Exploring Treasures: Introducing the World of Textiles

Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum II:

Introducing the World of Textiles

AdaH. Logan Acting Conservator of Textiles

August 6 to January 5, 1992 The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, Massachusetts

Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum II:

Introducing the World of Textiles

AdaH. Logan Acting Conservator of Textiles

August 6 to January 5, 1992 The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Boston, Massachusetts

Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum II: Introducing the World of Textiles

The twenty textiles selected for this exhibition--from eleven countries and spanning six centuries-are a small representation of an enormous collection of textiles purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from the 1870s until shortly before her death in 1924. The textiles have been brought together from gallery walls and obscure spaces, as well as from textile storage.

The various processes by which a textile is created and decorated is the focus of this exhibition.

Techniques displayed include examples of tapestry, brocade, damask, embroidery, knotted carpet, whitework, lace, and painted and printed textiles. Accompanying labels, wall texts, diagrams,' and this catalogue introduce the technical processes and present information gleaned from the museum archives. The tools of the crafts displayed offer reminders of the individual artisans and their products before their replacement by machine technology.

You are invited to admire these textiles, not only as finely crafted pieces, but as objects that had both a functional purpose and, in their beauty, were and are a joy to behold.

PREFACE The exhibition series, Exploring Treasures in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, was initiated by our chief curator, Hilliard T. Goldfarb, in January of 1991 shortly after his arrival here. He enthusiastically began to develop a regular program of temporary special exhibitions. The object: to focus on particular aspects of this permanent collection in new or unusual ways. With his encouragement, much agonizing over subject matter, and a deep breath, Introducing the World of Textiles was born. It is the first exhibition in the history of the museum devoted solely to textiles. It seemed the perfect opportunity to discuss, compare, and contrast methods of textile production and decoration by displaying as many completely different textiles as could reasonably fit into our small exhibition space. The search sent us to every museum gallery and into storage to identify and study the variety and quantities of textiles collected by Isabella Stewart Gardner. Even we were surprised by the breadth of possiblilties, and twenty were selected as a small representation of what is here. Labels, wall text, and illustrations identify and explain the technique of manufacture. A modest catalogue offers supplementary written and pictorial information about techniques, history, provenance, and relevant archival materials. A brief bibliography, for those who wish to continue to explore the subject, and a basic glossary of textile and decorative arts terminology used in the exhibition text are also included.

It was an ambitious project that would have been an impossible task without the inspiration,

generous help, and labor of several staff members. Hilliard T. Goldfarb, a mentor par excellence, generated the energy and excitement needed to take on a project of this magnitude.

A special heart-felt thanks goes to Lisa Lesniak, assistant, colleague, and friend- a thanks that goes beyond her exemplary creative, competent long hours of work on this exhibit. Her artist's eyes and accomplished hands performed miracles. She will be sorely missed when she leaves this month to embark upon a Master of Fine Arts degree. It is impossible to thank John Niland, building supervisor, for his orchestration of the installation, while maintaining a schedule already too busy for one person. With continuous calm and good humor, his ingenuity and skills were paramount to the success of the construction and hanging of the eleven wall cases and the attachment of labels, text, and illustrations, ably assisted by Brian Krischke.

Much appreciation to Valentine Talland, acting conservator of objects, for designing the state of the art floor cases used for the first time, and for "holding the fort" in conservation while the textile department was totally exhibition-occupied. Elisa Jorgensen, paper conservator, I thank for her interest, ideas, and constant labors in our behalf. My gratitude to Susan Sinclair, museum archivist, who generously helped locate many fascinating records illustrating Mrs. Gardner's interest in and purchase of hundreds of textiles worldwide. Her knowledge of Mrs. Gardner and the growth of the museum is only exceeded by her ability to share, fascinate, and educate others about this remarkable collection. Also to Susan and to Troy Moss, executive assistant to the chief curator, blessings for their patience and perseverance in editing all text written by a textile conservator working in a curatorial capacity. Any errors rest on my shoulders. Carolann Butterworth good-naturedly, thoroughly unraveled the mysteries of design by computer, in realizing the layout of this catalog. The textile department is indebted, as well, to Emily Kaplan, objects conservation assistant, and to three volunteers: Valeria Orlandini, who spent many days assisting in the preparation of the textile mounts; Ursula Kelleher, who spent precious vacation time working on this project; and Suzanne Reilly, art history instructor, who has contributed hours of her time to the Gardner Museum textile conservation lab.

It is my hope that those who visit the exhibit will enjoy and appreciate the craftsmanship and beauty of these textiles that reach out to us from different places, cultures, and times.

Ada H. Logan Acting Conservator of Textiles August 6, 1991

NOTES ON THE TEXTILE COLLECTION AT THE GARDNER MUSEUM From furnishing fabrics to tapestries, textiles were a vital part of Mrs. Gardner's home and collection, both at 152 Beacon Street (her first Boston residence, 1862-1902), and at Fenway Court, completed in 1903. The museum archives reveal fascinating information relating to Mrs. Gardner's personal interest in textiles. Letters, bills of sale from shops, markets, and dealers, and carefully annotated travel books and diaries refer frequently to purchases of textiles here and abroad. An enormous range of furnishing and garment fabrics were purchased and sumptuously used and displayed: silks from China and Japan, laces from France and Italy, and sarongs from Java, to name but a few. Volumes of notebooks record the history of textiles at the museum as to what is original and what is replacement. Archival photographs of the Gardner's Beacon Street house and Fenway Court are visual reminders of the prominence of textiles in interior decoration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Multicultural, secular, and ecclesiastic designs characterize this collection of large and small sizes; natural fibers of silk, cotton, and flax; furnishing fabrics of damask, brocade, and velvet; laces; tapestries; and embroideries. Lustrous silk wall coverings, embroidered and velvet hangings, and galleries full of upholstered furniture are an important part of the context consciously created to display objects of art. Although every precaution possible is being taken to conserve and preserve these treasures, time and the environment have taken a heavy toll over the century that the textiles have been on display - many were already hundreds of years old. The wear and tear of visitor traffic and constant exposure has necessitated the removal of some textiles to storage for safekeeping and research.

In our ongoing efforts to convey the original appearance of Mrs. Gardner's galleries in all of their brilliance of detail and surface, photographs and records of original installations are carefully studied. The search for appropriate high quality and affordable replacement fabrics is a constant challenge. The work toward returning the sumptuous satins, damasks, velvets, and decorative fringes and curtains that created the inviting warmth and glowing elegance of Fenway Court has begun.

INTRODUCTION 1835 engraving, calico printing, The History of Cotton Manufacture, E. Baines, London, 1835

Construction and the embellishment of cloth originated simultaneously wherever there was a need for comfort and protection. From the beginning, the process of growing and gathering the raw materials, cleaning, dyeing and spinning the yarns, weaving, and finishing the cloth was a community, household, or professional undertaking; its labor was intensive and materials costly. Workers often joined together for training, protection, camaraderie, and to maintain quality and control. Such information about ancient textiles abounds in all cultures. Records of tools, materials, and methods of decoration are revealed on clay tablets as early as 2200 B.C. Egyptian wall paintings, early Greek vases, and screens and scrolls from the Far East illustrate differing textile techniques. Wools from Mesopotamia, linens from Egypt, cottons from India, and silks from China traveled the land and sea trade routes and spread designs and technology.

Trading companies formed to supply beautiful and exotic textiles, and craftsmen no longer were necessarily dependent on local materials.

Although the traditional techniques that remained essentially the same for hundreds, even thousands, of years continued, the inventions of the eighteenth century revolutionized textile production. Suddenly, machines could quickly and less expensively prepare fibers, spin threads and imitate any textile technique, including embroidery and lace. Chemical dyes replaced natural dyes. Mechanized factories employed masses of workers, here-to-fore working in their homes or professional shops, who made practical cloth and elegant silks more accessible.

People were fascinated and flocked to great exhibition halls that displayed the popular, newly manufactured goods.

In nineteenth-century Europe and America, the return to traditional methods was fostered by the founding of Arts and Crafts societies. Travelers abroad once again began to purchase, wear, collect, and fill their homes with antique and newly made exotic and elegant textiles from far off lands. The twenty textile selected for this exhibition illustrate a few of the methods employed in their creation.

1

TAPESTRY Amorino Offering Flowers to a Sleeping Nymph French, Beauvais or Gobelins, 1755-75 Wool warps, wool and silk wefts H. 22", w. 28 1/2"

Diderot Encyclopedia, 1762-1777, Gobelins Tapestry Manufactury atelier, plate 2271

Although the term instantly produces an image of large pictorial hangings, tapestry is actually a specific weaving technique defined as a discontinuous weft faced tabby weave. The weft threads are not woven widthwise from edge to edge (selvage to selvage) as in other fabric worked on a loom, but travel back and forth only in the color area being woven (discontinuous).

The supporting warp threads, under tension, run the full length of the loom, and the weft threads, woven in a plain (tabby) weave, are packed tightly down to cover the warp threads entirely (weft face). As a result the pattern is virtually reversible and a characteristic overall narrow ribbing texture results.

Several weavers may work on one loom, each weaving small areas of the pattern simultaneously. Bobbins, wound with threads, are added as needed for the design. The manner of joining the weft color areas is crucial for both the design and strength of the tapestry. The threads may interlock with each other, or if not, return in the opposite direction to leave a space (slit). Small slits are purposefully created for design effect; large slits endanger the strength of the tapestry and must be carefully sewn together after its completion.

Detail of slit openings created by the meeting of two woven colors

From Dorothy K. Burnham, Warp and Weft Royal Ontario Museum

Diderot Encyclopedia, the high loom (haute lisse) , plate 2273

Since recorded history, cloth of tapestry weave is known to have been manufactured in the Middle East, China, and South America. Evidence of tapestry looms in Egypt in 3000 B.C. points to the very early existence of this technique, one that was continued by Coptic weavers during the early years of Christianity. Tapestry carpets and furnishings (kilims) for everyday use were woven by the women of early Middle Eastern nomadic tribes who taught the patterns to the young women to perpetuate the traditional designs. In urban centers elegant luxury goods of tapestry weave were produced for the wealthy. Though perhaps earlier, China was manufacturing beautiful tapestry silk clothing and furnishing fabrics by the tenth century, and the technology was flourishing in Japan by the fifteenth century. Sophisticated tapestry weaves exist from Pre-Columbian South America of 400 B.C., although evidence of cotton crops, in 3000 B.C., and the presence of looms soon after, indicate the earlier presence of weaving. The dry climate in Peru, as in Egypt, is a natural preservative for textiles, and many examples of tapestry weave clothing survive.

