haft XIV wieczny.pdf

A Stitch Out Of Time:

14 th & 15 th Century

German Counted Thread Embroidery.

Timothy J. Mitchell

Acknowledgments:

A project of this size cannot be completed without help. I wish to thank the following people for their help and

encouragement: First and foremost, my dear wife Lisa (Mistress Ceridwen ferch Rhys ap Michael in the SCA) for her Saint-

like patience; Linda Woolley, Asst. Curator of the Textiles and Dress Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum; Leann

Drury and the staff of CompuServe's Living History (GO LIVING) Forum; Janet Cole who created the Internet's Medieval

Embroidery Page, helping to spread my work to a global audience; The United States Air Force for giving me ten years in

England. And finally to all the members of the electronic global village who have exchanged E-mail encouragement with me

over the years. Thank you all.

Art Credits:

COVER - Artwork by Anne Berdanier, based on Allesandro Paganino, Il Burato 1527, Woodcut, “Pricking and Pouncing”.

Used with permission.

FIGURE 8 - Artwork redrawn from photo by Barbra Worden. Edited by author. Used with permission.

Page 26 - Photograph by Joyce Miller from her website (http://www.tiac.net/users/drbeer/joyce/emb/embroid.htm). Used

with permission.

All other illustrations are by the author.

The Author

Timothy J. Mitchell has been pursuing embroidery as a hobby for nearly twenty years; His specialty is medieval embroidery.

He has a wife and two lovely children. As he is known in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Master Richard Wymarc

(OPN, OM, OL) is an 11th century Norman lord living in Cambrigeshire, England.

Introduction

sadly neglected. The most I could find was a few

photographs and the odd sentence. In the interest of

reviving this beautiful form, I have over the last few years

carefully studied all the examples on public display at the

V&A, along with several of the better items in the

museum’s reference collection 2 . This pattern book is a

summation of my research to date.

The embroidery of the medieval period was composed of

a wide variety of beautiful styles. Some are well known,

while some are largely ignored by the modern

needleworker. My own interest in re-creating medieval

stitchery led me to the museums of Great Britain. The

Victoria and Albert Museum 1 in London houses one of

the finest collections of Medieval and Renaissance

textiles in the world. In my travels I had the privilege of

spending many informative hours in the rooms of the

Dress and Textiles Collection, happily browsing through

centuries of needlework history.

I have limited the scope of this article to the individual

pieces that I have examined personally. This helps to

ensure that the patterns are accurate, and that the colors

given are good matches

This book is organized into four sections: Section 1 is a

discussion of the history of the style. Section 2 is a

detailed step-by-step description of how to work this type

of embroidery. Section 3 contains graphed patterns and

notes on ten of the pieces I have studied. Finally, Section

4 discusses how you can create your own designs.

While researching early period decorative bands, I

stumbled across several examples of a style of

embroidery that I had never seen before (see Figure 1).

This early type of counted thread work, dating from the

early 14 th to the mid 15 th centuries, combines striking

patterns with simple execution. It is a type of embroidery

that is at once simple enough that even a beginner can

learn it quickly, and beautiful enough to interest the most

advanced needleworker.

Section 1: The Historical Context.

Due to the lack of easily accessible documentation

concerning this type of German brick-stitch, it is difficult

to say too much about its origins with any real certainty.

For example: I cannot be completely sure of the precise

period the style was in use, or what geographical area that

it is native to. The only truly solid information comes

from examination of the individual items themselves.

