Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 09:21:37 -1000
From: "Gwyn A. Carnegie"
Subject: Re: Blackwork in Spain
On 1 Apr 97 at 12:34, [email protected] wrote concerning Re: Blackwork in Spain:
> I wanted to thank all those who responded to my request. I appreciate your time
and helpfulness. Several people pointed me to Erica Wilson's book, but I was in
fact trying to prove or disprove her assertion that Blackwork came to England with
Catherine of Aragon, and another author that questioned whether there was even blackwork happening
in Spain at the time.
Has anyone suggested the source below.
Mary Gostelow: Blackwork. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976.
If I remember right, she doesn't buy into the Catherine of Aragon source either
but I may be wrong as I haven't read it in 9 years. ( I'm feeling old now;-). She
goes into great detail on history but doesn't give samplers. There enough books
out there already that do that IMHO
Also try these sources.
George Wingfield Digby: Elizabethan Embroidery. New York: Thomas Yoseloff, 1964.
Hughes, Therle. English Domestic Needlework. Abbey Fine Arts. London. No date.
Pascoe, Margaret. Blackwork Embroidery. B.T. Batsford ltd. London. 1986.
Synge. Lanto, ed. The Royal School of Needlework Book of Needlework and
Embroidery. William Collins Sons and Company. London. 1986.
Wardle, Patricia. Guide to English Embroidery. Victoria and Albert Museum. Her
Majesty's Stationery office. London. 1970.
Zimmerman, Jane. The Development of Western European Needlework: Thirteenth
Century Through Eighteenth Century. Self-published. Richmond, California.
1982.
Zimmerman, Jane. English Secular Needlework: Tudor and Stuart Periods.
Self-published. Richmond, California. 1992.
> I am happy to report a clear instance of blackwork (though done in red) in a
> painting of the 1490's, seen in Ruth Matilda Anderson's _Hispanic Costume 1480 -
1530_. And even better, that painting is in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington,
DC, so I intend to see it with my own eyes on my next business trip there.
In my library here, I have book on Italian costuming in the Renaisance.
There are several chemises will small bits of bandwork on them. The work is
not floral at all but resemble the bandwork on early german pieces (1505
-1535) Some are in gold and some are in red. Try looking in the Storia books
for more earlier examples.
Gwyn Carnegie Sacramento, Ca
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Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 09:23:03 -1000
From: Chris Laning
Subject: Re: Blackwork in Spain
Anyone interested in blackwork and/or its history should *run,* not walk,
to the bookstore in search of _An Anonymous Woman: Her Work Wrought in the
17th Century_ by Kathleen Epstein (1992, Curious Works Press, ISBN
#0-963-3331-1-9). I believe Lacis carries it.
She says, "Double running patterns are found on textiles from Islamic Egypt
and date to AD 1200-1300 . . .It is not known by what route these kinds of
patterns first found their way to Western Europe or in what manner they spread. Spain
was part of the larger Islamic world at this time, and extensive trade between Italy
and the Near East had existed since Roman times." (She cites Margaret Abegg, _Apropos patterns for embroidery, lace, and woven textiles_, 1978, Abegg-Stiftung Bern, as
her source for this history.)
The book isn't primarily a history, though; it's a practically thread-by-thread analysis
of an early Stuart band sampler; after 1600, true, but still a pretty impeccable
pattern source. I am *very* impressed by the thoroughness of her scholarship.
She's also written a 1993 book(or booklet), _A New Modelbook for Spanish
Stitch_ (Curious Works Press), which I haven't seen. However, the Jan/Feb
1995 issue of _Piecework_ also has an article by her, "Spanish Stitch
Embroidery," in which she gives a much more detailed discussion of the
history of the stitch. She also shows a portrait from about 1540 (probably
Italian) , and a number of older Near Eastern examples. (She doesn't
address the Catherine of Aragon legend, unfortunately.)
IMNSHO, she is the best source around on this subject.
O Chris Laning
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