The Coptic Egyptians, who were sent to Southern France (Gaul) to develop local weaving technology for the manufacturing of Roman clothing, established a tradition that continued, developed, and flourished in Western Europe. By the Gothic period, large spectacular pictorial tapestries were woven in professional workshops in Flanders and France: Tournai, Brussels, Bruges, Arras, and Paris, and other centers began as the demand grew. The tapestries covered walls for beauty and insulation, divided large halls into private living spaces, were hung outside of windows for processions and feast days, and traveled with the court as necessary and decorative hangings. They were made in sets, and en suite for furnishings, and often were changed seasonally. Henry VIII had over 2,000 in his collection.

Tapestries were purchased already completed, or specially commissioned. The design (cartoon) was drawn or painted by the artist in either a small rendition or to exact size. The Gothic designs encouraged artistic interpretation by the skilled weavers. The later eighteenthcentury detailed designs were more painterly and left less to the weavers' imagination. The cartoons were reused by the workshops, explaining the existence of similar sets that are in collections today. Biblical, mythical, and historical stories were popular themes.

The Indian Kashmir shawl, also an intricate tapestry weave, flourished from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The shawls became so famous and fashionable in the eighteenth century that France, Scotland, and England all developed major industries to imitate them and control the importation of the exotic cloths.

The oval eighteenth-century French tapestry exhibited (1), is an example of smaller tapestries probably woven as furnishings fabrics. The characteristic ribbing effect of the weft face weave runs horizontally rather than in the usual vertical direction. Its probable manufacture in either Beauvais or Gobelin workshops attests to its fine design and perfection of weave found in Royal Manufacturies. The opulant but delicate design, colors, and subject matter reflect the cartoons of Frarn;ois Boucher, who was associated with both workshops during this period.

Bill of purchase, Fernand Robert, Paris, 27 February, 1907

--7, ~az.cae:4 "

tJ'L l1- - . r路 _, 路+11 t~~ 0~~7 ~-~LU) ,~- + rt~ l~ 1cp. / +; ~ ! ~' ~ ~~- tu_~ --~/ - - ~l -- t -- 1:_ / fl ~

-f+I

-

/>

' -_,,---~ ~--

___

I

I

/l ,

t路-'- -~:AF/ --

~ ,I .. J ~ 111 ~u-W t /~/~ _ a: J ~ --

I'! i

1

1

-

I r- ..

I

!.

I

t-

'

-~ -:-1

The Gardners' concern for the care of their newly purchased art objects is evident in a letter from John L. Gardner to the dealer who was holding this French tapestry for them: "Mrs. Gardner says it is very important that the room where her things are stored should be perfectly dry."

2

OR NUE EMBROIDERY Apparels Italian (?) 1550-1600 silk velvet, linen tabby, polychrome silk and gilt yarns H .. 18", W. 43"

Diagram, or nui embroidery stitch

-

-- ·- - -

.... ---·-· -·--______ _ . ____ ...... . .... .

- ····--·-- - .. -

- ·-·: . -:...=.::..=--=.=....- -- :, ,

Or nue (shaded gold) is an opulent form of embroidery that is worked by sewing down (couching) closely laid rows of parallel, horizontal metallic threads onto, and completely

covering, a ground fabric. The polychrome silk couching stitches provide brilliant coloration, and they control the amount of visible gold by varying the spaces between stitches. Widely spaced stitches reveal the gold threads; compactly couched stitches create the vivid color. To blend colors, several colored threads may be worked simultaneously over the laid gold. The finished embroidered surface of glowing colors and reflected light is reminiscent of translucent enamels, illuminated manuscripts, and stained glass.

The zenith of these luminous and detailed pictorial embroideries occurred during the Renaissance, and by the seventeenth century this shimmering form of goldwork had disappeared. The technique developed in Antwerp, Bruges, and Ghent, the major towns of the Southern Netherlands, and soon became the most desired and expensive embroidery worked in Europe. It was a perfect vehicle for the pageantry of high mass; it was seldom purchased in the protestant countries that had no need for these lavish church textiles. The work was detailed, figurative, and painterly in its execution; its materials were extravagant.

Dossal, The Order or the Golden Fleece, Netherlands, mid fifteenth century

The most famous set of or nue embroideries extant, The Order of The Golden Fleece (a symbol of the house of Burgundy), is partially illustrated above on an altarpiece (dossal). Phillip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, commissioned the Mass vestments for his chapel to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal in 1429. It took several years to embroider one chasuble, two dalmatics, three copes, and two altarpieces that were worked in the or nue technique and embellished with precious stones, seed pearls, and metallic threads. That set is now in Vienna.

The late sixteenth-century Italian (?) attached panels displayed (2) were made to elegantly adorn an altarpiece or church garment. The apparels are decorated with applied strap work of couched metallic threads mounted on red silk velvet. The central medallions contain seated ecclesiastic figures embroidered with polychrome silk threads mainly in long and short stitches. In the background behind the figures, the remains of horizontal rows of laid gilt yam and silk couching stitches can be seen--remnants of the or nue embroidery technique.

3 PAINTING Garment Fabric Japanese, 1850-1900 Silk, tabby weave, L 24", W. 161/2"

Detail of a dyer's shop

by Kano Yoshinobu from a set painted of tradesmen and artisans Early to mid seventeenth century

Both pigments and dyes are used to "paint" textiles. They are, however, completely different in their chemical compostion and aesthetic appearance.

Dye is a coloring matter which is used in solution as a stain. It is different from a pigment which is used suspended in a medium for painting. Most of the dyes are complex, organic, chemical compounds and may be derived from natural sources (like madder), but the great bulk is now made synthetically .... classification can be based upon the method of application (acid dyes, basic dyes, mordant dyes, etc.) or upon their structure .... Pigment is a finely divided coloring material which is suspended in discrete particles in the vehicle in which it is used as a paint (thus being opposed to a dye which is solluble in the vehicle). Pigments are derived from a wide variety of substances, organic and inorganic, natural and artificial. They may be classified according to color, chemical composition, or source. [Painting Materials, by George L. Stout, Director, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 1955-70. Stout is considered to be the "father of modern conservation".]

The Japanese are famous for their tradition of sophisticated dyeing technology, often using a combination of resist dyeing and painting with dyes and mordants (chemical substances that fix dyes to a fiber). By the early to mid seventeenth century, they developed a refined technique to create beautifully colored and shaded pictorial designs (yuzen). This hand painting process begins by drawing the design onto the silk. To prevent the painted dye colors from bleeding into one another, a glutinous, rice paste starch is applied to a silk ground to outline the motifs. A mordant (soy bean paste) is brushed onto the cloth to fix the dye; then the pattern dye colors are painted. The dyes are heat set by steaming. If a colored background is desired, a final application of rice paste is applied over the painted design, and the silk is once again painted with dyes and heat set. The removal of the starch paste, traditionally accomplished outdoors by the natural movement of stream water, is now an indoor mechanized process. Ink painting (sumi) is often combined with this technique.

Many scholars feel that drawing, painting, and dyeing are the oldest forms of decorating cloth, since common materials (plant and berry juices, etc.) were readily available. These simple materials could be used to produce very sophisticated designs. As the Chinese eventually became famous for their intricate silk damasks, brocades and embroideries, Japan, through the centuries excelled in the development of innovative dyeing and painting methods. As a result, the Japanese craftsmen were able to control and manipulate dye colors to achieve splendid, decorative cloth, sometimes enhanced with embroidery.

Reliance on the imported Chinese and Korean silks and cottons from India lessened as the Japanese developed a large weaving industry in the late twelfth century. Design motifs evolved from a combination of Chinese and Japanese legends and mythology. A plethora of symbolic motif forms developed- geometric, abstract, fanciful, stylized, and naturalistic- all of which added to a vocabulary of design that eventually fascinated the western world. Colors, too, became specific symbols of virtue or rank, and decorated clothing became an important vehicle of expression. The kosode was an elaborate under garment, worn by both men and women as part of court dress from A.D. 800-1200. The formal garments layered over the kosode were gradually shed by the merchant and warrior classes who demanded simple but colorful and dramatic clothing. The kosode evolved into the fashionable kimono ("the thing worn") worn by both sexes. Kimonos and accompanying obis were prized possessions that were created and treated as objects of art. In addition, Noh theater required the making of colorful elaborate costumes. Sophisticated dyeing and painting techniques developed that made possible amazingly naturalistic pictorial designs with subtle shadings.

Portuguese and Dutch merchants began to carry Japanese textiles to the west during the late sixteenth century, and by the seventeenth century, Japan was a major exporter of painted and dyed silks.

The nineteenth-century influence and fashion for "japanoiserie" is apparent in both the fine and decorative arts- from famous painters such as Whistler and Matisse to the shawls women wore. Although great quantities of silks were made for western consumption, the production of traditional woven, embroidered, painted and dyed silks for elaborate obis and kimono continued.

The late nineteenth-century Japanese silk textile displayed (3) is painted with blue, brown, green, violet, and yellow dyes. In a few pattern areas the blurring of abutting dye colors indicates that the precautionary outlines of resist, if used, did not contain the dye. This piece with the dramatic design of cranes and small birds in flight is a fine example of the extravagant and luxurious silks that were painted for obis and kiminos.

4 and 5 VELVET 4. Furnishing and Garment Fabric Italian, 1450-1500 Silk velvet, voided and cut L. 381/2", w. 211/2"

5. Garment Fabric Turkemen (Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic) 1875-1900 Silk cut velvet, Ikat, pile warp-dyed W. 13 3/8", L. 2691/2"

Velvet is a pile weave created by supplementary warp threads woven over rods to create raised loops that are integrated into and generally hide the ground weave (uncut velvet). The pile loops may be cut to form closely packed tufts (cut velvet). The weave may be varied for decorative patterns to be only part pile (voided velvet), cut and uncut combined (ciscele ), two or more heights of loops (pile on pile), or in combination.

