: Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries Second Edition by Huish Marcus B Marcus Bourne - Samplers England; Tapestry England; Embroidery England

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ENGLISH NEEDLEWORK.--ITS PRACTICE IN PAST TIMES.--ITS PLACE AMONGST THE MINOR ARTS.--MR RUSKIN'S VIEWS AS TO NEEDLEWORK IN A MUSEUM.--LACK OF A HISTORY.--EXHIBITION OF SAMPLERS.-- RANGE OF THIS VOLUME 1-5

THE STITCHERY OF SAMPLERS, WITH A NOTE ON THEIR MATERIALS.--CUT AND DRAWN WORK.--BACK STITCH.--ALPHABET STITCHES.--DARNING STITCHES.--TENT AND CROSS STITCHES.-- VARIOUS STITCHES.--MATERIALS 161-171

INDEX 173

List of Colour Plates

FIG. PAGE

English Needlework

Amongst all the Minor Arts practised by our ancestresses, there was certainly no one which was so much the fashion, or in which a higher grade of proficiency was attained, as that of needlework. It was in vogue in the castle and the cottage, in the ladies' seminary and the dame's school, and a girl's education began and ended with endeavours to attain perfection in it. Amongst the earliest objects to be shown to a mother visiting her daughter at school was, as is seen in the charming picture by Morland in the Wallace Collection , the sampler which the young pupil had worked. These early tasks were, very certainly in the majority of instances, little cared for by the schoolgirls who produced them, but being cherished by fond parents they came in after years to be looked upon with an affectionate eye by those who had made them, and to be preserved and even handed down as heirlooms in the family.

Mr Ruskin did not, however, content himself with claiming for needlework a prominent position. Had he only done this, his dictum might have availed us but little as regards admission of the branch of it to which we shall devote most of this volume. With the thoroughness which was so characteristic of him, he gave chapter and verse for the faith that was in him, clenching it with one of his usual felicitous instances, which, in this case, took as its text the indifferent stitching of the gloves which he used when engaged in forestry.

It might appear to be by an accident that he specifically included the "Samplers of our own lovely ancestresses," but this was not so. Fine needlework was an accomplishment which was carried to an exceptional pitch of excellence by his mother, and her son was proud of her achievements, for this proficiency had descended from his grandmother, whose sampler was probably present to Mr Ruskin's mind when he penned the sentence to which we have given prominence.

Having, then, such an authority for assigning to English needlework a foremost place in any well organised museum, it may reasonably be claimed that our literature should contain some record of the sampler's evolution and history, and that our museums should arrange any materials they may possess in an order which will enable a would-be student, or any one interested, to gain information concerning the rise and fall of the industry.

It may be said that such information is not called for, but this can hardly be asserted in face of the fact that the first edition of this work, published at the considerable price of two guineas, was quickly exhausted, and demands have for some time been made for its reissue. The publication in question was the outcome of an exhibition held at The Fine Art Society, London, in 1900, at which some three hundred and fifty samplers, covering every decade since 1640, were shown. The interest taken in the display was remarkable, the reason probably being that almost every visitor possessed some specimen of the craft, but few had any idea that his or her possession was the descendant of such an ancestry, or had any claim to recognition beyond a purely personal one. Everyone then garnered information with little trouble and with unmistakable pleasure from the surprising and unexpected array, and the many requests that the collection should not be dispersed without an endeavour being made to perpetuate the information derived from an assemblage of so many selected examples led to the compilation of the present work.

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