During the Middle Ages applique was in universal use, and not confined merely to wall hangings, quilts, and bed draperies. It was used to ornament all kinds of wearing apparel, including caps, gloves, and shoes. Special designs were made for upholstery, but because of the hard wear imposed upon stools and chairs but few specimens of this work have been preserved.
Quilting also came into vogue in the making of bedspreads, of which great numbers were required during the winter nights in the poorly heated bedrooms. The quilts intended for service were made of substantial, well-wearing material. None of these strictly utilitarian quilts is left, but they were certainly plentiful. The old chroniclers give us a glimpse of what the women of these days cherished by telling us that in 1540 Katherine Howard, afterward wife of Henry VIII, was presented with twenty-three quilts of Sa.r.s.enet, closely quilted, from the Royal Wardrobe.
Tradition says that, during the reign of Henry VIII, the much used and popular "black work" or "Spanish work" was introduced into England by his Spanish wife, Catherine of Aragon. It has been found that this work did not originate in Spain but was taken there probably by the Moors or by the Crusaders, for it is known to have been perfected at a very remote period in both Persia and China. The following interesting description of black work is from Mrs. Lowes" "Chats on Old Lace and Needlework":
[Ill.u.s.tration: SUNBURST AND WHEEL OF FORTUNE
Comparatively modern quilts. Colours: blue and white]
[Ill.u.s.tration: TREE OF PARADISE
Made in Indiana over 75 years ago. Colours: red and green]
"The work itself was a marvel of neatness, precision, and elegant design, but the result cannot be said to have been commensurate with the labour of its production. More frequently the design was of scrollwork, worked with a fine black silk back st.i.tching or chain st.i.tch. Round and round the st.i.tches go, following each other closely.
Bunches of grapes are frequently worked solidly, and even the popular peascod is worked in outline st.i.tch, and often the pet.i.t point period lace st.i.tches are copied, and roses and birds worked separately and afterward st.i.tched to the design." There are many examples of this famous "Spanish work" in the South Kensington Museum in London.
Quilts, hangings, coats, caps, jackets, smocks, are all to be seen, some with a couched thread of gold and silver following the lines of the scrolls. This is said to be the Spanish st.i.tch referred to in the old list of st.i.tches, and very likely may be so, as the style and manner are certainly not English; and we know that Catherine of Aragon brought wonders of Spanish st.i.tchery with her, and she herself was devoted to the use of the needle. The story of how, when called before Cardinal Wolsey and Campeggio, to answer to King Henry"s accusations, she had a skein of embroidery silk round her neck, is well known.
"The black silk outline st.i.tchery on linen lasted well through the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Very little of it is seen outside the museums, as, not being strikingly beautiful or attractive, it has been destroyed. Another phase of the same st.i.tchery was working cotton and linen garments, hangings and quilts in a kind of quilted pattern with yellow silk. The finest materials were used, the padding being placed bit by bit into its place. The quilting work was made in tiny panels, ill.u.s.trating shields and other heraldic devices, and had a surface as fine as carved ivory. When, as in the case of one sample at South Kensington, the quilt is additionally embroidered with fine floss silk flowers, the effect is very lovely."
One interesting feature of "black work" and similar flat embroideries was their constant use in decorating furnishings for the bedroom. It was peculiarly well adapted for quilts, as its rather smooth surface admirably resisted wear.
[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD BED WITH QUILT AND CANOPY AND TRUNDLE BED BENEATH
Now in Memorial Hall, Deerfield, Ma.s.s.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: TWO WHITE TUFTED BEDSPREADS
Both made in Pennsylvania about 100 years ago]
Fashions in needlework changed, but not with the same rapidity as in clothing. Gradually ideas and customs from other countries crept into England and new influences were felt. An established trade with the Orient brought Eastern products to her markets, and oriental designs in needlework became popular. About this time "crewel" was much in vogue. This was embroidery done with coloured woollen threads and was a step backward in the art. Some of this "crewel" work, done in the seventeenth century, is described by M. Jourdain in "English Secular Embroidery": "These hangings, bed curtains, quilts, and valances are of linen or a mixture of cotton and linen, and one type is embroidered with bold, freely designed patterns in worsted. They are worked almost always in dull blues and greens mixed with more vivid greens and some browns, but rarely any other colouring."
A very curious custom of these days was the use of "mourning beds,"
with black hangings, coverlets, and even sheets. As these funereal articles of furniture were quite expensive, it was a friendly custom to lend these mourning beds to families in time of affliction. In 1644 Mrs. Eure wrote to Sir Ralph Verney: "Sweet Nephew, I am now overrun with miserys and troubles, but the greatest misfortune that could happen to me was the death of the gallantest man (her husband) that I ever knew." Whereupon Sir Ralph, full of sympathy, "offers her the loan of the great black bed and hangings from Claydon."