Figure 1: A Tasseled Bag

The eleven pieces I have personally studied so far date

from the early 14 th to mid 15 th centuries. The earliest

example I have heard of (I have not examined it) dates

from the last decade of the 13 th century 3 , that item is a

wall hanging done in what looks to be the same style. I

have found no examples of this exact style of embroidery

dating later than the middle of the 15 th Century. However,

the design style, if not the stitching technique itself, is

echoed in Nicolas Bassee’s New Modelbuch von

Allerhandt Art und Stickens of 1568. Several of the

patterns there are very close to the geometric patterns

used in the type of embroidery discussed here 4 . Another

possible survival of the style can be found in the

needlework of 19 th century Armenia. Two decorative

sleeve panels in the Victoria and Albert Museum were

embroidered in what looks to be the same stitch and a

similar geometric style 5 . The emphasis in the Armenian

embroidery seems to be on linear strips as opposed to

repeating panels, and there is not the strong up and down

orientation of the German pieces. however, the two styles

otherwise appear very similar.

A careful search of the available books on the history of

embroidery showed that this style of stitchery has been

Moreover, the designs of the larger pieces, the vestments

and the hangings, show considerable artistic

sophistication; and even the smaller, simpler pieces are

visually striking.

From what I can glean from my research to date, the use

of this form of brick stitch embroidery seems limited to

Germany, the Westphalia and Lower Saxony regions in

particular. Figure 2 is a map of the locations of the

specific towns that are associated with this type of

needlework. As you can see, they tend to cluster in a

well-defined area. Brick stitch embroidery was used in

the needlework of other countries 6 , for example,

Switzerland and the Netherlands. However, the

multicolored patterns that typify this style seem limited to

Germany.

The simplicity of execution has important advantages

from the viewpoint of the medieval artisan. Much of the

embroidery of the period was made to order, and this kind

of work can be done relatively quickly and it can be

learned in a short time. The more ‘advanced’ types of

needlework such as Opus Anglicanum might take years to

master, and a large project might take months or years to

finish. These advantages combine to allow a large number

of people to work on a large piece simultaneously,

allowing it to be finished it in a relatively short time. It is

likely that the larger embroideries, such as the hangings,

were done this way, rather than being the work of a single

craftsman.

Who were the artists then? Most of the surviving pieces

whose origins are known come from the convents and

cathedrals. However so does much of the rest of the

embroidery that survives from the medieval period. The

Church had the organization and inclination to preserve

works of art through the turmoil of history. That the

embroideries come from churches and cathedrals does not

prove that the residents worked them. These works may

just as well been the work of secular workshops. Much of

the decorative needlework of this period was

accomplished by workshops of professional artisans, but

there is evidence that a proportion of this type of

embroidery was accomplished by nuns 8 . Several convents

in central Germany are known to have produced

embroidered works done by nuns under the supervision of

their abbess; the convents of Weinhausen and Lune are

two examples.

Several references link this embroidery style to Opus

Teutonicum (German Work). These embroideries have

much in common with our current subject, and the

embroideries described below can be thought of as a

variant style of O.T.

The similarity of the two types of needlework can be seen

in the fact that both use similar stitches and similar

geometric patterns, and that they come from

approximately the same area and time period. The

stitchery that is generally known as Opus Teutonicum,

was most often worked in white linen on a linen fabric,

with large areas of the background of the design usually

left uncovered. The colorful subject of this article, on the

other hand, was worked almost exclusively in brightly

colored silks and the fabric was usually covered

completely.

A wide variety of items were decorated using this type of

embroidery. Given the source of some of the pieces, it is

no surprise that a number of the uses were religious in

nature. This form of embroidery decorated altar frontals,

church hangings, reliquaries (see pattern H) and

vestments, such as copes, albs, and stoles (see pattern F).

In addition, it was also used to decorate items of possible

secular use such as bags (see patterns A, C, and J) and

cushions (see pattern I). The items vary greatly in size,

the largest piece that I have been able to examine closely

is the Hildesheim Cope; a floor length half circle cloak

completely covered with silk embroidery (see ‘The

Larger Pieces’ below). The smallest is a 3-inch by 3-inch

drawstring bag (see Pattern A).

One author 7 has described this style of embroidery as a

‘primitive,' simpler technique, worked by artists of lesser

skills. While it is true that the techniques involved are not

nearly as demanding as those of, for example, Opus

Anglicanum, the richness of the materials set it apart from

‘peasant embroidery.' The heavy use of expensive

imported silks in this type of needlework point to it being

done for either the well-to-do upper class, or the church.