Diagram of cut and voided velvet (4)

From Dorothy K. Burnham, Warp and Weft Royal Ontario Museum

Diagram of cut velvet (5)

Adapted from Dorothy K. Burnham, Warp and Weft

The early origins of velvet are unknown. Ninth-century fragments have been found in France, and many examples have survived from the medieval era. Elegant gold brocaded silk velvets were produced as luxury cloth during the height of the Renaissance in Western Europe, in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Persian Safavid period, and in Turkey. Patterns were woven in intricate polychromes; others were sophisticated monochromes in rich blues, deep reds, yellows, purples, and gold metallic threads. Elaborate hunting scenes and stylized exotic flowers and leaf patterns were woven illustrations of imaginative designs and an indication of the weavers' skills.

Examples of two distinctly different silk velvets, both in weave and in method of decoration, are the late nineteenth-century Turkeman (Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic) polychrome

ikat cut velvet (5) and the mid to late fifteenth-century Italian monochromatic blue cut and voided velvet (4).

The monochromatic blue cut and voided velvet ferronerie pattern (4) is created by the voided areas silhouetted against the densely woven tufts of the cut pile. The reflected light upon the silk that accentuates the differences in texture of the weave, and the height of the loops against the crisp lines of the voided pomegranates and leafy vines, combine to create the illusion of a two-colored fabric.

Purchased October 6, 1897, in Florence, Italy, from Emilio Costantini, the velvet was one of many bought by Isabella Stewart Gardner prior to the building of the museum. It is listed on this bill of lading from the museum archives:

In contrast, the ikat cut velvet (4) relies on a variety of colors for its pattern rather than the void of the pile. The white, deep red, yellow, and a violet colors of the pattern shimmer against the dark green ground as light is reflected across the surface. The elongated large repeat pattern of stylized leaves, flowers, and hands is designed for the narrow loom width.

The red and white selvages are intact.

In both cases the high luster, characteristic of the silk fiber, made silk velvet a desirable, rich furnishing fabric prized by all cultures through the centuries.

Diderot Encyclopedia, cut velvet, plate 2832

t p

6 ,t.

-~

tfb

1.1

(1

I

!' s '

b a

'

J

5 Ikat Garment Fabric Turkemen (Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic) 1875-1900 Silk, cut velvet Ikat, pile warp-dyed w. 13 3/8", L. 2691/2"

Diagram, bundled and pattern-wrapped yarns

•

UH

The construction of ikat is, as in other woven fabric, based on the horizontal interlacing of the weft threads through the vertical supporting warp threads. What makes ikat unique is the process of dyeing the threads before the fabric is woven. It is a labor- and time-intensive process in which bundles of threads are measured, marked, wrapped, and tied in preestablished patterns before the actual dyeing begins. As the bundles are immersed into the dye bath, the bound areas prevent the dye color from being absorbed into the threads; thus the name resist dyed. The bundle may be dyed several times, and for each additional color, a portion of the wrapped threads is removed to expose the new area to the dye. When woven, the patterndyed threads form the motifs. It can be recognized by the subtle blur of the motifs in the woven pattern. Most often, the warp threads are dyed (single warp ikat), less often the weft are dyed (single weft ikat), and rarely, both warp and weft are dyed (double ikat).

Ikat is the oldest known method of weaving with patterned threads. Textile fragments found in Egypt and Peru give early evidence of this sophisticated method of dying threads before the cloth is woven. Pictorial representations of decorated cloth indicate the probable existence of ikat at this early period in other cultures as well.

The term itself originated in Indonesia (mengikate, meaning to bind) and most likely was woven first by early nomadic tribes in Southeast Asia. It was used for clothing, and in tents as doors, to divide spaces, and to adorn walls and beds. Through the centuries, the technique developed and spread, and, by the mid eighteenth century, sophisticated ikat cloth was prized and produced world-wide for clothing and furnishing fabrics by nomads, Indonesians, Western Europeans, and the indigenous cultures of the Americas. Ikat, especially silk, was a prestigious indication of status and wealth, was valued as ceremonial cloth, and continues to be cherished by succeeding generations.

Traditional designs and colors reflected the cultures that wove them. In Central Asia, ikat was woven on a very narrow loom. The cloth averaged fifteen to nineteen inches in width. The refined complicated designs tended to be composed of many motifs and colors of white, yellow,

deep red, green, blue, purple, and sometimes pink. Materials, too, varied by locale: silk, cotton, and later wool were used . Although women were involved in the clothmaking process, it was usually men who dyed the wool and silk.

As with most handmade textiles that became fashionable during the early years of the Industrial Revolution, a commercial process was invented to pattern-print the warp threads, therefore alleviating the time-consuming process of traditional ikat. Later, woven fabrics were entirely surface printed to simulate the look of the ikat cloth. Rayon, commercially made thread, and synthetic dyes now often replace the original materials and methods, but the interest and fascination in the beauty achieved by the old technique remains.

The late nineteenth-century ikat garment fabric displayed (5) is a sumptuous polychrome silk velvet of white, deep red, yellow, and violet set against the dark green ground. Flowering plants, leaves, and hands are geometrically stylized in a twenty-six inch design repeat. The cloth was woven in the present day Uzbekistan Soviet Socialist Republic (formerly Turkernen).

The softly blurred edges of the pattern motifs are characteristic of single warp ikat.

The two forms of whitework embroidery techniques on exhibition are deflected element embroidery and withdrawn element embroidery. This terminology was developed to replace the terms "pulled work "or "drawn fabric," and "drawn thread work" formerly confused and inadvertently used interchangeably.

6

DEFLECTED ELEMENT EMBROIDERY Furnishing Border or Flounce (detail) North German or Scandinavian(?), 1675-1725 Cotton muslin, cotton thread embroidery L. 81", w. 10 1/4"

Detail of a filling stitch

Deflected element embroidery is a counted thread, open whitework (white thread upon a white ground) embroidery technique that requires an even weave ground fabric to work the pattern stitches. To embroider, the needle is placed between warp and weft threads. The threads are pulled tightly together to purposefully distort the ground fabric and create a pattern of holes. The contrast of solid stitches against the void produces the contrast of light against dark that is characteristic of open whitework. A variety of embroidery stitches form the decorative lacelike patterns. No ground threads are removed, as in withdrawn element embroidery (7).

To transfer designs, sheer muslins were worked over parchment patterns. To mark heavier linens, the parchment was pricked, and pounced with a powder to leave pattern dots on the fabric. Later, wood blocks, inlaid with metal strips, stamped the pattern outlines onto the fabric using a water-soluble blue ink dye.

Evidence of deflected element embroidery is found in many ancient cultures, particularly Peru, the Middle East, and Egypt. There are coarse medieval German examples extant that pre-date lace. By the eighteenth century, fine, sophisticated Dresden work, or point de Saxe produced in Germany, Saxony, and Denmark was embroidered in conscious imitation of laces in work so fine that a magnifying glass is needed to identify the stitches. In Western Europe, it was a decorative and washable adornment for fashionable clothing and household furnishings.

European linen cambrics, and Indian cotton muslins were used for elaborately embroidered domestic aprons, flounces, fichus, cap crowns, furnishing borders, and church linens. The cloth was produced professionally in workshops, by outworkers, by cottage industries, and often by convent nuns.

By the nineteenth century in America and Great Britian, white work techniques were commonly taught in schools and made in the home. Both coarse and refined work flourished, no longer in imitation of lace. To fill the market demand, the Swiss developed machinery that could produce perfectly formed white openwork embroidery that is almost impossible to identify as machine-made. Fortunately, the traditional techniques continue to be taught and produced in the Scandinavian countries and parts of the Far East.

The muslin Furnishing Border or Flounce displayed is fancifully embroidered in buttonhole, satin, chain, and darning stitches. The C-scrolls are topped with large exotic flower heads and a peacock that loom over and surround the fanciful figures in various activities. The cotton cloth was embroidered first before the open work ground was begun. Then to form the mesh, the warp and weft threads were tightly pulled together with an embroidery stitch. The mesh in this piece remains incomplete. No threads are removed as in the withdrawn element embroidery (7).

7 WITHDRAWN ELEMENT EMBROIDERY Furnishing Border (detail) Italian, 1575-1625 Linen tabby, linen thread embroidery L. 44", w. 8"

Muslin withdrawn element embroidery, Reseau ground partially worked

Withdrawn thread embroidery is a form of open whitework. Selected warp or weft threads (or both) are removed from a woven cloth to create a loose, open foundation grid of threads upon which to embroider the pattern. Care must be taken that the grid is able to support the weight of the embellishing embroidery. Solid areas of the original woven cloth may remain and be included as part of the design.

Detail of withdrawn threads

Detail of openwork ground

"""

When many of the threads are removed, the resulting large square holes are filled with fancy button hole embroidery stitches to give a needle lace appearance (reticella). Eventually, the supporting grid of ground threads are eliminated completely, and the technique becomes true needle lace, Punta in aria or "stitch in the air."

Withdrawn work is most likely a universal form of open whi tework embroidery and is perhaps the antecedent of true lace. Descriptions of almost transparent gossamer white cloth, thou ght to be withdrawn work, appear in ancient literature, and the technique is known to have existed in ancient Egypt and the Near and Far East. References to elaborately embroidered cloth having threads removed appear in the Middle Ages. By the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, expensive fashionable furnishing fabric and clothing was lavishly adorned with this form of

openwork. Writing of the expense of such work, Philip Stubbes describes in Anatomie of Abuses (1583), "... These shirtes (sometymes it happenth) are wrought throughout with needlework of silke, and such like, and curiously stitched with open seame, and many other knakes besides, more than I can describe; in so much, I have heard of shirtes that have cost some ten shillynges, some twenty, some forty, some five pounds, some twenty nobles, and (which is horrible to heare) some ten pound a pece."

The interest in elaborate costly whitework fluctuated with high fashion styles, although production never completely ceased. In the mid to late nineteenth century there was a passionate revival of whitework embroidery. Old Renaissance pattern books were resurrected, articles espoused the joys of making open work for clothing and the home. Stylish ladies embroidered in their parlors, and professional workshops readily filled the high fashion needs.

