Embroidery is the art of decorating a fabric with thread and needle. Its origin is lost among the earliest historical peoples. Reproductions of needlework have been found on the statues and frescoes handed down Antique Furniture Guides us from antiquity, but embroidery as we know it was developed along with the other textiles in Italy during the sixteenth century. Being a work done entirely by hand, most of the embroideries used in interior decoration are antiques.
Petit Point and Gros Point (also known as Needlepoint) are the names given to embroidery in the old-fashioned cross stitch work done on a net. It is customarily called by the former name when the stitches number more than fourteen to the lineal inch, and the latter when Antique Signage less than that, although in petit point work there are usually twenty stitches to the inch, and in gros point there are eight. This delicate work popular in that era was very different in comparison to the rough construction that would come later in the future, involving amish fireplaces and wooden bar rails.
In gros point, the foundation threads are usually doubled, while in petit point they are single. The designs are done in wool thread and completely cover the net. Figures and conventional patterns were used, following closely the designs of the other fabrics of the period. Toward the end of the eighteenth century, it became the custom for children and young ladies to do this work, and they produced what became known as samplers. The designs were usually simple motifs, the alphabet, possibly some crude figures, and the name and age of the worker. Great numbers of them, of Colonial, English, and South American workmanship, are still to be found.
Petit point and gros point work are always found in small pieces, and are only used as furniture covers, screens, pillows, bell pulls, and in other small decorative ways. Applique work is the art of sewing onto a fabric as well as into it. Strips of different materials and colors are cut out in various patterns and applied to heavy silk or velvet. Sometimes padding is placed under these strips, giving a sort of relief effect to the design.
Applique work is used on furniture, napoleon fireplaces, curtains, bed spreads, and other similar articles. Couching stitch is the term used to describe the needlework most commonly known as embroidery. In this work, colored silk thread is sewn around other pieces of thread that are applied to the ground fabrics. The Chinese were probably the greatest exponents of this form of embroidery.
The principal relics from Renaissance Europe are found in the religious vestments of various types, such as chasubles, dalmatics and copes. The Bayeux Tapestry, which is no true tapestry at all, is the most famous embroidery in the world. It is a band of linen 230 feet long, embroidered in colored wools, showing various scenes of the Norman conquest of England. It is more interesting as an historic document than as a work of art.
Lace is open work made with a needle or bobbin, or by knitting, knotting, or crocheting. Real lace is the term given to the handmade product, but the general term lace includes the product of the loom. Lace originated in Italy, and the most important of the Italian laces were the reticella, which was a development of drawn and cut work, and filet, made on a net. Filet is also made in France and other countries.
In the Antique Tiffany Lamps twentieth century it was imitated by machine weaving, but the product was very inferior to that made by hand. French lace is a general term for all curtains of real lace, or lace panels sewed into a silk or linen ground. Nottingham lace is a general term for curtains made in one piece on a machine, Nottingham having been the first place in which work of this kind was done. In addition to curtains, laces are used as table covers, bed spreads, mounted on frames as screens, mantel runners, etc.
Sarah Martin is a freelance marketing writer based out of San Diego, CA. She specializes in early interior decorating and home improvement. She is an expert on Amish fireplaces as well as napolean fireplaces. For the best in the hardwood moulding industry, please visit http://www.ferche.com/
