Egy hímzéstechnikát ismertet, amely általában egy színnel, vonalas szerkezetben készül....

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Blackwork

Keridwen the Mouse

This article is the culmination of a number of blackwork projects, classes and discussions on

email and in person.

What is blackwork?To start with, definitions of embroidery is a modern concept. At the time of doing the

embroidery it is unclear what the embroiderers would have called the various stitches and styles,

and yet to study embroidery we have created names to put the work into categories.

However, the questions of what is blackwork? is still difficult to answer with an great

certainty. Some books define blackwork is any monochrome (only one colour) sewing on

contrasting cloth. Others give the definition that it is only blackwork if it is black and by the

same rules, anything in blue is bluework and anything in red is redwork. And still others

have a much stricter definition. I had a discussion with someone about my blackwork Tudor

cuffs only to be told that isnt blackwork, thats Spanish work.

The problem is that there are a large number of styles which all could be called blackwork. Ithink the majority of scholars agree that blackwork was a style which reached the height of its

popularity from 1500-1650, predominantly in England but also throughout Europe.

There are a number of major styles.

a) Monochrome, linear designs, mostly used for collars and cuffsThis is the first form of blackwork, which is also called Spanish work. It can be counted

geometric forms or free flowing foliage designs. The picture below is one of a pair of cuffs

based on a portrait of Jane Seymour.

This shirt shows a floral design (and a much younger Corin)


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b) Monochrome, floral designs with geometric fills, mostly in Elizabethan sleevesThese are the classic Elizabethan sleeves style. This style was also often embellished with

some gold thread and spangles.

This is a favour using this style.

c) Monochrome, floral designs with speckling shadingThe flowers or emblems were sewn to imitate a woodcut, sometimes having been printed from a

woodcut and then sewn over. This style often wasnt always completely monochrome. The

speckling stitches could be of a different colour to the outline stitches, but the range of colourswas still very limited.

A classic example of this style is the Shepards Buss (from the V&A images)


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d) Repeated motifsIn a number of coifs in particular, it was common to use a motif of a few centimetre in size and

cover the entire surface of the material with this regular pattern. This form was also often

embellished with gold thread and spangles.

The example below is from the V&A.

e) other


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Even though the above four classes covers most of what you would think is blackwork, there are

still extant pieces that dont quite fit the mould. For example, there is a coif in the Burrell

Collection in Glasgow that has a floral design and the background is filled in a regular pattern

not the flowers!

What did they call it then?

In Tudor and Elizabethan times, the style was known as Spanish work, in the Spanishfashion, blackwork or wrought with black silk, worked with black, if they bothered to

describe the embroidery in any great detail at all. The inventories focussed on the items, not the

decoration upon them.

For example

Wardrobe accounts of Katharine of Aragon sheets and pillow-beres wrought with Spanish work

of black silk at the edge. [Geddes/McNeill]

New Years Gift to Queen Mary in 1556 were smocks wrought with black silk Spanish fashion

[Geddes/McNeill]

New Years Gifts to Elizabeth1578-9 from Lady Digby

A smock and two pillow-beres of cameryck with blackwork and edged with a broad bone-lace

of black silk [Geddes/McNeill]

1588-9 from Mrs Twist

a pair of sleeves of camberick wrought with black silke [Digby]

What isnt blackwork? And by the way what is redwork or bluework?

Some claim that blackwork is mentioned in Geoffrey Chausers, Canterbury Tales, written

between 1388 and 1400. However since this is the wrong time frame, and it doesnt mention

anything about the pattern or stitch, it is unlikely that this is the first example of blackwork.

Millers Tale describes Alison the carpenters wife

Her smock was white; embroidery repeated

Its pattern on the collar front and back,

Inside and out; it was of silk, and black.

And all the ribbons of her milky mutch

Were made to match her collar to a touch

Coghill translation

Gostelow uses the Fulda fragment as the first surviving example of blackwork. It is an icon style

line drawing. It is not the right style of pattern and is much too early to be blackwork by our

definition.

Redwork might have been a term used in Elizabethan accounts to denote something decorated

in red silk. It is definitely used to refer to an 18th and 19th century American style of

monochrome embroidery used to decorate patchwork quilts. Bluework doesnt refer to any

particular style that I know of, although the Deerfield style of the early 19th

century was

predominately blue. Terms like redwork, bluework, greenwork, etc are confusing because they

can mean more than just blackwork done in another colour.


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Materials

Blackwork was almost always silk on linen. The silk was most often black but there are

examples of red, purple, green, brown and blue silk being used. Most often only a single colour

of thread was used for the whole piece, but occasionally a second or third colour was used. The

pieces was then often enriched with gold thread, beads or spangles. Often lace edging was used

on blackworked pieces.

The stitches most commonly used in blackwork are running stitch, including speckling stitch,

double running stitch (modernly known as Holbein stitch), stem stitch and backstitch. Braid

stitch and plaited braid stitch were often used when putting gilt thread sections on a blackworked

item.

Samplers

The oldest surviving sampler is the one by Jane Bostocke from 1598. However, samplers were

known of from records since 1502. The word exemplar was found in a dictionary from 1530.

In 1552, in the Edward VI inventory, is a sampler or set of patterns worked on Normandy

canvas with green and black silks [Warner].

It would seem that these early samplers were not for show as they seem to be today, but were apersonal reference tool to be used constantly when embroidering, especially blackwork. These

were sometimes bequeathed in wills.