In the Italian furnishing border displayed (1565-1625) (7), solid areas of the original cloth remain and form imaginary animals, stylized plants, and trees. Pattern details and the background are worked in withdrawn element embroidery to create the light against shadow effect characteristic of open whitework. To form the background, selected threads were removed, and the remainder were wrapped tightly together to form the meshlike design. A similar meshlike background is present in the deflected element embroidery (6), however, the stitches were pulled together without the removal of warps and wefts. The two techniques are often confused in both appearance and terminology.

LACE The title page illustration and two patterns below are from a book of Renaissance lace and embroidery patterns, Singuliers et Nouveaux Pourtraits, by Federico Vinciolo published in Paris in 1606. First published in1587, the pattern book was so popular that three editions were published in that year alone.

ET it."':-' """"•~ \~

NO VVEA VX POVR-

TA. A J CTS,J.>V Sf l CN E V A 1 ED f l..I C

dt V rnetolo Ve n m en, po ur coutcs

fortc.sd'ouura.gcs de Lin gene..

Lace is divided into two general categories: needle, or point lace, and bobbin, or pillow lace.

Both have always been a luxury fabric whose popularity fluctuates with high fashion.

Whether it is made by professionals or amateurs, its value and appeal is in pure decoration.

As an embellishment to clothing or as furnishing fabric, it is intended to trim, drape or gather gracefully, to reflect light, and to capitalize on the drama created by texture, light, and shadow. Although white linen thread predominates as the chosen material, laces are also made with metallic threads and other fibers. The making of lace is time- and labor-intensive, and as a result, has always been very expensive.

Many lacelike fabrics existed in ancient times, and it is difficult to determine exactly when needle and bobbin lace began. Mummy wrappings contain open whitework designs, and many references to early forms of open work occur in biblical literature. By the sixteenth century, lace pattern books were available, and lace making techniques were fully developed. In Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, when he writes of maids weaving their threads with bone, he is probably referring to lace bobbins. Laces were made in professional workshops, by nuns in convents, and by young women trained in trade schools. It became a fashionable recreation for women both royal and common.

Italy, followed by France and Flanders, all produced beautiful flamboyant baroque laces. Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-83), Minister of Commerce to Louis XIV, established the lacemaking industry in France by importing Italian and Flemish workers to teach and set up shops. In the later years of the seventeenth century, the net ground appeared, giving to the lace a more open, lighter appearance. By the eighteenth-century rococco period, laces became extremely refined and lost the robust sculptural structure of the earlier period. The ground (reseau) became more prominent. Very fine linen threads were spun in the Netherlands and Northern France to accommodate the new delicate decorative style.

Inevitably, during the early years of the Industrial Revolution, machines were invented that were able to copy the intricate, elaborate, handmade laces, and excellent imitations became available a lower cost. Belgium, however, remained economically committed to lace manufacturing. Mrs. Bury Palister in A History of Lace, published in 1910, writes that onequarter of the entire population of that country (150,000 women) was m aking bobbin lace in 1861,

and by 1875 there were 900 convent or charity schools teaching lace techniques. Interest and appreciation for fine laces in the late nineteenth century was exemplified by collectors, such as Mrs. Gardner. Records of her purchases of approximately 200 high quality laces, from a variety of countries, cultures, and time periods, are found in museum records. An entry in her travel diary from an 1884 trip abroad reads, "Arrived off Venice abt. 7 AM ... Went for Italian teacher; then to Lido ... To Accademia ... bought lace ... "; and, while in Venice, she wrote to advise a friend, "Jerusam is the only place for really good lace. He is dear & has 'fixed price,' but very good."

Laces are named mainly after the city, town, or country of production. Styles and techniques traveled, but there are usually traditional regional characteristics to aid the complex identification process. Although some technical words have crossed geographic boundaries, regional descriptive structure and design vocabulary remain, occasionally causing confusion and inconsistencies. Despite the complexity of the subject, however, two classifications of lace are defined and accepted: needle lace and bobbin lace. An example of each technique is exhibited (8 and 9).

8 NEEDLE LACE Part of a Flounce of Furnishing Border French, 1675-1700 Linen, needle lace L. 80", W. 16"

A needle and single strands of thread are the sole materials necessary to create needle lace. To begin, foundation cords are laid and tacked (couched) onto a parchment or cloth pattern to outline the design. A detached button hole (loop) stitch is worked back and forth from one outline cord to another to fill each area. The stitches are attached only to the cords and to each other, and lie freely atop the parchment support. Intricate designs are formed by twisting and knotting the threads, and varying the spaces between stitches and groups of stitches. The contrast of compact stitches and open areas create the characteristic effect of light and shadow.

Threads and stitches may be layered for texture or for a three-dimensional sculptural effect. A net ground (reseau) or bars (brides) may be worked to connect the pattern areas (toile) together.

The lace is completed by cutting away only the tacking stitches of the foundation cord to release the finished lace from the parchment. The pattern may then be reused.

Diagram of the buttonhole stitch

A Lady in Morning Deshabille from an engraving by

Le Paultre,1676

Diagram of the picot stitch

Although the exact origins of needle lace are unknown, it is probable that the technique evolved from the earlier withdrawn element whitework (7) in which warp and weft threads are removed from a woven ground fabric to leave an open grid work upon which to embroider fancy stitches. By the fifteenth century, so many warp and weft threads were removed from the ground fabric that large square holes were left to be filled with fancy stitches (reticella).

Eventually the majority of threads were removed, and, the realization that no ground at all was necessary, led to the culmination of the exquisitely detailed punto-in-aria, or "stitch in the air," found in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy. The beautiful baroque sculptural quality of Venetian needlepoint laces became famous, fashionable, and in such great demand, that, in various European countries, the imported laces were heavily taxed in order to encourage locally made laces. Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-83), Minister of Commerce to Louis XIV, brought Venetian needle lace makers to France to set up workshops to teach and develop the new Points de France. By the end of the seventeenth century, the fashion for the heavy Venetian laces gave way to the delicate open or filmy laces made possible by the finely spun Flemish thread.

The late seventeenth-century French needle lace flounce or furnishing fabric exhibited (8) is composed of fanciful figures, flowers, scrolling leaves, birds, urns, and other decorative motifs.

The vertical composition of one motif atop another is often found in French laces of the time.

The foundation cord that outlines the motifs is laid in a fluid curvilinear manner, as in drawing, in contrast to the designs based on the woven grid pattern of deflected element (6) and withdrawn element (7) whitework. The additional heavier thread (cordonnet) that appears in the swirling leaves and flowers adds interest and texture to the design, yet is more delicate than in the Venetian needle lace. The ground (reseau) surrounding the motifs is composed of buttonhole stitches decorated with picots, a distinguishing characteristic of French lace of the period.

Alern;on lace, illustrating working of rec;eau ground

9 BOBBIN OR PILLOW LACE (9) Lappet Flemish, Mechlin, 1725-50 Linen, bobbin lace L. 21", W. 31/2 to 3"

The Exact dress of the Head ... , 1725, lappets attached to a ladies cap

Bobbin lace involves the use of several lace-making tools and many threads. The pillow, upon which the lace is made, provides a firm cushion support for work. The shape of the pillows varies considerably, and may be round, square, or cylindrical depending on the origin. Upon the pillow is placed a parchment pricked with small holes to outline the pattern. Bobbins are wound with thread and attached to the top of the pillow, and their weight, as they hang over the edge, prevents the many threads from tangling, The number of bobbins depends on the complexity and size of the design; fine laces may require several hundred. The two movements of twisting and crossing the bobbins in various combinations form the fancy filling stitches, the solids (toile), the braids (plaits), and the grounds of bars (brides) and net (mesh or reseau) that join the pattern areas together. The threads are held in place as they are worked, by placing pins into the pricked pattern holes. Each lace is composed of a ground and an ornamental pattern that differs significantly on each lace type. The pattern motifs may be worked separately (non-continuous), or, at the same time as the ground (continuous or straight lace).

Bobbin lace is generally named after the town or village in which it is produced. Vocabulary peculiar to lace is used to describe the unique structure and design that identify the myriad varieties of lace. The origins of bobbin-made lace may reach back to earlier forms of plaiting, pattern braiding, and macrame; however, by the fifteenth century, portraits depict not only the wearing of elaborate bobbin lace, but the actual working of the lace on a pillow. In addition to pictorial evidence, literature, inventories and other records indicate that in the sixteenth century, the technique was being taught in schools, as well as being worked in professional shops in Italy, Flanders, Germany, Switzerland, and England.

The eighteen th-century bobbin lace lappet exhibited (9) is a type of streamer made in pairs for a woman to ei ther fold up and pin to the back of her hair, or to attach and hang at each side of a matching cap. They were expensive formal wear, the length often an indication of status or rank. The vertical design is of connected meandering ribbonlike S-scrolls that surround the

central floral and cornucopia motifs. With its complex bobbin lace stitches bordering the edges, fine threads (cordonnet) outlining the pattern, hexagonal mesh ground (reseau) and the motifs (toile) worked at the same time (continuous lace), and the almost transparent quality of the lace, this piece is characteristic of Mechlin mid eighteenth-century Flemish lace.

One type of bobbin pillow

Diderot Encyclopedia, bobbin lace plates 641, 642, and 643

. . .. .. ,,. . '-. .

. 路' . ... ...... 路,

' /

... ....

,

.

.

.

.

~

.

.

10 CROCHET Table Cover American, late 19th or early 20th century L. 411/2", w . 341/4" Linen, crochet at one edge

By Isabella Stewart Gardner

Foundation chain stitch and hook

Single crochet

\

Crochet is worked with one continuous thread (single element technique). It is made by passing a thread around a hook to create a series of loops that are manipulated to form a variety of stitches; the most common are chain, slip, single, double, treble, open, and picot. To begin work, a series of chain stitches is made to form the first row. Each following row is worked back and forth through the previous one by passing a loop through each stitch. Hooks are made of bone, tortoiseshell, wood, or metal, and the size selected for use is determined by the weight of the threads being worked. Crochet patterns can be exceptionally fine and elaborate, to emulate lace, or extremely simple, or coarse, as the example displayed.

References to crochet are found in Elizabethan descriptions of clothing that are embellished with a "chain stitch"- (a stitch usually associated with embroidery), and "cheyne lace," but there is little information about the development of the crochet technique. However, by the nineteenth century crochetwork decorated everything imaginable, from baby bonnets, to sachets, bed linens, antimacassars, and towels. Patterns were adapted to imitate lace, tapestry, knitting, and embroidery. Beautiful elaborate crochetwork was done in Ireland to imitate the sculptural Venetian needle laces of the seventeenth century, but the majority was simple crochet done by women for household furnishing and trimmings.

