24,00 GBP
- 72 pages
- Paperback
- 23cm x 15.5cm (9in x 6in)
- Over 60 black and white illustrations
A Schole-House for the Needle is a facsimile of a 1632 original book now in the private collection of John and Elizabeth Mason containing over 60 Illustrations of lace and embroidery patterns from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. With an historical background by Santina M. Levey, historian and former keeper of the department of textiles at the Victoria & Albert Museum, an introduction from The Lace Guild and a foreword from The Embroiderers' Guild.
Richard Shorleyker was a printer working in London in the early seventeenth century. He first published A Schole-House for the Needle in 1624 and the book contains beautiful patterns for a range of elaborate and impressive lace designs which were fashionable at the time. However he drew on his extensive collection of blocks and prints and also included older designs for both lace and embroidery. The earliest patterns are those blackwork and whitework which date back to the 1540s. There are numerous motifs which draw on nature, charming depictions of flowers, birds, animals, fruits and insects, so typical of the Elizabethan period. Examples of designs from the book can be seen in extant garments, such as the woman’s embroidered smock in the Victoria and Albert Museum made between 1615 - 1630 (T.2-1956) which features snails, peapods, acorns and birds worked in red silk on linen. (You can view the smock here: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O78791/smock-unknown/.)
This book is an invaluable source of patterns for anyone wishing to recreate lace or embroidery from the 1540s to the 1620s.