Chats on Old Lace and Needlework Part 16

[Ill.u.s.tration: A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY "SAMPLER" (ENGLISH), SHOWING CUT AND DRAWN WORK.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

The earliest samplers appeared to have been worked only on white cotton or silk. A favourite design, apart from the lacework samplers, was the "damask pattern" sampler, a specimen of which may be noted, commencing with the fifth row, on the sampler ill.u.s.trated. Sometimes the sampler was entirely composed of it, and although ineffective, remains as a marvel of skill. It was worked entirely in flat satin st.i.tch and eyelet holes, known as the "bird's eye" pattern. In the ill.u.s.tration four rows of cutwork will be noted, followed by five rows of drawn threadwork, and above are patterns worked in floral and geometric designs in coloured silks. The alphabet and the date 1643 complete this monument of skill, which may be seen in the South Kensington Museum.

The succeeding ill.u.s.tration shows a more ambitious attempt, and is considered one of the finest specimens known. It was worked by Elizabeth Mackett, 1696. It is on white linen with ten rows of floral patterns worked with coloured silks in cross, stem, and satin st.i.tches, with some portions worked separately and applied. Five rows of white satin st.i.tch, two rows of alphabet letters in coloured silks, and four rows of exquisite punto in aria lace patterns are followed by the alphabet again in white st.i.tches and the maker's name and date. The sampler is in superb preservation, the colours are particularly rich and well chosen.

This sampler is also from the South Kensington Collection. Often the worker's name is followed by a verse or rhyme having a delightfully prosaic tendency. One can imagine the poor girls, in the early days we are writing of, writhing under the infliction of having slowly and painstakingly to work the solemn injunction--

"When this you see remember me And keep me in your mind, And be not like a weatherc.o.c.k That turns at every wind.

When I am dead and laid in grave, And all my bones are rotten, By this you may remember me When I should be forgotten."

And we can appreciate how little Maggie Tulliver ("The Mill on the Floss") must have girded at the philosophy she was compelled to work into her sampler--

"Look well to what you take in hand, For learning is better than house or land; When land is gone and money is spent Then learning is most excellent."

With the eighteenth century the beauty of the Samplers distinctly declined. They became squarer, and were bordered with a running pattern, and the whole canvas became more or less pictorial. Inevitably the end of this art came. Ugly realistic bowpots with stumpy trees decorated the picture in regular order. The alphabet still appeared, and moral reflection seemed to be the aim of the worker rather than to make the Sampler show beauty of st.i.tchery. Quaint little maps of England are often seen, surrounded with floral borders, but it remained to the early nineteenth century to show how the Sampler became reduced to absurdity.

One of the quaintest and most amusing Samplers at South Kensington is a 12-inch by 8-inch example in woollen canvas and embroidered with coloured silk. At the lower end is a soldier, a tiny realistic house, a dovecot, any number of flowering plants, a stag and other animals. Above is a band of worked embroidery enclosing the words, "This is my dear Father." The remaining s.p.a.ces are filled in with angels blowing trumpets, double-headed eagle, peac.o.c.ks and other birds, and baskets of fruit. In spite of its absurdity, this little piece is far more pleasant than the tombstone inscriptions which abound, and is, after all, delightfully suggestive of home and affection.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARLY ENGLISH "SAMPLER," SHOWING EMBROIDERY IN COLOURED SILK.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EARLY ENGLISH "SAMPLER," SHOWING BIRD'S-EYE EMBROIDERY AND CUT AND DRAWN WORK.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

Another quaint piece at South Kensington is a sampler worked by poor Harriet Taylor, _aged seven!_ At the top are four flying angels, two in clouds flanking a crown beneath the letters "G. R." In the middle stands a flower-wreathed arch, with columns holding vases of flowering plants; above are the words, "The Temple of Fancy," and within an enclosed s.p.a.ce the following homily:

"Not Land but Learning Makes a man complete Not Birth but Breeding Makes him truly Great Not Wealth but Wisdom Does adorn the State Virtue not Honor Makes him Fortunate Learning, Breeding, Wisdom Get these three Then Wealth and Honor Will attend on thee."

