Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/409

 3^7 NEEDLEWORK needlework. If our room is furnished in the style of the eighteenth century, then we must have a specimen of petit point or a pole-screen with a floral bouquet in needlework. Chairs of Charles I. and II. require special stitches in crewel-work, Eliza- bethan embroideries are distinctive, and must appear on hangings used with carved oak. Queen Anne chairs need their special embroideries, and those of the First Empire are revived to place in a room of Napoleonic date in furnishing. With the correct type of old needlework for a particular period, the right accessories are required. Thus, we have bell-ropes with the dainty miniature Pole-screen with 1 8th cen- ribbon-WOrk of Louis XV. , tury embroidered flower ^nd the Carvcd and gilt ^^"^ handle which bears the rococo stamp so legibly ; or the bell-rope of correct Jacobean type, where that favourite hunting scene is depicted in the good, firm, vegetable-dyed crewel wools on stout Irish linen. Sound and serviceable bell-pulls both of them, which are of as much use in our electrically fitted houses as are the wrought- iron extinguishers of the link-boys which are to be seen on the old London gates and porticos. Relics of by gone days both, and useless, except as reminders of obsolete customs, but necessary in reproducing the old-world atmosphere. The old-fashioned square footstool worked in coloured wools on linen is, like other illus- trations, designed by Miss Symonds. It shows the old Jacobean hunting scene, and the stag appears — this is the symbol of the hunted human soul whenever found in embroideries of this date. The stag is generally seen, as in this instance, to be standing on the conventionalised waved pattern, which is intended for ground. This convention in ground-making is also Modern Florentine embroidery in three shades of blue on cream canvas freely used in Chinese and Japanese em- broideries, and undoubtedly came to us from the East. The up-and-down Florentine stitch — so called after some antique examples in a museum in Florence — is harmonious in its softly shaded effect, and is another of the good things brought to us by the revival of needlework ; however it is varied, whether the waving is moderate or resembles the temperature chart of a fever patient, the effect is equally good, and the filling a thing of beauty, as in the days of Carpaccio. Filet, the darning on hand-made net, that is now familiar to everyone, is but one of the beautiful white works which has been re- vived in this great reawakening of the artistic spirit in needlecraft. One of the earliest forms of openwork ornamentation, it takes its place now with broderie Anglaise in popular favour and in correct execution on the old lines. . The mingling of the two types is strictly correct. Side by side they enriched the pillow beres of the sixteenth century or the counterpanes of the seven- teenth ; now dainty skirts and blouses are adorned with filet, and the netted insertions are united with broderie Anglaise, which we recoirnisc as the old cutworks. Bell-ropes in ribbon-work of Louis XV. period and Jacobean crewel-work on stout linen