The Royal School of Needlework - Book Of Needlework and Embroidery

Published by Collins, 1986, hardcover, A4 format, illustrated, condition: as new.

The Royal School of Needlework Book of Needlework and Embroidery is a comprehensive guide to the history of decorative needlework and embroidery from ancient times to the present day. It provides fascinating insight into methods of workmanship through the ages, with full descriptions and details of how fine articles were made, looking at many specific antique pieces and their stitch techniques, and tracing their design sources to show the quality and charm of the work of our forbears. A substantial section looks at the story of embroidery, including such masterpieces as the Bayeux Tapestry and the early English ecclesiastical embroideries known as opus anglicanum, the wonders of the post-reformation periods, including Elizabethan black-work and more colourful varieties with metallic enrichments, seventeenth-century domestic furnishings, samplers, and the emergence of stumpwork and embroidered pictures.