Then follows a house called "The Queen's Palace," standing in an enclosed flower-garden. This masterpiece of moral philosophy from the hands of a child of seven years is dated 1813.

An exaggerated conception of the value of old Samplers is very widely spread. Only the seventeenth-century Samplers are really of consequence, and these fetch fancy prices. In the sale-rooms a long narrow Sampler of lace st.i.tches and drawn-thread work would bring as much as a handsome piece of lace. They are practically unattainable, and in this case the law of supply and demand does not obtain. It is beyond the needlewomen of the present day to imitate these old Samplers. Life is too short, and demands upon time are so many and varied, that a lifetime of work would result in making only one. Therefore, the fortunate owners of these seventeenth-century Samplers may cherish their possessions, and those less lucky possess their souls in patience, and h.o.a.rd their golden guineas in the hope of securing one. Twenty years ago a few pounds would have been ample to secure a fine specimen, but 30 will now secure only a short fragment.

During the last three years I have not seen a good Sampler at any London Curio or lace shop, and none appear in the sale-rooms. The eighteenth-century Samplers are comparatively common, the map variety especially so, and can be purchased for a pound or so, but these are not desirable to the collector.

X

THE WILLIAM AND MARY EMBROIDERIES

[Ill.u.s.tration: JACOBEAN WALL-HANGING WORKED IN COLOURED CREWELS ON LINEN GROUND.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

X

THE WILLIAM AND MARY EMBROIDERIES

Queen Mary "a born needlewoman"--The Hampton Court Embroideries--Revival of pet.i.t point--Jacobean hangings.

One of the most convincing facts in arguments that there _is_ a revival in the gentle art of needlecraft is that it has become the fas.h.i.+on to drape our windows, cover our furniture, and panel our walls with printed copies of the Old Jacobean needlework. Many people, knowing nothing whatever about the history of needlework, wonder where the designs for the printed linens which line the windows of Messrs. Liberty, Goodall and Burnett's colossal frontages in Regent Street have been found. In time amazement gives way to admiration for these quaint blues and greens, roses and pale yellows, worked in great scrolls with exotic flowers and still more exotic birds, and the funny little hillocks with delightful little paG.o.da-like cottages nestling amongst them, and many and various little animals which seem to keep perpetual holiday under the everlasting blooms. The designs are taken bodily from the historical hangings of the later seventeenth century. After the abdication and flight of James II. to St. Germains, his daughter Mary came over with her Dutch husband, William the Stadtholder--or, rather, William came over and brought his wife, the daughter of the late king, for William had no intention of a.s.suming the style and life of Prince Consort, but came well to the front, and kept there. It was not "VICTORIA _and Albert_" in those days, but WILLIAM and MARY, who ruled England, and ruled it well. William III. must have been a man of strong personality, and he managed to quell all the rebellions of his reign, and during the time he ruled over us the country settled down to a peaceful state that has remained to the present time.

Queen Mary had quite sufficient employment in settling herself and her household, and generally managing the domestic matters pertaining to the new kingdom she had come into. She apparently had a very free hand in rebuilding Hampton Court, which she particularly made her home, absolutely pulling the interior down, and rebuilding and redecorating it according to her own taste, which was not that of the Stuart persuasion with its gorgeous magnificence, but the more homely and solid Dutch.

Very little of the original Hampton Court _interior_, built and furnished by Cardinal Wolsey, exists. Just here and there we find delightfully dark little dens with the original linen-fold panellings and ceilings that are a ravishment to look upon; but mostly the rooms are high, plain-panelled, and with the quaint ingle-nook fireplaces, with shelves above, upon which Mary placed her lovely "blue and white"

porcelain which had been brought to her by the Dutch merchants who at that time were the great traders of the sea.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ENLARGEMENT OF "JACOBEAN" SPRAY.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

Queen Mary ought to be regarded as the patron saint of English needlewomen. She was happiest when employed furnis.h.i.+ng every bed-covering, every chair and stool, and supplying the hangings for her favourite home. It is said that she spent her days over her embroidery frame, knowing full well that affairs of State were in the capable hands of her husband.