The linen cloth on display (10) is edged with a simple crocheted design worked by Isabella Stewart Gardner. The heavy open meshlike background echoes fine lace mesh and silhouettes the solid loop stitches reading ISABELLA, affronted birds, and flowering plants.

11

COUCHING Medallion for a Ceremonial Coa t or Jacket Chinese, 1800-1900 Silk, satin embroidered with silk and gilt yarns Dia. 11 3/8"

Couching stitch

From Mary Thomas, Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches

Couching is an embroidery stitch universally used. Although it has many variations, its basis is the attachment of a thread laid across the surface of a ground fabric, and sewn down by another, usually a finer one. The couching stitches may be placed to purposefully create a pattern of color or texture, or they may be carefully stitched to be unnoticeable. Threads may be couched because they are too thick to pass through the ground fabric. They may also be couched to conserve precious materials, therefore expense, by confining their use to the face of the fabric.

The stitch offers the freedom to follow pattern lines drawn onto the ground fabric (a form of SU1face stitchery) and is not limited to the embroidered gridwork designs of even weave fabrics (counted thread embroidery.) The stitch is used best to outline or to solidly fill designs.

The dramatic design of the Chinese medallion on display (1800-1900) (11) is composed of double rows of silver and gilt yarns couched to a dark blue silk satin ground. Fine strips of gold or silver, attached to paper, are wound around a yellow or white silk core to create the yarn. Fine silk threads of similar colors are used for the couching.

Chinese records indicate that the decorative embellishment of cloth with threads dates to 2000 B.C. or before. Since silk production (sericulture) originated in China and remained a well guarded secret for centuries, the tradition of stitching elaborate embroideries with silk threads on a silk ground was a natural development not found in the West until hundreds of years later.

Surviving embroidered silks and woven damasks have been found in fifth-century Siberian tombs, and beautiful Buddhist embroideries from the sixth century A.D. clearly show the early existence of couching in gilt and silk threads. By the tenth century, many of the embroideries were so intricate and fine that the similarity to painting was pronounced. As Chinese textiles traveled the trade routes to reach the Near East and Europe, the mystery surrounding the silk materials and the shimmering exotic designs reflecting another culture intrigued populations and influenced designs in every form of the decorative arts. "Chinoiserie" has become a descriptive stylistic term used in the decorative arts of the Western World.

The dragon robes made during the mid seventeenth- to early twentieth-century Ch'ing dynasty are probably the most famous Chinese fabrics decorated with embroideries. Made in imperial workshops, the color, design, and quality of these robes were meticulously designed to designate rank, status, and sex, and the wearing of the proper combination was s trictly observed .

Embroidered badges, such as the example displayed, were attached to ceremonial coats that were worn over the dragon robes. The badge motifs and colors clearly and dramatically identified the rank of the owner. On the embroidered Chinese medallion (1800-1900), one of an identical pair (11) displayed, the dragon swirls around a pearl with waves and rocks below, auricular clouds fill the border, and a Chinese character appears at the top. Tiny bat, peach, and fylflot motifs are delicately worked into the design.

12 COUNTED THREAD WORK EMBROIDERY Furnishing Fabric French(?) 1675-1750 H. 331/2, W. 311/4"

Stitch diagrams: Gobelins

Long and Short

---......,\ I I I

I

I

--

' ........... ' \

Stem

I I I

I .. '路路-路路--*"'

Tent

From Mary Thomas, Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches

The many forms of needlework are generally divided into two classifications: surface stitchery and counted thread work. The former is stitched by following a pattern drawn onto the face of the ground fabric. It is characterized by flowing and rounded designs that may be strong and bold, or intricate and painterly in the blending of colored threads; however, the stitches are not confined to the structure of the foundation fabric and may freely move in any direction.

Couching (11) is an example of surface stitchery.

Counted thread work, as the name implies, requires each foundation warp and weft thread to be counted as the design is embroidered. It is dependent on the structure of a ground fabric woven with equal numbers of warp and weft threads per square inch (even weave). The embroidery threads must pass through the open spaces between the junctures of the warps and wefts and must not pierce them. The stitches follow the gridwork of the even weave fabric and may only move in a straight line up, down, or to either side. Counted thread work may also be coarse (5 stitches per linear inch; 25 stitches per square inch) or be fine (35 stitches or more per linear inch; 1225 stitches or more per square inch); however, curvilinear forms are more difficult to embroider and the designs, worked on a grid, appear more angular. Canvas work (12) and deflected element embroidery (6) are two forms of counted thread work.

Many of the same embroidery stitches are used in surface stitchery and in counted thread work, but the ground fabric must be able to support the weight and thickness of the embroidery thread and stitches.

Embroidery is an ancient art, inspired by the need to join cloth together for clothing and furnishings. The functional purpose and the pure decorative aspect of sewing soon intertwined and the embroidered embellishment of cloth universally evolved into techniques and designs expressive of cultural traditions. Prehistoric fine bone needles have been found along with other archaeological evidence of textiles. Ancient literature, later secular and ecclesiastic inventories, paintings, sculpture, and more all provide clues to the development of embroidery.

'

'

Multitudes of anonymous craftsmen, women, and children through the centuries executed embroidery, and very few references are made to specific individuals. Occasionally, a name is found, such as "Margaaret the Ernblazoner" active in medieval England, but generally, professionally embroidered works were not signed.

Throughout history, embroidery has been associated with painting. The Romans, as well as the Chinese, referred to the decorative art of stitching as "painting with a needle," an indication of the presence of sophisticated techniques necessary to manipulate a needle and thread in the creation of pictorial embroideries. The relationship of needlework to painting is further revealed by surviving records that discuss painters commissioned to design various textiles including many forms of opulent needlework. To create the glorious embroideries of medieval England (opus anglicanum) and the or nue of the Renaissance, years of training were required to master the necessary skills to execute the designs. Craftsmen working in flourishing professional workshops often worked years on one set of commissioned embroideries.

Traditional arts of spinning, weaving, and embroidery were passed from one generation to the next. In medieval western Europe young women were sent to castles and manor houses to learn these skills. Needlework became a fashionable occupation for noblewomen and ladies of the court; Mary Queen of Scots was taught by Catherine de Medici to be an accomplished embroiderer. Wardrobe accounts list the purchase and inventory of needles, precious wools, silks, and metallic threads needed to make and lavishly decorate great houses with all forms of elaborate embroidery. Convents and monasteries also produced needlework for economic support and clerical use.

By the seventeenth century all over Europe, great quantities of counted thread work employing wool, silk, and metallic threads on linen canvas were embroidered in tent and cross stitches.

Biblical and allegorical themes, portraits, exotic animals and plants, and court and garden scenes were made for bed hangings, valances, borders, curtains, cushions, table carpets, small wall panels, and pictures, as the furnishings became more numerous and elaborate. France, during the reign of Louis XIV, produced quantities of sumptuous silk and gilt embroideries to satisfy the decorative demands of extravagant court life.

By the end of the century the embroidery of silk pictures was not only performed professionally, but was a fashionable pastime for ladies. The French (?) late seventeenth- to mid eighteenthcentury furnishing fabric displayed was probably embroidered for a panel, chair, or firescreen (12). The even weave linen ground has 22 threads per linear inch (484 threads per square inch.)

Gobelins, long and short, stern, and tent silk and wool stitches (see diagrams) are used to embroider this counted thread embroidery. The design is composed of a central formal garden surrounded on three sides with a wide border of scrolling vines bearing oversized flowers and billowing acanthus leaves. The European seventeenth- and eighteenth-century passion for formal gardens is reflected in this embroidery.

In the mid nineteenth century the rampant popularity of Berlin work overpowered every form of needlework. This form of counted thread technique, worked in wool and silk threads on linen canvas, is known now as "needlepoint." Originated by German printsellers, the new idea to print, hand color, and sell designs, whereon each tent or cross stitch was represented by a square on a chart, was overwhelmingly successful. No longer was it necessary to draw a design on canvas; instead, colored squares indicating the pattern were counted and stitched. Berlin work was a perfect expression of the Victorian craze for "fanciwork," and nothing escaped its notice.

Thousands of patterns were stitched into pockets that held lingere, wall pockets for dried flowers, slippers, cushion and furniture covers, pictures, and more. This counted thread technique continues today in the form of "kits" available for purchase that contain the canvas, wool embroidery threads, and a pattern to follow and count as the design is stitched.

13, 14, and 16 DAMASK AND BROCADE 13. Furnishing Fabric Chinese for the Western market(?), 1800-1900 Silk damask L. 97", W. 291/4"

14. Furnishing Fabric Italian, 1650-1700 Silk damask L. 41", W. 37"

Damask and brocade are two forms of figured weaving often woven from silk into sumptuous luxury fabrics. Damask is mainly woven in one color, and relies on the variation of the weave to produce the design. In its construction, the warp-faced satin weave is reversible to a weftfaced sateen weave. It is the reflected light from the closely placed warp threads (floats) on the face of the silk fabric that creates the lustrous glow of satin weaves, and the heavier and wider-set weft threads appear darker by contrast. The Chinese (?) furnishing fabric (18001900) silk damask (13) is rolled top and bottom to illustrate the reversible appearance of this weave. The large orange red voluptuous pattern of pomegranates and acanthus leaves contrasts with the more diminutive pale green late seventeenth-century Italian silk damask (14) of delicate flower-filled urns and small pomegranate plants. Both, however, are examples of the variety of sheen, shapes, and textures possible in a monochromatic design by varying the weave and thereby the reflected light.

16. Garment Fabric French or Italian, 1700-25 Silk damask, brocaded with silk and gilt yarns L. 381/2", w. 10 5/8"

Brocade weave

Damask weave

..........

From Dorothy K. Burnham, Warp and Weft Royal Ontario Museum

The early eighteenth-century French or Italian garment fabric (16) is a pink silk damask embellished with brocaded yellow silk and gilt yarns during the weaving process by adding extra weft yarns to the basic weave structure, in this case a damask. The pattern motifs created by the supplementary threads have an embroiderylike appearance, and appear on the face of the fabric only. The garment fabric is also rolled top and bottom to demonstrate that a brocade weave is not reversible as is a damask (13 and 14 ).