Interesting indeed are descriptions of wonderful old quilts that are now guarded with zealous care in English museums. One, an original and striking design, is closely quilted all over in small diamonds. Upon it is embroidered an orange tree in full leaf and loaded with fruit.
This tree, together with the fancy pot in which it is planted, covers practically the entire quilt. In the lower corners a gentleman is shown picking oranges and a lady in a patient att.i.tude is waiting to receive them, the figures of both being scarcely taller than the flower pot. The whole design is made up of gayly coloured silks evidently worked in after the quilting was done. Mention is also made of an elaborate quilt said to be the work of Queen Anne, which is preserved at Madresfield Court. Sarah, d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, in giving an order for house furnishings for her "wild, unmerciful house"
about 1720, asks for "a vast number of feather beds, some filled with swansdown, and a vast number of quilts."
Mrs. Delany, who lived from 1700 to 1788, and left a large correspondence relating to needlework, which was later edited by Lady Llanover, was a most prolific worker with her needle as well as a profuse letter writer. She was often quoted as an authority and given credit for much originality in her designs. A quilt that she made is described as follows: "Of white linen worked in flowers, the size of nature, delineated with the finest coloured silks in running st.i.tch, which is made use of in the same way as by a pen etching on paper; the outline was drawn with pencil. Each flower is different, and evidently done at the moment from the original." Another quilt of Mrs. Delany"s was made upon a foundation of nankeen. This was unique in that no colours were used besides the dull yellow of the background. Applied designs of leaves tied together with ribbons, all cut from white linen and st.i.tched to the nankeen with white thread, made a quilt no wise resembling the silken ones of earlier periods. This quilt may be termed a forerunner of the vast array of pieced and patched washable quilts belonging to the nineteenth century.
The embroidering of quilts followed the process of quilting, which afforded the firm foundation essential for heavy and elaborate designs. There were many quilts made of white linen quilted with yellow silk thread, and afterward embroidered very tastefully with yellow silk floss. Terry, in the history of his "Voyage to the East Indies," made about the middle of the seventeenth century, says: "The natives show very much ingenuity in their manufactures, also in making excellent quilts of their stained cloth, or of fresh-coloured taffeta lined with their prints, or of their satin with taffeta, betwixt which they put cotton wool, and work them together with silk."
Among many articles in a list of Eastern products, which Charles I, in 1631, permitted to be brought to England, were "quilts of China embroidered in Gold." There is a possibility that these quilts were appreciated quite as much for the precious metal used in the embroidery as for the beauty of design and workmanship. It was but a short time after this that women began to realize how much gold and silver had gone into all forms of needlework. They looked upon rare and beautiful embroidery with greedy eyes, and a deplorable fashion sprang up, known in France as "parfilage" and in England as "drizzling." This was nothing more or less than ripping up, st.i.tch by st.i.tch, the magnificent old hangings, quilts, and even church vestments, to secure gold and silver thread. Lady Mary c.o.ke, writing from the Austrian Court, says: "All the ladies who do not play cards pick gold. It is the most general fashion I ever saw, and they all carry their bags containing the necessary tools in their pockets. They even begged sword knots, epaulettes, and galons that they might add more of the precious threads to the spool on which they wound the ravelled bullion, which they sold." To the appreciative collector this seems wanton sacrilege.
[Ill.u.s.tration: TUFTED BEDSPREAD WITH KNOTTED FRINGE
A design of very remarkable beauty. Over 100 years old]
[Ill.u.s.tration: UNKNOWN STAR
A New England quilt about 115 years old. Colours: once bright red and green are now old rose and dull green.
The original quilting designs are very beautiful]
John Locke, 1632-1704, a very famous man of Charles II"s time, and one of the greatest philosophers and ardent champions of civil and religious rights which England ever produced, mentioned quilts in his "Thoughts Concerning Education." In telling of the correct sort of beds for children he writes as follows: "Let his Bed be hard, and rather Quilts than Feathers. Hard Lodging strengthens the Parts, whereas being buryed every Night in Feathers melts and dissolves the Body.... Besides, he that is used to hard Lodging at Home will not miss his Sleep (where he has most Need of it) in his travels Abroad for want of his soft Bed, and his Pillows laid in Order."
Pepys, a contemporary of Locke, in his incomparable and delicious Diary, remarks: "Home to my poor wife, who works all day like a horse, at the making of her hanging for our chamber and bed," thus telling us that he was following the fashion of the day in having wall, window, and bed draperies alike. It is plain, too, by his frequent "and so to bed," that his place of sleep and rest was one of comfort in his house.