The rich wife used them as shown in a story by Barnabe Riche, Phylotus and Emilia

Now, when she had dined, then she might go seekout her examplers, and to peruse which would

do beste in a ruffe, which in a gorget, whiche in a sleeve, which in a quaife, whiche in a caul, and

which in a handcarcheef [Digby]

What got blackworked?

Most items could have been blackworked. During this time, almost any cloth item that stayed

still long enough would have been decorated with embroidery, and I dont doubt that blackwork

would have been used a lot. However, there do seem to be items for which blackwork was more

commonly used as a decoration. For example, Ive done research which suggested that

handkerchiefs were not commonly blackworked. The most common decoration for

handkerchiefs in the late 1500s was lace. But blackworked handkerchiefs did exist.

Items that commonly got blackworked include nightcaps, handkerchiefs, nightshirts, coifs,

forehead clothes, foreparts, sleeves, ruffs, hand ruffs, partlets, stomachers, tooth clothes, jackets,

purses, covers, pillow covers and chalice veils.

Bibliography

Altherr, Ilse, Reversible Blackwork Book 1

Lots of patterns for geometric fill stitches with stitch by stitch instructions on how to sewthem reversibly. However, the techniques described are not necessarily authentic. There

is a basic technique section and a very brief and inaccurate history section.

Ashelford, Jane, (1988), Dress in the Age of Elizabeth I, BT Batsford Ltd, London.

Not much text about blackwork, but lots of portraits showing blackwork.

Barnett, Lesley, (1996), Blackwork, Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney.


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Dont bother with this book. It has a good picture (of a floral shaped slip done in

blackwork), but is otherwise useless for the historical embroiderer. It does have basic

info about techniques and materials for sewing, but so do other blackwork books. This

book talks mostly about modern uses of blackwork as art form. There are far better books

out there.

Chaucer, Geoffrey, (1987), The Canterbury Tales, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Victoria,Australia.

Digby, George Wingfield, (1963), Elizabethan Embroidery, Faber and Faber, London

This is an absolutely fabulous book for Elizabethan embroidery and what it was used for.

It has lots of lovely black and white pictures. However the information on blackwork is

scattered throughout the book mixed in with all the other types of needlework and textiles.

Don, Sarah, (1990), Traditional Embroidered Animals, Sally Milner Publishing, Sydney.

A surprisingly useful book considering its focused scope. Only a chapter on blackwork,

but that was more than Id expected and the information is useful stuff..

Evans, Susan J., (1989), Complete Anachronist No 31, - An Introduction to Blackwork, TheSociety for Creative Anachronism, Milpitas CA, USA

This is generally a good book to start with, but is not the whole story. Most of the

historical information comes from Gostelows book. It has several cunning fill patterns

and a few ideas about projects, as well as the standard basic sewing tips. However there

are no photos of paintings or extant pieces just line drawings.

Geddes, Elizabeth, McNeill, Moyra, (1976), Blackwork Embroidery, Dover Publications Inc,

New York.

I think this is an all round good book. It is cheap and readily available. It has lots of good

ideas for fill stitches and many good pictures. Also the history section is pretty good

although it sometimes wanders off the subject of embroidery. Again, it has the almost

compulsory sections of basic techniques and modern design.

Gostelow, Mary, (1976), Blackwork, Dover Publications Inc, New York.

A good book generally, although a disagree strongly with her all inclusive definition of

blackwork. Lots of good pictures.

King, Donald, Levey, Santina, (1993), The Victoria and Albert Museums Textile Collection,

Embroidery in Britain from 1200 to 1750, Canopy Books, New York.

Fabulous pictures of embroidery over a wide time frame. Only a handful relate

specifically to blackwork, but they are good.

Levey, Santina, (1998), Elizabethan Treasures: The Hardwick Hall Textiles, The National Trust,London.

This book talks mostly about the larger textiles bed and wall hangings, but does mention

the household linen, accounts for materials and the textile workers.

Norris, Herbert, (1997), Tudor Costume and Fashion, Dover Publications, London.

This is one of the earliest costuming books and it is now known to be inaccurate in many

ways. However it is still packed with information. It has very little on embroidery and

blackwork though.


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Ribeiro, Aileen, Cumming, Valerie, (1989), The Visual History of Costume, BT Batsford Ltd,

London.

General costuming book. It allows you to see the embroidery fashions in their correct

timeframe.

Speirs, Gill, Quemby, Sigrid, (1985), A Treasury of Embroidery Designs, Colporteur Press,Sydney.

This book studies several extant embroidered pieces and breaks down the stitches and

patterns so that someone could replicate them. Several of the pieces are blackwork. The

historical detail is sketchy but there are detailed pictures of the pieces studied.

Staniland, Kay, (1997), Medieval Craftsmen Embroiderers, British Museum Press, London.

A very useful book about the embroidery guilds and techniques during the middle

ages/pre-1500. It only briefly touches on later Renaissance embroidery styles.

Synge, Lanto, (1982), Antique Needlework, Blandford Press, Dorset.

Good book for general history of needlework, but little specifically on blackwork.

Warner, Pamela, (1991), Embroidery A History, B T Batsford Ltd, London.

A good general history focussing on many particular pieces, but not much specifically on

blackwork.

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/mideng.browse.htmlhttp://www.canterburytales.org/canterbury_tales.html

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