Embroideries
Broderie des Indes (‘Indian embroidery’) is a term sometimes used for a form of drawn thread work or drawn work on muslin.
Buratto embroidery is named after buratto cloth, which in its turn is named after buratto, an Italian word for a sieve or sifter. Buratto embroidery is worked on an open, even-weave cloth (buratto cloth) with a single warp and a double weft. The ground has a square mesh (see lacis). Designs are worked in running stitch and may be counted or drawn directly onto the net. Buratto embroidery can be classed as an embroidered lace.
Celtic cross-stitch embroidery is a style of counted thread embroidery using cross stitches to create Celtic art patterns. It was popular in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The designs include intricate geometric patterns, interlacing forms, knotwork, spirals, as well as stylised figurative and zoomorphic patterns, all worked in a range of rich colours.
China ribbon embroidery is a form of decorative needlework using narrow China ribbons instead of an embroidery thread of some kind.
In the late nineteenth century, China ribbon work was a form of drawn thread work, into which coloured China ribbons were run instead of cotton threads.
Crewel embroidery (or crewel work) literally is any embroidery worked using crewel thread, which is a fine, strong, worsted form of thread. Crewel embroidery on a linen ground has been worked in Europe since the early Medieval period, although the term crewel embroidery/work, as far as is known, dates back only to the seventeenth century.
Cross stitch embroidery is a widespread form of counted thread embroidery, in which X-shaped stitches are used to create a design or pattern. Cross stitch embroidery should not be confused with canvas embroidery. The two types of work are comparable, but the first is generally worked on a cloth ground (rather than canvas), such as a linen or cotton even weave material, and the design may cover all or part of the ground material.
Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and lies just south of Turkey. It has a long tradition of decorative needlework, in particular redwork and whitework. For centuries the island has been part of an intensive maritime network that linked the whole of the Mediterranean world together.
It is not always clear where Cyprian redwork originated. Some authors attribute this style of work to Lefkara, others say it comes from the southern coastal town of Pafos and the surrounding region. What is clear is that this type of work was known in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and possibly still in the nineteenth century.
Darned huckaback is a type of darned embroidery on huckaback cloth. This type of embroidery was introduced in Europe in the late seventeenth century and it became very popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was normally worked in floss silk.
Deerfield embroidery is a form of blue-on-white work (free style) associated with the town of Deerfield in western Massachusetts, USA. It was promoted by Margaret Whiting and Ellen Miller, who in 1896 set up the Deerfield Society of Blue and White Needlework for the revival and production of monochrome, usually blue embroidery based on eighteenth century local examples of crewel embroidery (see Delft embroidery).
From the sixteenth century, the city of Delft in the Netherlands was famous for the production of tin-glazed earthenware, especially tiles, which were exported throughout the world. Many of these objects had simple blue on white designs that were later used as a source of embroidery patterns. In the USA, these patterns became known as Delft embroidery.
The National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik houses a large number of embroideries, the oldest of which date to the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. The extant medieval embroideries formed part of ecclesiastical garments and other textiles. These include altar frontals, burses and chasubles. From later centuries there are also embroideries used for secular purposes.
This is an embroidered picture of a shepherdess worked by Esther Stoddard (1738-1816; Northampton, New England, USA) in c. 1750-1760. The image is of a reclining shepherdess in a wooded landscape with a spotted dog, woolly sheep, lambs, a leaping deer, blackbirds, a peasant and a small pond with ducks. In the background there is a two storey house with two chimneys.