Plate No. 20.

Portion of a carpet. Persian, early eighteenth century [859 - 1876]. Velvet, embroidered in gold and silver. Kakvin is noted by the Persians for this kind of embroidery, which is now sometimes used for saddle-cloths and holster-covers. This carpet is beautifully worked in tambour gold and silver thread, giving a slightly raised rich effect. Gold and silver embroidery of this kind does not, however, seem suitable for carpets.

Plate No. 20.

Portion of a Carpet. Persian, Early 18th Century [859-1876]. Velvet, embroidered in Gold and Silver

Plate No. 21.

The Syon Cope.* English, date about 1250 [83 - 1864]. Of canvas, entirely covered with embroidery of various classes; the interlacing barbed quatrefoils are bordered with gold thread worked in close-lying, short stitches, and three rows of green, or red, or yellow, and white silk in chain stitch. The ground in the alternative quatrefoil is filled in with green and faded crimson silks, worked in short stitches to form a close diaper of chevron pattern. On the inside of the embroidery hanks of loose thread have been laid, and are occasionally stitched over with green and red silk passing through the intervening canvas, and so adding substance to the embroidery. The quatrefoils enclose figures of our Lord, the Virgin Mary, and the Apostles; with winged cherubins, or angels, standing on wheels in the intervening spaces. The faces, hands, and coloured draperies are worked with fine-coloured silks in small chain stitches. The gold embroidery is done in close-lying, short stitches. The orphrey, morse, and hem are wrought with armorial bearings with coloured silks, gold and silver threads in small cross stitches, and are of later date (about fifty years).

* See Dr. Rock, Textile Fabrics, p. 275. On close examination with a microscope, the flesh-stitch appears rather like a fine split stitch worked in circular lines.

Plate No.21.

The Syon Cope. English, date about 1250 [83 - 1864].

Plate No. 22.

Detail from the Syon Cope. By looking closely into this fine specimen, Dr. Rock says,* "We find that, for the human face, all over it, the first stitches were commenced in the centre of the cheek, and worked in circular or straight lines, into which, however, after the middle had been made, they fell, and were so carried on through the rest of the fleshes. After the whole figure had thus been wrought, then, with a little thin iron rod, ending in a small bulb or smooth knob, slightly heated, were pressed down those spots upon the faces worked in circular lines, as well as that deep, wide dimple in the throat, especially of an aged person. By the hollows that are lastingly sunk, a play of light and shadow is brought out, that, at a short distance, lends to the portion so treated a look of being done in low relief."

* Textile Fabrics, p. 288.

Screen panel, "Spring." Designed by Walter Crane. The ground is a coarse linen of a low-toned oatmeal colour. The design is embroidered with silks, chiefly in stem and long and short stitches. It is about the nearest approach to outline embroidery that could be without being actually accepted as such. The most solid work is bestowed upon the figures. The youth's smock is embroidered on the light parts only, the ground being utilised to represent the shading, with a brown outline to define the folds of the garment. This method is also adopted in working the girl's costume; her dress has but a few lines, representing high lights, and the drawing of the folds is given with the dark colour. The blossoms have a voiding * between each petal.

* A narrow space round the form, similar to that rendered by the process of stencilling.

Plate No. 23.

Screen Panel, " Spring." Worked at the Royal School of Art Needlework.

Plate No. 24.

Screen Panels. Four Figures representing the Senses - "Seeing," "Smelling," "Hearing," and "Tasting." Designed by Walter Crane and embroidered at the Royal School of Art Needlework.

Screen panels, four figures representing the Senses - "Seeing," "Smelling," "Hearing," and "Tasting." Designed by Walter Crane. Worked entirely in outline on a delicate coloured linen, in stem stitch for the drapery and split stitch for the flesh. The whole is embroidered with two shades of brown silk.

Design for an altar-frontal by Selwyn Image. On a white ground all the figures are to be worked in strong outline; foliage in solid embroidery, the fruit forms filled in with cross stitch.

Portion of a frieze, "The Seven Ages of Man." Designed by Walter Crane, 'and worked at the Royal School of Art Needlework. It is executed in outline - stem stitch with brown silk on a string-coloured linen ground.

Plate No. 25.

Altar-frontal. Designed by Selwyn Image.

Plate No. 26.

Portion of Frieze. Designed by Walter Crane, and worked at the Royal School of Art Needlework.