Given the wide range of uses, I think that it is likely that

this embroidery was used for great variety of both

religious and secular uses.

Section 2: Recreating the Style

Exactly how this “gilt strip” is attached to the ground

fabric is unknown. Close examination of the reliquary bag

fragment graphed in Pattern H shows no evidence of

couching, but it seems unlikely that a gilded material

would be durable enough to survive repeated pulling

through the ground fabric.

Planning your project.

The most important step in any arts project is the planning

stage. Investing time and money in a project when you

don’t have a good idea of what the finished product will

look like is a recipe for frustration. You must decide what

you wish to make, what it will be used for, what size it

should be, and what the colors and pattern are to be. Then

you can decide what you need in the way of materials.

For example, it may matter to you if the pattern is

centered on the piece. If you are making a bag or pouch,

you might want to arrange the size of the bag so that the

pattern will match across the seams, or the orientation of

the decoration might be important to the look of the

finished piece. I will discuss several such points as we go

along.

All the above materials are available to the modern

embroiderer, but the cost can be prohibitive, and in some

areas the materials may be hard to find. For those of you

who are not determined to work with period materials,

there are very acceptable substitutes.

Linen evenweave fabric is not too expensive or hard to

come by, especially for small projects. However, this

embroidery style covers the ground fabric completely, so

substitution does not effect the look and feel of the bag.

Cotton evenweave is often easier to find, a bit easier to

work with, and is available in a wide range of thread

counts.

Materials

Linen embroidery thread is hard to find, and silk floss is

both more expensive and not readily available in the

range of colors cotton floss is. Cotton embroidery floss

such as DMC or Anchor looks almost as good as silk or

linen, and is easier and less costly to come by, although

the feel and the look of the finished project will not be as

rich as if silk were used. Table 2 in Appendix A gives a

list of the DMC equivalents for the colors used in these

pieces.

The materials used in the original embroideries are very

similar from piece to piece. Every example I have seen or

read about is worked on evenweave, tabby-woven (plain)

linen. A variety of thread counts were used, ranging from

20 to 72 threads per inch in the examples studied (see

Table 3 in Appendix A).

The needlework itself is done mostly in colored silks. The

embroidery silk resembles modern cotton embroidery

floss in thickness. In addition to silk, several of the items

have white patterns worked in plied linen thread (see

patterns A, D, F, and J). The number of plies (or

individual strands) making up the threads is unknown.

But a close look suggests that there are between 3 and 5

plies. There is no obvious reason why linen was used in

some cases and not others. Perhaps the more durable linen

helped cut down the wear on the silk embroidery; or

maybe it was a cheaper alternative to using white silk. In

any case, the linen on linen embroidery known as Opus

Teutonicum was widespread in this period, and the

material was readily available.

Finding a suitable substitute for the “gilt strip” is a more

difficult matter. If the material is to be couched to the

ground fabric, then any number of gold substitute threads

can be used. If you wish to stitch the material through the

fabric, I recommend a compromise that I have found

acceptable: Use properly colored DMC floss as a

substitute, DMC colors 3045 and 833 work well.

Embroidery Technique

In this style of embroidery the stitches are worked such

that the ground fabric is covered completely. The stitches

themselves are similar to those used in Bargello and

Florentine styles, in that the embroidery thread is worked

parallel to the weave of the ground fabric instead of

crossing it as in cross-stitch or tent stitch (see Figure 3).

The final material sometimes used in these pieces is a bit

of a mystery. Although the museum labels identify it as

“gilt strip”; what this exactly means is unknown. I have

examined the material under magnification, and have

repeatedly studied my detailed close-up photos. From

these observations I can give the following description:

The “gilt strip” is a flat material whose width is similar to

the silk floss in the embroidery. It appears to be a gilded

material as opposed to metal wire.

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: