This kind of realism is
out of place in embroidery, and it is unfortunately characteristic of
the English embroidered work of about this period, occurring generally
on boxes, mirror frames, or the like, but only rarely on book-covers.
The design is the same on both sides; a narrow arch of thick gold cord
reaches about three-quarters up the side, and interwoven with it is a
kind of cusped oval, with leaves, reaching up to the top of the book.
The lower half of the arch is enclosed in a rectangular band of silver
threads, broad and kept in place by transverse bars at regular
intervals, and beyond it another row, made of patches of red and blue
silk alternately. In the lower part of the oval is a ground of green
silk, on which grow two double roses made of red purl. In the space
enclosed between the top of the arch and the lower point of the oval
is a bird worked in high relief in gold with a touch of red silk on
his wings. Over the bird is a blue cloud, heavily worked in blue silk,
and beneath is a small grass plot. The cherub's head already described
is in the space between the top of the arch and the upper extremity of
the oval; it is flanked by two small red purl roses. The two upper
corners have undulating clouds in blue silk, and a red and yellow purl
rose between them. There are several gold spangles all about, and
innumerable small pieces of coloured purl.
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