Diderot Encyclopedia, 1762-1777:

Draw loom, plate 2653

Brocade, plate 2780

L_ Although little is known of the silk industry before 200 B.C., excavations of Chinese burial sites have uncovered small sculptured silk worms (1300 B.C.) and impressions of textiles left on encrusted bronzes. Historians believe that silk cloth was readily available in these early years to all, not just to the privileged, and was used for clothing, household goods, and as a money equivalent - to barter and pay tribute. The development of the draw loom made possible the production of the early intricately woven polychrome fabrics.

Until the seventh century, Chinese silks were caravaned West across the dangerous, fabled 3,000 mile long Silk Road, almost a year's journey, and later sea routes continued the trade. The process of manufacturing and production of the silk fiber itself was a closely guarded secret.

The cloth traveled, but the technology did not. Silk was a precious possession in the Roman Empire, and imported Chinese cloth was saved, unraveled, and rewoven into new cloth.

Traditional stories speak of the smuggling of silk worms out of China by missionary monks sent by the Byzantine emperor Justinian in A.D. 522 to solve the mysterious origins of this lusterous fiber. For the first time, silk was produced, and flourished outside of China. Constantinople (Istanbul) became a major center of high quality silk weaving in established imperial workshops, and soon silk weaving was flourishing in other areas of the near East.

By the medieval period the glorious, glowing damasks and brocades of unusual designs and materials brought back to the West by Marco Polo intensified the European demand for these goods, but there remains much to discover about the technological developments of European silk production in the thirteen and fourteenth centuries. The exotic motifs traveled as well, and Chinese lotus designs are found listed in old Italian inventories as panni tartarica. The lotus, as it became westernized, slowly evolved into a variety of palmette or pomegranate shaped blossoms and lost its original Buddhist symbolism. By the Renaissance period, cities in Italy and France became famous for their beautiful silks and struggled with the technical, aesthetic, competitive, and political problems, as well as the whims of fashion. China, too, continued weaving for consumption at home and abroad . Hsio-Yen-Shih, a student of Chinese archaeology and art history, has documented the amazing number of workers active in an

average silk factory of the mid seventeenth century: 350 looms, 1500 weavers and drawboys, and 120 embroiderers and administrators.

Although the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century rage for the intriguing, colorful, and washable cottons brought economic turmoil to the silk industry, the longing for the subtle cloth of unmatched magical sheen returned. The flying shuttle, invented by John Jay in 1733, revolutionized textile weaving by increasing the speed, and thereby lowering the cost. The last major improvement to the draw loom is credited to Joseph Marie Jacquard, who developed a system of weaving the intricately figured polychrome designs more efficiently. Rectangular cards were punched one hole for each warp thread, one card for each weft woven row (pick) of the pattern repeat. Hundreds of cards, laced together, were often necessary, but allowed for a quick, even, and continuous weave upon the loom. The first demonstration of the Jacquard attachment at the Paris Industrial Exhibition in 1801 was overwhelmingly successful, and by 1812 there were 18,000 in operation in Lyons.

The great number and range of brocades and damasks purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner include silks for elegant garments from the couturier Frederick Worth, and new and antique furnishing fabrics for her Beacon Street home and Fenway Court. A receipt from December, 1914, records the purchase of twenty-two meters of red damask, thirty-two meters of one brocatelle, and two-hundred meters of an additional brocatelle - all from Karl J. Freund in New York. Her travel books and diaries from her trip to the Far East in 1883 reveal purchases of Cambodian silks and brocades bought in Japan for herself and a friend, Maud Howe. Mrs. Gardner's entries from China tell of Peking and Tient-Sin silk merchants, and her impatience with the slow workers soldering closed the tin shipping boxes filled with her silks. Mrs. Gardner's innate curiosity also led her to a silk reeling factory (filature), "... very interesting."

The large opulent pomegranate motifs in the Chinese(?) red damask (1800-1900) on display (13), possibly made for the Western market, retain a lotus or pconylike look. In contrast, the Italian late seventeenth-century pale green damask design (14) is of delicate urns filled with realistic flowers and small pomegranate motifs. Both illustrate the variety of forms and the continual popularity of the pomegranate motif. The French or Italian early eighteenth-century pink damask, brocaded in silk and gilt damask (16) of meandering vines and diminutive floral motifs, is an additional example of the luxurious silk weavings produced through the centuries.

Tachibana Minko, Japan, Chinese draw loom wood cut series, Saiga Shokunin Burui Ca. 1770

15 and 17 COMPOUND WEAVES 15. The Annunciation Italian, Tuscany, 1450-1500 Silk, compound satin with brocatelle effect, silver yarns L. 39 3/8", W. 8 7 /8"

17. Garment Fabric Japanese, 1800-1900 Silk, compound tabby L. 811/2", W. 26 3/4"

Generally all woven fabric is divided into two structures, simple weaves and compound weaves.

A simple weave uses sets of one warp and one weft (tabby, twill, and satin weaves). Compound weaves are loosely defined as using more than one set of warp and weft to complete the design.

There are many forms of compound weaves - each with its own structures and definitions; two are displayed in the exhibition (15 and 17).

The late fifteenth-century Italian orphrey panel (15) is composed of a vertical repeat pattern and woven in a compound satin weave with a brocatelle effect. Silver threads upon a pink silk satin ground form the design. The shiny pink satin warp threads appear in relief upon a diagonal pattern of twill weave metallic threads to create the characteristic raised brocatell e effect. Several of these narrow woven band patterns were repeated across the full width of the loom and cut lengthwise into individual strips after completion. The process allowed for the economical production of ecclesiastical goods that replaced expensive elaborately embroidered orphreys, while the metallic threads retained the opulence desired. The panel is an excellent example of the orphrey bands woven in thriving Florentine Renaissance workshops.

The Japanese silk garment fabric (1800-1900) (17) is a compound tabby weave. The pattern threads are bound to the textured, finely ribbed, dark blue tabby weave ground by a twill weave. A complex pattern of stylized vines, flowers, and geometric forms are silhouetted against the ground; a fluid three-dimensional flamboyant design results.

Although Japan has a history of brightly painted and brocaded fabrics, little is known about the process of early Japanese weaving. The draw loom technology, silk production, as well as skilled craftsmen are thought to have emigrated from China and Korea, and Chinese design motifs blended with Japanese. The dramatic colors and powerful, sometimes bizarre, interpretations of natural forms that grew out of the Noh theater costumes have fascinated Western cultures, and by the nineteenth century the fashionable "japanoiserie" style in decorative arts had replaced the earlier "chinoiserie."

The silk textiles on display, woven in diverse cultures, time periods, and for different uses, illustrate the universal love and demand for elegant silks and the development of the technology necessary to produce them.

Mrs. Gardner traveled extensively through Japan during her trip to the far East in 1883, and on many occasions describes the beautiful, exotic textiles and clothing available and worn. In one account she writes about a wrestling match she attended in Osaka: "The audience was a wonderful sight. Brilliant rugs and blankets hanging over the fence of the boxes, and what clothes there were (VERY VERY FEW) were many-coloured .. .! was immensely amused by a man in the box next to us. He was a great swell, servants and all that - his beautiful clothes were carefully laid aside on account of the heat ... He had a dear little boy with him, who would have been stark naked but for an amulet bag of such beautiful damask that was fastened by a fold of red silk, round his neck and that went in [a] bow and ends nearly to his heels behind. "

18 KNOTTED PILE Turkish knot (Ghiordes or Symmetric) Carpet (d etail) Talish, S. Causasus, c. 1850 Wool warp and weft w. 421/2", L. 1051/4"

Persian knot (Senneh or Asymmetric)

From Dorothy K. Burnham, Warp and Weft Royal Ontario Museum

The foundation of a pile carpet is composed of warp and weft threads that form a grid to hold the knotted pile firmly in place. The pile knots are tied onto the warp threads that run lengthwise on the loom and are worked from the bottom towards the top. Between each row of knots, one or two rows of tabby weave wefts are woven and beaten down with a comb. The warps and wefts are structural, rather than decorative, and cannot be seen on the face of the carpet. A variety of looms may be used - primitive to highly developed - but the process of knotting pile remains the same.

The two basic carpet knots are the Persian (Senneh or Asymmetric) and Turkish (Ghiordes or Symmetric). Both knots wrap around two warps, but may be distinguished by the knot loop and tuft placement. The Persian knot wraps around one warp and under one warp, one tuft appears under the loop, and the pile lies either to the left or to the right. The Turkish knot is wrapped over two warps, two tuft ends emerge from under the loop, and the pile lies smoothly toward the bottom of the carpet. Neither are tightly tied knots, but are threads wrapped around warps and held in place by the woven wefts. The density of the carpet is determined by the number of warps and the degree to which the wefts are packed down to consolidate the knots.

Coarse rugs may have under twenty knots to the square inch; elegant court rugs may have as many as two thousand.

Caucasian knotted wool rugs were produced by semi-nomadic people (most often the women) who wove them as decorative, practical items for everyday use. The Caucasus lies between the Caspian and the Black Seas, and is peopled by diverse ethnic groups that speak forty different languages. Through the centuries, the area was subjected to constant territorial conflict, and the rug weaving traditions that crossed political boundaries often make attributions extremely difficult today. The designs are completely angular, and great numbers of distinctively beautiful carpets were woven between 1820 and 1910. The identification of structure, design, and materials provide the criteria in determining the quality of the carpet.

The mid nineteenth-century carpet in the exhibition (18) is from Talish (Talysh), located in the southeastern part of the Caucasus. Once part of the Persian province of Azerbaijan, it was absorbed by Russia in 1828; Iran and Turkey are to the south. Several characteristics found in

Talish carpets are present in this example. The proportion of the coarse, shiny, wool carpet is long for its width; the unusually narrow central field (met-hane) is sparsely sprinkled with geometric floral motifs and the Muslim date 1259; the main border, filled with stylized floral motifs, is white and has two smaller decorative borders at each side and an outer border. The red central field, however, is most often blue. One hundred twelve Turkish knots to the square inch make this a fine quality Caucasian carpet, considerably above the approximate average of eighty knots. The variations of color (abrash) in the red field are caused by changes in the wool used or are due to a different dye lot.