There are few relics left of her handiwork outside Hampton Court. She left no dainty little book-covers, bags, or boxes, as her ideas were fixed on larger pieces of embroidery. Had she lived in the Berlin-wool picture days, she would have filled every nook and cranny with these atrocities, as many humbler devotees to the needle have done to our own knowledge. Needlework can become a _pa.s.sion_, and certainly Queen Mary must have possessed it.

After the complete collapse of the Stuart stump pictures, when every vestige of loyalty seems to have been swept away with the hated James II., the ancient Pet.i.t Point pictures came back into fas.h.i.+on. Very clever work was put into them, but, alas! their scope was purely to depict religious scenes of the rigorous kind. No dainty fairy-like little people now ruled in pictured story, but actual representations of Bible history.

The ill.u.s.tration of "The Baptism of the Ethiopian Eunuch by St. Philip"

is a fair sample of the needlework picture of this time. The picture is a strange mixture of the early Stuart Pet.i.t Point, the Jacobean wall-hanging, and the newly revived religious spirit. The duck-pond, the swans and the water-plants might have been copied bodily from James I.'s time. The paroquet and the flying bird, and the immense leaves and blossoms, are direct from the wall-hangings, while the figures only too surely foretell the coming dark days of needlecraft, when a Scripture picture and a coa.r.s.ely worked sampler were part of every girl's liberal education. The work in this picture is extremely good, and it is excruciatingly funny without intending to be so. The pretty little equipage with its diminutive ponies surely was never intended to carry either St. Philip or the Eunuch! The open book, with Hebraic inscription, is very delightful. It brings to mind the Tables of the Law rather than the light reading that the charming little Cinderella coach should carry.

These pictures are not common, and we scarcely know whether to be thankful for them or not. Unlike the early pet.i.t point, they were worked in _worsteds_, whereas the early pictures were wrought in silk. The moth has a natural affinity for wool, as we all know, and his tribe has cleared off many hundreds of examples. Why so many of the old Jacobean hangings remain is that they were worked for _use_, and not ornament, and even after they ceased to be fas.h.i.+onable ornaments for sitting and bed rooms, they were either relegated to the servants' quarters, or given to dependants, who used them constantly, shaking and keeping them in repair, as the eighteenth-century housewives liked to keep their homes swept and garnished.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NEEDLEWORK PICTURE OF QUEEN ANNE PERIOD.

(_S.K.M. Collection._)]

It is strange to see these old Jacobean hangings (perhaps the drapery of the now tabooed four-post bedstead), which might some thirty years ago have been carried off for the asking, sell at Christie's for 800, as happened in the dispersal of the Ma.s.sey-Mainwaring sale last year. Even a panel of no use except to frame as a picture, say 4 feet by 3 feet, will fetch 30 and a full-sized bed-cover can only be bought for over 100. The reason is not far to seek. The colouring and the drawing of this fine old Crewel-work are exquisite (even though the design savours of the grotesque), and Time has dealt very leniently with the dyes. I endeavoured to match some of these old worsteds a little time ago, and though able to find the colours, could not get the tone. After much tribulation I was advised to hang the skeins of worsted on the trees in the garden and _forget all about them_, and certainly wind and weather have softened the somewhat garish worsteds to the soft, _fade_ colours of the old work.

The same cla.s.s of embroidery was executed during the reign of Queen Anne, though she herself did little of it. Costly silks and brocades and Venetian laces were the dress of the day, and no little dainty accessories appear to have been made.

XI

PICTORIAL NEEDLEWORK OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

[Ill.u.s.tration: A FINE "PAINTED FACE" SILK-EMBROIDERED PICTURE.