Until, however, French fashions came into vogue after the Restoration,
English binders had never been content to regard leather as the sole
material in which they could work. Embroidered bindings had come early
into use in England, and a Psalter embroidered by Anne Felbrigge towards
the close of the fourteenth century is preserved at the British Museum,
and shown in one of Mr. Davenport's illustrations. In the sixteenth
century embroidered work was very popular with the Tudor princesses,
gold and silver thread and pearls being largely used, often with very
decorative effect. The simplest of these covers are also the best--but
great elaboration was often employed, and on a presentation copy of
Archbishop Parker's _De Antiquitate Ecclesiae Britannicae_ we find a
clever but rather grotesque representation of a deer-paddock. Under the
Stuarts the lighter feather-stitch was preferred, and there seems to
have been a regular trade in embroidered Bibles and Prayer-books of
small size, sometimes with floral patterns, sometimes with portraits of
the King, or Scriptural scenes. A dealer's freak which compelled the
British Museum to buy a pair of elaborate gloves of the period rather
than lose a finely embroidered Psalter, with which they went, was
certainly a fortunate one, enabling us to realise that in hands thus
gloved these little bindings, always pretty, often really artistic, must
have looked exactly right, while their vivid colours must have been
admirably in harmony with the gay Cavalier dresses.
Pages:
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31