This Talish carpet appears in a 1900 photograph in front of the entrance hall fireplace in Mrs. Gardner's home at 152 Beacon Street.

19 BLOCK PRINT Wrap or Cover (detail) Indian, 1850-1900 Cotton, tabby weave, printed and painted L. 92 1/8", W. 56 3/8"

Engraving "Calico Printer," Book of Trades, 1807

A woodblock printed fabric is made by pressing a carved wooden block dipped in dye or pigment onto a ground cloth. The block is carved to leave the design in relief, and the dye adheres to the raised surface. The back of the block is firmly tapped with a wooden mallet to evenly transfer the dye from the block to the fabric. To complete a design, each color or pattern uni\ requires a separate block. The precise alignment (registry) of each block is necessary to assure accurate pattern repeats. Blocks also may be used to pattern print with mordants, colorless chemical substances that combine with the dye to permanently bond with the cloth fiber, and become colorfast.

Examples of relief designs found on ancient clay printing stamps

Although the origin of block printing is unclear, it is the oldest form of printing known, and is found in cultural traditions worldwide. Clay stamps, found from 3000 B.C. in Mesopotamia, confirm the ancient existence of the technique. Although the relationship of the development of book printing and printing on cloth is unclear, decorative carved wooden blocks dating c. 200 B.C. were found in China. One of the earliest surviving examples of the printed textile itself is a ninth-century Egyptian Coptic cloth. Western European examples from medieval and Renaissance England, Italy, and Germany, are preserved in museum collections and cathedral treasuries. In the South Pacific Islands, a coarse form of printing was done on tapa cloth, made from the bark of mulberry trees. Other examples of block printing have been found in South America, and in North America the Indians printed on baskets and mats.

With the establishment of the East Indian trading companies in the early seventeenth century, Europe discovered, in India, a source for brilliantly decorated printed fabrics. What began as a

With the establishir1cnt of the East Indian trading companies in the early seventeenth century, Europe discovered, in India, a source for brilliantly decorated printed fabrics. What began as a curiosity in Europe, became a high-volume trade as the desire for the colorful, color-fast, washable cotton cloth increased, and merchants shipped sizeable quantities of the exotic goods for clothing and household furnishing fabrics.

By the eighteenth century, the fashion for Indian chintz and calico dominated the Western market, and the competition severely threatened the local French and English industries that were producing exceptionally beautiful and intricate woodblock printed fabrics. Laws, subsequently passed by England and France to prevent the importation and wearing of Indiennes , were not repealed until the end of that century. The fascination with Indian printed fabrics continued through the nineteenth century, and the Indian textile industry remains vital today producing colorful cloth for local and export markets.

The late nineteenth-century Indian cotton wrap or cover on display (19) is block printed and painted in green, blue, brown-red, and yellow-gold dyes onto a coarsely woven cotton tabby weave cloth of three panels seamed together. The regular repeat patterns and flat linear shapes are characteristic of the block printed technique.

20 BATIK Skirt cloth (Sarong) Javanese, 1850-1900 Cotton, tabby weave, resist-dyed L. 79 3/4", w. 411/4"

Like ikat, batik is a resist-dye technique. To create an ikat pattern, the threads are dyed before the cloth is woven (5). In the batik process, however, the woven cloth is dyed (20).

The areas to be colored are cove1ed with wax to prevent the permeation of the dye. The undyed areas remain the color of the ground, and appear silhouetted. The use of hot wax produces a characteristic linear, flowing quality that gives the design the appearance of a drawing. Also characteristic are the small "crackle" lines, a result of the breakdown of the resist material during the dyeing process that allows the dye to seep through and mark the ground fabric.

To prepare for wax resist-dyeing, the design is drawn onto a washed, natural white cotton cloth that has been stiffened with a sizing material, such as rice water. Hot fluid beeswax is applied directly to the pattern areas prior to the immersion of the cloth into the dye bath. The molten wax must be the proper consistency to apply smoothly and to penetrate and seal the cloth. Areas waxed will not absorb the dye, therefore the term resist-dyed.

To apply the hot wax, a tjanting may be used to form thin lines. Attached to the end of a wooden handle, the tjanting is a small metal cup with a spout that enables the wax to flow onto the cloth. It was a tool commonly used in Java by the seventeenth century. By the mid nineteenth century, the tjap (stamp) was used to apply the wax in an efficient method to speed up production and meet the growing market demands. Each tjap is made of wood inset with shaped metal bands. Many are needed to complete a batik pattern.

The entire cloth may be waxed and designs scratched into and through the resist medium, or, for a decorative effect, small dots are stippled into the wax with a sharp tool. When dyed, the dots become part of the pattern characteristic of the batik technique.

Tepid water must be used for the dye bath to prevent the wax from melting. New wax is applied for the dyeing of each additional color. After dyeing, the wax is removed from the cloth by boiling or scraping.

Natural dyes of brown gold, red brown, indigo blue, and black are the usual colors found in Javanese batik. The natural white color, preserved in the undyed areas of the ground cloth, promotes the contrast of light against dark that is integral to the design.

Batik may have originated in China or India about A.D. 700. Indonesia, a long chain of thousands of islands covering almost 3000 miles, traded spices and textiles with Africa, China, and India- an exchange that also brought to these countries new designs and techniques. The alternative use of vegetable paste for the resist is still found today in some cultures and may have preceeded the use of wax in the making of early batik. Java was dyeing batik by the tenth century, and reached the epitome of its sophisticated technique by the seventeenth century. Two of many translations of the word batik are the Javanese word ambitik meaning generally to mark with tiny dots, and an early Malayan translation meaning painting or pattern making. Indonesian villages dyed and wore their own intricately stylized traditional designs of animals, birds, plants, and flowers on sarongs (robes), slendangs (scarfs), kembans (waist bands), and kapalas (kerchiefs). The fascination with the exotic designs and textiles spread, promulgated by the established European trading companies that purchased and delivered goods all over the world. Eventually, following the development of printing on cloth, the patterns were copied for mass production.

The Javanese sarong exhibited (20) is a resist-dyed, tabby weave cotton of red brown and dark blue against a white ground, made between 1850 and 1900. To create the garment, the cloth is seamed at the selvage edges into one piece to be worn by both men and women. Imaginative animals, birds, flowers, and insects are contained in the central panel and in the diagonal panels at each side.

The crackle lines made by the dye seeping through the cracked wax, the small dotted spots present in the dyed pattern, and the swirling, flowing drawn appearance of the design are all characteristic of Javanese batik.

In her travel journal, Isabella Stewart Gardner writes about Indonesian textiles: Wednesday December 5, 1883: "... Down a long canal, full of boats; on one bank the better class houses, bungalows; on the other native places, consisting of one room, bamboo, with bamboo fence about - Men & women (natives) in Sarongs, & most of them bathing And everywhere people (Dutch) in the strangest clothes since Eden. The men in pijamas [sic], the trowsers [sic] made of fantastic Sarongs - the women (ladies?) in Sarongs, no heeled slippers, loose white jackets, (absolutely nothing else) & hair down their back .... " And on Saturday: "... Then I went with the Hotel Keeper (Jennsen) to see the Malay women make native Sarongs, that cost so much .... The Sarongs are painted by hand with wax by a curious little instrument. Then they are washed, then taken to the inevitable Chinaman, who wash [sic] them in the coloured dye desired .... "

GLOSSARY

Terms Used in the Exhibition and Catalogue Text Abrash: a change of color due to the wool or the dye lot in an oriental carpet Applied work: a form of decoration that entails the sewing of a fabric or an embroidered fabric to the face of a ground cloth Batik: a decorative resist-dye technique in which the application of a wax or paste onto a ground fabric prevents the permeation of dyes Block print: a textile technique of decorating a ground fabric by using the raised surface of a carved wooden block, coated with dye or pigment, to imprint pattern motifs Bobbin: a cylindrical tool wrapped with threads used for making bobbin lace and for weaving tapestries Bobbin (pillow) lace: lace composed of sets of threads wound on bobbins that are twisted and or plaited to form the design; usually worked upon a pillow-like support Brides (bars): threads that form decorative bars connecting the worked motifs in the making of lace; mesh ground found in French needle lace Brocade: a weave using supplementary wefts to create a design on the face of the fabric Brocatelle: a weave made with two sets of warps and wefts characterized by the long floats of the raised satin weave Burgundy: a geographic area once composed of Holland, Belgium, northern France, Luxembourg, Alsace, and Lorraine Buttonhole stitch: a looped stitch used in embroidery and needle lace Cartoon: a design for a tapestry Caucasus: the area that lies between the Black and Caspian Seas, now part of the U.S.S.R. Chain stitch: an oval embroidery stitch resembling a chain link sewn singularly or in a series Chatelaine: a collection of sewing tools or useful items that are connected by chains or cords and suspended from the waist Cisele: a term used to describe a pattern of cut and uncut velvet Compound weave: a weave that uses more than one set of warp and wefts to complete the design Cordonnet (brode): a thread, or bundles of threads, used to outline or decorate lace pattern motifs in the making of lace Couching: a series of embroidery stitches that crosses another thread and attaches it to a ground fabric

Counted thread work: an embroidery technique that necessitates the counting of warp and weft threads on a ground of even weave fabric Cut velvet: a velvet wea路ve made by cutting the pile loops to form a tufted surface Damask: a weave with a reversible pattern created by combining a warp-faced satin with its reverse (weft-faced sateen) Deflected element: an embroidery technique in which warps and wefts are pulled together to purposefully distort the ground fabric to create a pattern of open spaces Diderot Encyclopedia: a compendium of trades and manufacturing published by Denise Diderot in 1751

