As these funereal articles of furniture were quite expensive, it was a friendly custom to lend these mourning beds to families in time of affliction. In 1644 Mrs. Eure wrote to Sir Ralph Verney: ”Sweet Nephew, I am now overrun with miserys and troubles, but the greatest misfortune that could happen to me was the death of the gallantest man (her husband) that I ever knew.” Whereupon Sir Ralph, full of sympathy, ”offers her the loan of the great black bed and hangings from Claydon.”
Interesting indeed are descriptions of wonderful old quilts that are now guarded with zealous care in English museums. One, an original and striking design, is closely quilted all over in small diamonds. Upon it is embroidered an orange tree in full leaf and loaded with fruit.
This tree, together with the fancy pot in which it is planted, covers practically the entire quilt. In the lower corners a gentleman is shown picking oranges and a lady in a patient att.i.tude is waiting to receive them, the figures of both being scarcely taller than the flower pot. The whole design is made up of gayly coloured silks evidently worked in after the quilting was done. Mention is also made of an elaborate quilt said to be the work of Queen Anne, which is preserved at Madresfield Court. Sarah, d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, in giving an order for house furnis.h.i.+ngs for her ”wild, unmerciful house”
about 1720, asks for ”a vast number of feather beds, some filled with swansdown, and a vast number of quilts.”
Mrs. Delany, who lived from 1700 to 1788, and left a large correspondence relating to needlework, which was later edited by Lady Llanover, was a most prolific worker with her needle as well as a profuse letter writer. She was often quoted as an authority and given credit for much originality in her designs. A quilt that she made is described as follows: ”Of white linen worked in flowers, the size of nature, delineated with the finest coloured silks in running st.i.tch, which is made use of in the same way as by a pen etching on paper; the outline was drawn with pencil. Each flower is different, and evidently done at the moment from the original.” Another quilt of Mrs. Delany's was made upon a foundation of nankeen. This was unique in that no colours were used besides the dull yellow of the background. Applied designs of leaves tied together with ribbons, all cut from white linen and st.i.tched to the nankeen with white thread, made a quilt no wise resembling the silken ones of earlier periods. This quilt may be termed a forerunner of the vast array of pieced and patched washable quilts belonging to the nineteenth century.
The embroidering of quilts followed the process of quilting, which afforded the firm foundation essential for heavy and elaborate designs. There were many quilts made of white linen quilted with yellow silk thread, and afterward embroidered very tastefully with yellow silk floss. Terry, in the history of his ”Voyage to the East Indies,” made about the middle of the seventeenth century, says: ”The natives show very much ingenuity in their manufactures, also in making excellent quilts of their stained cloth, or of fresh-coloured taffeta lined with their prints, or of their satin with taffeta, betwixt which they put cotton wool, and work them together with silk.”
Among many articles in a list of Eastern products, which Charles I, in 1631, permitted to be brought to England, were ”quilts of China embroidered in Gold.” There is a possibility that these quilts were appreciated quite as much for the precious metal used in the embroidery as for the beauty of design and workmans.h.i.+p. It was but a short time after this that women began to realize how much gold and silver had gone into all forms of needlework. They looked upon rare and beautiful embroidery with greedy eyes, and a deplorable fas.h.i.+on sprang up, known in France as ”parfilage” and in England as ”drizzling.” This was nothing more or less than ripping up, st.i.tch by st.i.tch, the magnificent old hangings, quilts, and even church vestments, to secure gold and silver thread. Lady Mary c.o.ke, writing from the Austrian Court, says: ”All the ladies who do not play cards pick gold. It is the most general fas.h.i.+on I ever saw, and they all carry their bags containing the necessary tools in their pockets. They even begged sword knots, epaulettes, and galons that they might add more of the precious threads to the spool on which they wound the ravelled bullion, which they sold.” To the appreciative collector this seems wanton sacrilege.
[Ill.u.s.tration: TUFTED BEDSPREAD WITH KNOTTED FRINGE
A design of very remarkable beauty. Over 100 years old]
[Ill.u.s.tration: UNKNOWN STAR