A quilt depending solely upon the st.i.tching used in quilting, whether it be of the simple running st.i.tch, the back st.i.tch, or the chain st.i.tch, is not particularly ornamental. However, when viewed at close range, the effect is a shadowy design in low relief that has a distinctive but modest beauty when well done. Early in the eighteenth century a liking for this fashion prevailed, and was put to a variety of uses. Frequently there was no interlining between the right and wrong sides. At Canons Ashby there are now preserved some handsome quilted curtains of this type, belonging to Sir Alfred Dryden, Baronet.
[Ill.u.s.tration: COMBINATION ROSE
More than 85 years old. Colours: rose, pink, and green]
[Ill.u.s.tration: DOUBLE TULIP
Made in Ohio, date unknown. The tulips are made of red calico covered with small yellow flowers. The roses have yellow centres]
During the Middle Ages instruction in the use of the needle was considered a necessary part of the English girl"s education. By the seventeenth century "working fine works with the needle" was considered of equal importance with singing, dancing, and French in the accomplishments of a lady of quality. In the eighteenth century much the same sentiment prevailed, and Lady Montagu is quoted as saying: "It is as scandalous for a woman not to know how to use a needle as for a man not to know how to use a sword."
The _Spectator_ of that time sarcastically tells of two sisters highly educated in domestic arts who spend so much time making cushions and "sets of hangings" that they had never learned to read and write! A sober-minded old lady, grieved by frivolous nieces, begs the _Spectator_ "to take the laudable mystery of embroidery into your serious consideration," for, says she, "I have two nieces, who so often run gadding abroad that I do not know when to have them. Those hours which, in this age, are thrown away in dress, visits, and the like, were employed in my time in writing out receipts, or working beds, chairs, and hangings for the family. For my part I have plied the needle these fifty years, and by my good-will would never have it out of my hand. It grieves my heart to see a couple of proud, idle flirts sipping the tea for a whole afternoon in a room hung round with the industry of their great-grandmothers." Another old lady of the eighteenth century, Miss Hutton, proudly makes the following statement of the results of years of close application to the needle: "I have quilted counterpanes and chest covers in fine white linen, in various patterns of my own invention. I have made patchwork beyond calculation."
Emblems and motifs were great favourites with the quilt workers of "ye olden times" and together with mottoes were worked into many pieces of embroidery. The following mottoes were copied from an old quilt made in the seventeenth century: "Covet not to wax riche through deceit,"
"He that has lest witte is most poore," "It is better to want riches than witte," "A covetous man cannot be riche."
[Ill.u.s.tration: MORNING GLORIES
In one of their many beautiful and delicate varieties were chosen for this quilt, and while the design is conventional to a certain extent it shows the natural grace of the growing vine]
The needle and its products have always been held in great esteem in England, and many of the old writers refer to needlework with much respect. In 1640 John Taylor, sometimes called the "Water Poet,"
published a collection of essays, etc., called "The Needle"s Excellency," which was very popular in its day and ran through twelve editions. In it is a long poem ent.i.tled, "The Prayse of the Needle."
The following are the opening lines:
"To all dispersed sorts of Arts and Trades I write the needles prayse (that never fades) So long as children shall begot and borne, So long as garments shall be made and worne.
So long as Hemp or Flax or Sheep shall bear Their linnen Woollen fleeces yeare by yeare; So long as silk-worms, with exhausted spoile, Of their own entrailes for man"s game shall toyle; Yea, till the world be quite dissolved and past, So long at least, the Needles use shall last."
It is interesting to read what Elizabeth Glaister, an Englishwoman, writes of quilts in England:
"Perhaps no piece of secular needlework gave our ancestors more satisfaction, both in the making and when made, as the quilt or bed coverlet. We have seen a good many specimens of them, both of the real quilted counterpanes, in which several thicknesses of material were st.i.tched together into a solid covering, and the lighter silken or linen coverlets ornamented with all sorts of embroidery. Cradle quilts also were favourite pieces of needlework and figure in inventories of Henry VIII"s time.
"The real quilts were very handsome and the amount of labour bestowed on them was enormous. The seventeenth century was a great time for them, and the work of this period is generally very good. The quilting of some of them is made by sewing several strands of thick cotton between the fine linen of the surface and the lining. When one line was completed the cotton was laid down again next to it, and another line formed.
"A sort of sh.e.l.l pattern was a favourite for quilting. When a sufficient s.p.a.ce was covered with the ground pattern, flowers or other ornaments were embroidered on this excellent foundation. Perhaps the best results as a work of art were attained when both quilting and flowers were done in bright yellow silk; the effect of this colour on a white ground being always particularly good. A handsome quilt may be worked with a darned background. It is done most easily on huckaback towelling of rather loose weave, running the needle under the raised threads for the ground.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PRINCESS FEATHERS
Made in Indiana about 1835. Colours: soft dull green and old rose]
[Ill.u.s.tration: PRINCESS FEATHERS WITH BORDER