No kind of encouragement was wanting to embroidery; L'Hermineau, embroiderer to the king, was lodged in the Louvre, and the book of Abraham de Pradel informs us that the other embroiderers working for the court were MM. de la Croix, rue Neuve-Saint-Martin, and Quenain, rue d'Enfer, in the faubourg Saint Michel. The last-mentioned is even designated as a renowned embroiderer by the author of the "Addresses de la ville de Paris".

We may also name Anthoine de la Barre (1645) and Van der Baeven (1647) both of Lille.

Embroidery may be said to have invaded all branches of art in 'the eighteenth century. Hangings, furniture, costumes especially, and even equipages, nothing escaped the avalanches of flowers in brilliant silks, of arabesques and rocailles chased as it were in gold and silver. Robes were now monuments; and had we not recently seen so many marvellous specimens, preserved in all their freshness, in spite of the inroads of time, we should still be able to form an idea of this form of luxury from the pictures of it transmitted by painting.

Yet, notwithstanding the abundance of talent that must have been employed in the creation of so many marvels, the actual names become rarer and rarer. The fact is, the handicraft of most of the workers was produced anonymously, application being made not to the individual but to the numerous workshops for those delicate works, which were required to be produced in a few weeks, but which in the hands of one or two would have needed years. Thus, for instance, when the contractor Rocher was required to furnish the throne for Louis XV., in 1779, at the reception of the knights of the Saint Esprit, he employed 300 workwomen, and charged 300,000 livres. The "Memoires Secrets," of Bachaumont, which reveal this circumstance, tell us, however, that Trumeau executed all the embroideries of the wonderful coaches bespoken by the Duke de Choiseul for the Dauphine, Marie Antoinette. But the expression is doubtless not to be taken literally, and Trumeau, like Rocher, may well have possessed a high degree of personal talent, while still conducting a large atelier.

This supposition is strengthened by the fact, that at this enterprising period, certain artists found poets to sing their praises, as shown by this quatrain from the baroque but instructive lucubrations of the Abbe de Marolles: -

Jean Perreux est brodeur telque le fut la Fage, Et pour la broderie, on discerne les traits, Qui peuvent exprimer quelquefois des portraits ; Mais pour y reussir il faut un long usage.

All which doubtless is equivalent to saying that la Fage and Perreux had acquired such perfection in the art as to be able to produce portraits.

A few words in conclusion on the various processes of embroidery. It is scarcely necessary to remark that the different styles had become multiplied and complicated as we approach the period in question. In the oldest specimens, executed nearly always en a moderately fine material, the figures and the draperies are in flat silk. For the carnations the embroiderer employed the "point fendu," the better to express the prominences and depressions of the features. These he at the same time portrays by means of silks of a deep colour also serving to give animation to the eyes. The draperies are worked in silk extended down the whole length of the garment, and held together by stitches of silk placed across at intervals, which helps to mark the modelling of the folds, these being themselves separated one from the other by close stitching "au passe." The orphreys representing subjects are most frequently embroidered in silks of degraded tints, to express the lights and shades of the folds. These arc crossed with finer silks of assorted shades, with strips of gold lama introduced at suitable distances, and fixed with small stitches.

Many orphreys of the fourteenth century have been thus embroidered, and raised in relief upon a gold ground embroidered "en couchure," that is with thick gold thread placed side by side and sewn with silk, the stitches of which form by their meeting various designs called "couchure de deux points," chevrons, lozenges, waves, etc. The effect of this ground is very remarkable, lending itself readily to the play of light on the gold. In the fifteenth century this description of embroidery had acquired the utmost possible perfection, and some pieces are genuine pictures.

At this epoch there begins to make its appearance a species of embroidery of difficult execution destined to receive its highest development in Italy at the beginning of the Renaissance. This is the embroidery in high relief (ronde bosse) and in low relief. The first, as its name implies, aimed at representing objects in their full projection. After a sculptured model, pieces of new white cloth are prepared, applied one on the other according to the various prominences of the model. This cloth, steeped in water in order to render it pliable, is worked with the scraper in order to give full effect to the superficial depressions. All the surfaces of the cloth are covered over with playing-cards steeped in clear glue, after which the whole is again covered with silk well glued and well stretched. On this are placed the gold threads, fixed by regular and alternate stitches of silk, giving to the gold a plaited look, somewhat like the wicker-work of a basket. This is what is called basket stitch "relief satine".

The low relief is a diminutive of the high relief. Here the prominences being less, are produced by means of thick unbleached thread, waxed, laid and sewn over again and again until the required thickness is obtained. This is termed "enlevure." These first threads are covered in a contrary direction, with a surface of Breton thread well waxed and sewn with the needle, or laid on with silk stitches. The whole is covered, always in the opposite direction to the last thread, with gold sewn with a very close silk in short alternating stitches, which become lost in the threads, leaving nothing perceptible except the gold disposed in wicker-work fashion.