These are all worked in needlepoint and edged with gold twist,
the stems of some of them strongly made by a kind of braid of gold
cords.
This little book is certainly one of the most ornamental specimens of
any of the smaller satin-bound books of the seventeenth century, and
although here and there some of the pearls are gone, altogether it is in
very good condition, and it is rarely that such a fine example can now
be met with in private hands.
_Bible._ London, 1638.
[Illustration: 44--Bible. London, 1638.]
Several of the embroidered books on satin are worked chiefly in metal
threads, and the designs on such books are not as a rule good. Whether
the knowledge that the work was to be executed in strong threads has
hampered the designer or not cannot be said, but certainly there is
often a tinselly effect about these bindings that is not altogether
pleasing.
In the case of a Bible printed in London in 1638, bound in white satin,
and measuring 6 by 3 inches, one of the chief ornaments is a cherub's
head, the face in silver and the hair and wings in gold. The working of
this head and wings seems to me wrong. The face is, possibly enough, as
well done as the material would allow, but the hair is made in small
curls of gold thread, and the feathers of the wings are rendered in a
naturalistic way with pieces of flat gold braid.
Pages:
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