The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-08-24


embroider The Young ladies on their return
home instructed the more mtelIlgent OF tneir
female servants IN these arts. Ladies OF rank
in all countries prlded themselves upon the
number of these attendants, and were in the
habit of passing the morning surrounded by
their workwomen, singing the chdasonS t0be,
as ballads composed for these hours were called.
Fsiienne Jodelle, a French poet, 1913, ad-
dressed n fair lady whose cunning fingers piled
the needle in words thus translated
II saw thee weave web with care,
Where at thy touch fresh roses grew,
And mrrveed they were formed 30 tar,
And that thy heart such nature knew.
Alas how i'd my surprise,
Since naught so PLAN can be;
Thy cheek their richest hue supplies,
And IN thy breath their perfume liesj
Their grace and beauty ali are drawn from thee"
If needle-work had its poetry, it had also its
reckOniIgs. Old accOunt-books bear many en-
tries Of heavy payments for working materials
used by industrious queens and ladies
OF rank Good authorities state that, before the
sixth century, all silk materials were brought
to Europe by Cbe Seres ancestors of the ancient
BOkharlans, whence it derived its name of
Serica In 55l, silk-worms were introduced by
two monks into Constantinople, but the Greeks
monopozed the manufacture until ll3O, when
Roger, King OF Sicily, returning from a crusade,
collected some Greek manufacturers, and estab-
lished them at Palermo, whence the trade was
disseminated over Italy.
In the thirteenth century, Bruses was the
great mart for silk. The stufS then known
were velvet, satin (Called samite), and tadeta-
all of which were stitched with gold or silver
thread. The expense OF working materials was
therefore very great and royal ladies' con-
descended to superintend sewing-schUols.
Edltha, con ort OF Edward the Ooniessor, was
a highly accomplished lady, who sometimes
intercepted The master of Westminster school
and his scholars IN their walks, questioning
them in Latin. She was also skilled in all temt-
nine works, embroidering the robes OF her royal
husband with her own hands.
OF all the tair ones, however, who have
q
manufacture OF Excalibur, let the name OF
Matilda OF Flanders, wife of WilliHm the Con-
queror, stand at the Lead OF the record, IN spite
OF historians doubts. Matilda born about the
year 1881. was carefully educated. She had
beauty, learning, industry; and the Bayeux
tapestry connected with her name still exists, a
monument Of her achievements in the art of
needle-work. 1t is, as everybody knows pic
tu1ed chronicle Of the conquest or England-a
wite's tribute to the glory OF her husband.
As specimen OF ancient sttchery and
feminine Industry, this work is extremely
curious. The tapestry is two hundred and twen-
ty-tWo feet III length and twenty in width. It's
worked III dltte1entcolored wOrsteds on white
cloth, now brown with age. The attempts to
represent the human figure are very rude,
and 1t is merely given in outline. Matilda
evidently had very few colors at her disposal,
as the horses are depicted Of any hue-blue,
green, or yellow; the arabesque patterns i'll
troduced are rich and varied.
During the French Revolution this tapestry
WAS uclldnucu Oy tno Insurgents 10 cover Incr
guns; but priest succeeded in concealing it
until the storm had passed. BonaparIe knew
its value. He caused it TO be brought to Paris
and displayed, alter which he restored the pre-
cious relic to BayeuX
We have many records of royal ladies who
practised and patronized needle-work. Anne of
Brittany, first wife of LOUIS XII OF France,
caused three hundred girls, daughters of the
nobility, to be instructed IN that art under her
personal supervision. Her daughter Claude
pursued the same laudable plan. Jeanne DIAL
bret, Queen OF Navarro, and mother Of Henry
~ OF France, woman of vigorous mind, was
skilled also III the handicrait OF the needle, and
wrought a set of hanqings called THE Prison
Opened" meaning that she had broken the
bonds of the Pope.
The practice of teaching needle-work con
tnued long at the French court, and it was
there that Mary of Scotland learned the art in
which she so much eXcelled. When cast into
prison, she beguiled the time, and soothed the
repentant anXieIies of her mind with the COM
work yet existing are principally bed-trimmlngs,
hangings, and coverlets, composed of dark
satin, upon which flowers, separately embroi-
dered, are transferred.
The romances and lays of chivalry contain
many descriptions Of the ornamental needle
work of those early days. In one OF the ancient
ballads, a knight, after describing fair .damsel
whom he had rescued and carried to his castle,
adds that she "knew how to sewe and make all
manner of silken worke," and no doubt he
made her repair many of his mantles and scarfs
frayed and torn by time and tourney.
The beautiful Elaine covered the shield of
Sir Launcelot with a case Of silk, upon which
devices were braided by her fair hands, and
added, from her own design,
"a border fantasy of branch and flower,
And yellow. .thrOaIed nesting In the nest"
When he went to the tourney she gave him
red sleeve "broldered with great pearls" which
he bound upon his helmet. 1t is recorded that,
in tournament at the court of Burgundy in
l445, one of the knights received from his lady
a sleeve OF delicate dove color, which he fas-
tened on his left arm.
These sleeves were made of different mate
rial from the dress, and generally of a richer
fabric elaborately ornamented; SO they were
considered valuable enough to form separate
Legacy in wills Of those centuries. Maddalena
Doni, in her portrait painted by Raphael, which
hangs in the Pitt Palace at Florence, wears a
pair of these rich, heavy sleeves, fastened
slightly at the shoulder, anu worn over shorter
sleeve belonging to her dress. Thus we see how
it was that q lady could disengage her sleeve at
the right moment, and give 1t to the fortunate
knight.
The art of adorning linen was practised from
the earliest dates. Threads were drawn and
fashioned with the needle, or the end of the
cloth unravelled and plated into geometrical
patterns. st. Cuthbert's curious graveclothes,
as described by an eyewitness TO his Gisinter-
ment in the twelfth century, were ornamented
with eut-work, which was used principally for
ecclesiastical purposes, and was looked upon IN
England till the dissolution OF tue monasteres
as church secret. The open-Work embroidery,
which went under the general name OF cut
work, is the origin OF lace.
The history of lace by Mrs. Bury Palliser,
recently published in London, is worthy OF
the exquisite fabric of which it treats.
The author has woven valuable facts, histor-
! cal associations, and curious anecdotes into the
web OF her narrative, with an industry and skill
rivallne the work OF her medieval sisters. The
| Illustrations OF TINS beautiful volume are taken