Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 1.djvu/352

334 was fabricated, there will not then exist any obstacle in endeavouring to copy it. Apprehending, too, the principles that directed the manufacture, its imitation will become an easy and agreeable accomplishment, as well as form an elegant and refined occupation for those spare hours, which our fair countrywomen have of late years so toilsomely spent, over the coarse materials, and the tasteless patterns, imported from Germany.

The materials that may be legitimately used to produce English embroidery like that already described, are limited to five: namely, gold and silver tambour (passé), jewels, velvet, and silk. Having chosen the substance that was to be wrought, the first point was to make out the pattern (prendre la taille) of the conventional device that was to be powdered on the surface. This might be done by tracing it by means of chalk upon white paper, and piercing that so as to shew its contour; several others could then be cut out to the same size and figures. The foundation (le fond) of canvass, vellum, or any other suitable stuff, most commonly the former, was then shaped in a similar way, the edges being bound (galonner) with cord, which was afterwards cast over (en guipure) with gold or silver tambour. The inner part of the design was then worked, either plain or in shades, in tapestry stitch with silk; this too was sometimes raised above the foundation by felt (embouttin). If a leaf were to be represented, (passe en barbiches,) the fibres were expressed by a fine thread of tambour being lightly passed among the silk, to indicate the vegetable tissue. In fact, neither gold nor silver could ever be inappropriately, or too profusely introduced, in delineating the object.

There were two ways of introducing the gold or silver portion. A very common method was to take a piece of gold lace, and cutting it out in the required shape, to attach it to the foundation, and the surface of this (le passé épargne) was raised (embouttin) in certain lines (as, for instance, in representing