page_title: Jacobean embroidery
section_title: Origins
hierarchical_section_title: Jacobean embroidery / Origins
caption_attribution_description: English: Crewel work on cotton and linen twill ground; stem stitch with long, short and coral stitches and French knots, 1630s V&amp;A Museum no.T.124-1938 Artist/designer - Unknown Place - England Dimensions- Length 18 in (sleeve, outer seam) A mythical bird is just one of the fanciful creatures that populate this embroidered jacket of the 1630s. Worked in red wool on a thick twill of linen warp and cotton weft, the coarseness of the thread and heaviness of the ground lack the delicacy of similar garments embroidered in silk on finer linen, but overall the work has a certain enchanting vitality. The design shows a development in later Jacobean needlework – the scrolling vines seen on jackets of the first two decades of the 17th century have disappeared. Each motif is worked separately, while retaining the curvilinear dynamism typical of Jacobean embroidery. During the later 17th century, this type of needlework, known as crewel work, grew in popularity. It became an important method of decorating household furnishings, particularly bed curtains and valances.
context_page_description: Jacobean embroidery refers to embroidery styles that flourished in the reign of King James I of England in first quarter of the 17th century.
  The term is usually used today to describe a form of crewel embroidery used for furnishing characterized by fanciful plant and animal shapes worked in a variety of stitches with two-ply wool yarn on linen. Popular motifs in Jacobean embroidery, especially curtains for bed hangings, are the Tree of Life and stylized forests, usually rendered as exotic plants arising from a landscape or terra firma with birds, stags, squirrels, and other familiar animals.
context_section_description: Early Jacobean embroidery often featured scrolling floral patterns worked in colored silks on linen, a fashion that arose in the earlier Elizabethan era.  Embroidered jackets were fashionable for both men and women in the period 1600-1620, and several of these jackets have survived.
caption: Crewel work on cotton and linen twill ground; stem stitch with long, short and coral stitches and French knots, 1630s V&A Museum no.T.124-1938
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