Discontinuous weft: a weft thread that is woven in specific pattern areas and is not woven from selvage to selvage Draw loom: a structure that enables the weaving of pattern repeats by a system of cords that combine and raise groups of warp threads Even weave: a balanced weave that has the same number of warps and wefts per square inch Ferronerie: a term that refers to the use of ironwork designs in the decorative arts Filature: a silk reeling factory Fire gilt: the technique of ormolu; an amalgam of gold and mercury that is heat fused to a copper alloy substrate (the defination refers specifically to the chatelaine on display) Flanders: an important medieval principality comprised of French and German areas in the southwest Low Countries Float: a warp or weft thread that covers two or more threads Flying shuttle: a loom attachment invented by John Jay in 1770 that carries the weft thread from selvage to selvage to make possible the weaving of a wide cloth Furnishing fabric: any form of woven or embroidered cloth used for household decoration, as opposed to fabric woven for clothing Fylfot (gammadion): a decorative four-arm motif that is similar to a swastika Ghiordes knot: see Turkish knot Gobelins stitch: a counted thread stitch in which an embroidery thread crosses one warp and two wefts Ikat: a resist-dye technique in which the warp or weft threads (or both) are pattern wra!Jped and dyed before the cloth is woven Indiennes: a decorative arts term that originated in western Europe and refers to colorful imported Indian textiles

Japanoiserie: a decorative arts term that originated in western Europe and refers to designs adapted from Japanese arts and crafts Kilim: a tapestry weave in which the open slits are part of the structure and design Lappets (barbes ): a pair of decorative streamers first designed as ties for a woman's cap and hang at each side or are elaborately folded and pinned to the cap top; most often of lace Long and short stitch: a stitch used to color and shade a design; the first row alternates long and short stitches, the following rows of stitches are composed of the long stitch only; the resulting staggered pattern of stitches blends the colored threads Loom: a supporting structure upon which the warps are stretched lengthwise under tension before the cloth is woven Mordant: a chemical used in conjunction with dyes to bind them to the fiber Needle lace (needlepoint lace or point lace): a lace made with a needle and thread Open work: an embroidery technique in which holes in the ground fabric are made by cutting, removing, or distorting threads, and are then decorated with stitches Opus anglicanum (English Work): a unique form of medieval embroidery that employs fine silk and metallic threads and is worked in split stitch and underside couching Order of the Golden Fleece: an order founded by Phillip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in the early fifteenth century, who used a golden sheep skin as the symbol of the House of Burgundy; a famous set of or nue ecclesiastical embroideries by this name were commissioned by Phillip for his chapel

Or nue (shaded gold): Renaissance gold work embroidery formed by couching horizontal, parallel gold threads with polychrome silk threads Orphrey: a decorative long band that is attached to the front edge opening of a cope Persian knot (Senneh or Asymmetrical): one of the two principal knots used in carpet making; the knot wraps around one warp and under one warp Picots: small beadlike embroidery stitches Plait: a braidlike structure formed as part of the pattern in bobbin lace

Punta in aria (stitch in the air): a form of needle lace Reseau: mesh grounds in bobbin and needle lace Resist-dyed: a decorative textile technique that blocks areas of ground cloth with a paste or wax to prevent the dye from permeating the fabric Reticella: a form of cutwork or withdrawn element embroidery that uses decorative stitches to fill the large open holes in the ground fabric; the probable ancestor of needle lace Satin weave: one of the basic weaves; characterized by long warp floats on the surface of the fabric

Selvage: the woven edges that run the length of the fabric Senneh knot: see Persian knot Single element: a textile technique that employ one set of threads Slit: a tapestry weaving term that describes the opening created by the weft threads reversing directions and not linking or sharing warps Stem stitch (outline stitch): a surface embroidery stitch used to outline motifs or to create a pattern of straight rows Supplementary warp or weft: a weave that employs additional warps, wefts, or both to create the design Surface stitchery: forms of embroidery wherein the stitches are worked freely on the ground fabric, as opposed to counted thread work that is confined to following the gridwork of an evenweave fabric Tabby weave: one of the basic weaves; wefts are woven over and under one warp Tapestry: a weft-faced discontinuous weaving technique Tj anting: a funnellike tool that holds the hot wax used in making a resist dyed cloth Toile: a term used to describe the solidly worked pattern areas in needle and bobbin lace Turkish knot ( Ghiordes or symmetrical): one of the two principal knots used in making oriental carpets; each loop covers two warp threads; the ends are brought from the back to the front between two warps Twill: one of the basic weaves characterized by a diagonal pattern Velvet: a warp pile weave composed of raised loops, cut loops or a combination Voided velvet: a velvet weave that is only part pile Warps: the lengthwise threads that are placed under tension on a loom and support the weft threads woven width wise Warp-faced weave: a weaving structure in which the warps predominate and the wefts are completely hidden; not a balanced weave Wefts: the threads that are woven widthwise and perpendicular to the warp threads Weft-faced weave: a weaving structure in which the wefts predominate and the warps are completely hidden; not a balanced weave Whitework: any form of embroidery technique using white threads upon a white ground Withdrawn element embroidery: an embroidery technique in which threads are removed from an even weave ground fabric and the remaining warp or weft threads are decorated with embroidery stitches

Woodblock: a carved surface of wood used for printing by covering the raised surface with a pigment or dye and pressing it to the ground fabric Yuzen: a Japanese dyeing technique that combines resist-dyeing and painting to create colored and shaded pictorial designs

Tabby weave

Twill weave

.. .. = ~ ; .... = = .. = .. = .. = ~ = .. =.. ~ .; = ~

~

~

=

~ = flll

.. =II

~ ..= +;. ==.. = i+ .. ..~ = ; ..~ = r ; .. ~

From Dorothy K. Burnham, Warp and Weft, Royal Ontario Museum

Satin weave

....

..... ..... ..... .....

=-

[][

.....

::J[

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY Bennett, Ian, Oriental Rugs, Volume I, Caucasian, Oriental Textile Press Ltd., London, 1981 Birrell, Verla, The Textile Arts, Harper and Rowe, NY, 1959 Brostoff, Laya, Weaving a Tapestry, Interweave Press, Inc., Loveland, CO, 1982 Brown, Rachel, The Weaving, Spinning and Dyeing Book, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1979 Burnham, Dorothy K., Warp and Weft: A Textile Terminology, Royal Ontario Museum of Canada, 1980 * Carter, Morris, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court, Trustees of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA 1972 Caufield, S.F.A, and Saward, Blanche C., Encyclopedia of Victorian Needlework, Vols. I and II, Dover Publications, NY, 1972 Cavallo, Adolph S., Needlework, The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1979 Cavallo, Adolph S., Textiles: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Northeastern University Press, Boston, MA, 1986 Clabburn, Pamela, The Needleworker's Dictionary, William Morrow and Company, NY, 1976 Coats, J. and P., 100 Embroidery Stitches, Coats Sewing Group, Glasgow, Scotland, 1967 Coats, J. and P., 50 Counted Thread Embroidery Stitches, J. and P. Coats, Ltd., Glasgow Scotland, 1978 Cooper-Hewitt Museum, Lace, NY, 1980 de Dillmont, Therese, The Complete Encyclopedia of Needlework, Running Press, Philadelphia, PA, 1978 Dean, Beryl, Ecclesiastical Embroidery, B. T. Batsford, Ltd., London, 1958 Diderot Encyclopedia, The Complete Illustrations 1762-1777, Vols. I-IV with Index, Harry N. Abrams, NY, 1978 A Diderot Pictorial Encylopedia of Trades and Industry, Vols. I and II, Dover Publications, NY, 1959 Earnshaw, Pat, A Dictionary of Lace, Shire Publications; Great Britian, 1982 Earnshaw, Pat, The Identification of Lace, Shire Publications, Great Britian, 1980 Emery, Irene, The Primary Structures of Fabrics, An Illustrated Classification, The Textile Museum, Washington, D.C., 1966 Eiland, Murray L., Oriental Rugs, A Comprehensive Guide, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, MA, 1981 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, General Catalogue, University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1964 Gilfoy, Peggy Stoltz, Fabrics: Celebration from the Collection, Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN, 1983 Gostelow, Mary, The Complete International Book of Embroidery, New York, Simon and Schuster, 1977 Held, Shirley E., Weaving - A Handbook of the Fiber Arts, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, NY, 1978 Levy, Santina M., Lace - A History, Victoria and Albert Museum in Association with W.S. Manley and Son, Ltd., London, 1983 McNeill, Moyra, Pulled Thread Embroidery, Taplinger Publishing Company, NY, 1971 Minnich, Helen Benton, Japanese Costume and the Makers of Its Elegant Tradition, Charles E. Tuttle Company, Tokyo, 1963 Neff, Ivan C. and Maggs, Carol V., Dictionary of Oriental Rugs, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, NY, 1979 Palliser, Mrs. Bury, History of Lace, Sampson Low, Marston Company, Ltd., London, 1910 Peebles, Merrily A., Dressed in Splendor: Japanese Costume 1700-1926, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA, 1987 Ritch, Diane and Wada, Yoshiko, Ikat: An Introduction, Kasuri Dyeworks, Berkeley, CA, 1975 Seiroku, Norma, Japanese Costume and Textile Arts, Weatherhill/Heibonsha, Tokyo, 1974

Sevensma, W.S., Tapestries, University Books, NY, 1965 Stack, Lotus, The Essential Thread: Tapestry on Wall and Body, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MI,1988 Stone, Peter F., Rugs of the Caucasus: Structure and Design, Greenleaf Company, Chicago, ILL, 1984 Stroheim and Romann, Damasks: Their Origin and Ornamentation, NY Synonds, Mary and Preece, Louise, Needlework through the Ages, Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd., London, 1928 Vinciolo, Federico, Renaissance Patterns for Lace and Embroidery, Dover Publications, NY, 1971 Swift, Gay, The Larousse Encyclopedia of Embroidery Stitches, NY, 1984 Thomas, Mary, Dictionary of Embroidery Stitches, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1934 Tortora, Phyllis G., Understanding Textiles, Macmillan Publishing Company, NY, 1987 Weibel, Adele Coulin, Two Thousand Years of Textiles - The Figured Textiles of Europe and the Near East, Hacker Art Books, NY, 1972 Wilson, Kax, A History of Textiles, Westview Press, Inc., Boulder CO, 1982 Yamanaka, Norio, The Book of Kimono, Kodansha International, Ltd., Tokyo and NY, 1988

* The textile conservation department at the Gardner Museum especially thanks Hugh Porter, Director of Publications, the Royal Ontario Museum, for granting permission to include the excellent weave and knot diagrams from Warp and Weft, by Dorothy K. Burnham.

The tabby, twill, satin, tapestry, brocade, damask, velvet, and Turkish and Persian knot diagrams from this book were gratefully used for their clarity and educational value.