Vocabulary annatextiles 2016 material_weiss

Annatextiles VOCABULAR - Embroideries

Index---alphabetical order---Embroideries

Weissstickerei

Whitework Embroidery

Broderie blanche

Ricamo bianco

Whitework Embroideries
parts of a paper, given at the CIETA meeting of 1989 in Chicago USA,
by Anne Wanner-JeanRichard

Introduction:
In the 18th and 19th century there were several centres which produced whitework embroideries. The textile collection of St. Gallen has some pieces of these centres. Few of them are dated.
The earliest embroidery on cotton is an english apron with the date of 1711. As for the technique we find satin stitch, chainstitch, and drawn work.
Probably also from the first half of the 18th century is the cover or curtain of Dinant. I have not been able to find literature or documents of this region in Belgium. Again there is satinstitch, buttonholestitch and fine drawn work.
From Saxony I show an example with the date of 1763, which is the date of the peace of Hubertusburg. Drawn work is a speciality of Saxony.

In the 19th century whitework was done in Ayr, Scottland. In St.Gallen there is a collection of baby dresses. The example is not dated, but M. Swain gives some dates in her book: Mrs Jamieson of Ayr, Scottland, established a considerable business from 1814 to 1830. She is said to habe controlled a thousand outworkers. The finest pieces were done in the 1830s and they were voted equal to french work. The end of the Scottish embroidery came in 1857 because of a financial crisis in Glasgow and concurrence of machine embroidery.

In Bohemia Miroslava Ludvicova describes three waves of development. Specially the second, from 1830 to 1860 brought many fine works. From 1850 to the end of the century there is a tendency to work quickly.

Still in 19th century special caps were embroidered in "bourbonnaises", France. There is almost no literature on them, but there is an extremely high number of examples in the collection of St. Gallen. The lace stitch is very similar to the lace stitch used in Switzerland. On the reverse side we note the difference to swiss works. In France there is quite often chainstitch which gives the effect of small dots on the frontside.

In the 19th c. whitework embroideries were made in Denmark (Hedebo), in Norway (Hardanger), in Ireland (Mountmellik) as well.

Also of 19th century are the fine whitework embroideries with rich drawn work of Manila. Sandra Castro of Manila is writing a thesis of this kind of works: Several local fabrics made of vegetable fiber are usually identified as "grasscloth". New research work shows that 2 qualities can be distinguished: Pina means the cloth made from leaves of the pineapple plant. Nippis were exported specially to Spain. Primary sources say that this is a fine grade of cloth manufactured from plantain. With these fabrics it is possibel to make the finest drawnworks.

In the last years of 19th century, swiss machine embroiderers imitated Manila work and other types of white works with the embroidery machines.

Literatur:
- Anne Wanner, Kopf und Kragen, Begleitheft zur Ausstellung vom 7. Mai 1992 bis Frühling 1993
- Margaret Swain, Ayrshire and other Whitework, London 1982
- Sheila Paine, Chikan Embroidery, The Floral Whitework of India, Great Britain 1989
- Andree Piboule, 750 Coiffes Bourbonnaises, Marsat, 1985
- Miroslava Ludvikova, Maehrische Volksstickerei, in: Moravska lidova vysivka, Brno 1986
- Sandra Caastro, Nipis, in: Ausstellungskatalog, Intramuros Manila 1990
- Gisela Graf-Hoefgen, Schlesische Spitzen, München 1974

Die nachfolgenden Beispiele stammen aus der Sammlung des

Textilmuseums St.Gallen (Schweiz)
Details von Weissstickereien in Baumwolle und Leinen

The following examples belong to the collection of the

Textilmuseum St.Gallen (Switzerland)
Details of whitework embroideries with embroidery in cotton and linen threads.

curtain of Dinant, Belgium, 18th century, Inv.Nr. TM 21397

Detail of Dinant embroidery

Detail, Saxony (Germany), Dresden work, 2nd half 18th century,
Inv.Nr. TM

Detail of Dinant emroidery, Inv.Nr. TM 21397

Detail of Dinant embroidery

Detail of apron, England, 1711, Inv.Nr. TM 21382

Close up of apron

Close up with embroidered Date,
embroidery in hollie point

a strip of hollie point. The stitch was mostly used for baby caps and shirts, it should not be confused with Ayrshire embroidery. It is strictly a point lace, made with needle and thread, and worked in rows of looped stitches with spaces to form the design.

Detail of baby robe for Baptism, mid 19th c.,
Ayr, Scottland,

Detail of baby robe for Baptism, mid 19th c.,
Ayr, Scottland, Inv.Nr. TM 21960

Detail of scarf, Scottland, 19th cent., Inv.Nr. TM 21840

Detail of scarf, Scottland, frontside

Detail of scarf, Scottland, reverse side

Broderie anglaise, 19th cent. 2nd half, Inv.Nr. TM 22980

The title of broderie anglaise is given to all kinds of openwork embroidery (in distinction from satinstitch embroidery) whether of Swiss, Scotch, Irish or really English production. The patterns are outlines of variously sized holes, arranged to make floral or gemetrial devices.

Machine embroidery, imitating Madeira work

Madeira embroidery industry derived from Scotland. Miss Pleps, the daughter of an English wine importer, engaged a Scotswoman to teach the Ayrshire techique to women on the island. This was because In 1585 a desease had decimated the vines of Madeira and the people lost their chief export. A characteristic blue yarn was introduced and the ground is linen, not cotton.

Machine embroidery,
imitating Broderie anglaise

The early Swiss machine embroidery was of high quality. It was worked with a well twisted thread, even imitating the open "wheels" of sewed, muslin. It can be identified by examining the back. The threads all pass to the next motif in exactly the same place.

Bohemia, around 1800,

Detail Bohemia, around 1800, Inv.Nr. 23038

Detail Bohemia, around 1800, Inv.Nr. 24601

Cap, Bohemia around 1800, Inv.Nr. TM 22759

back of a woman's cap, France, 2nd half 19th cent. Inv.Nr. 22040

back of a woman's cap, France 19th century

Detail of cap, France, 19th century, reverse side

Detail of cap, France, 19th century, front side

Chikan embroidery:
this craft is practised by Muslims and is confined to Dacca and Calcutta in Bengal (India) and to Lucknow. Bengali work was mainly for the European market and no trace of it remains today. In Lucknow embroiderers worked under the patronage of the local courts. When these declined in the mid nineteenth century chikan changed from a professional activity of men to a cottage industry for women.
Chican embroidery is white embroidery on white fabric, with predominantly floral designs excuted on fine cotton with untwisted threads of white coton, rayon or silk. It has evolved over centuries, reaching its peak in the late nineteenth century in Lucknow.

True chikan is limitec to a fixed repertoire of stitches, each of which is only ever used in a certain way: 6 basic stitches (5 of which are common to other forms of embroidery), 5 derivatives and 7 stitches that in tehmselves form an embossed shape, usually a leaf or petal. These small individual petals help identify chikan. In most embroideries the stitchery is balanced by areas of pulled threadwork.

text from: Sheila Paine, Chikan Embroidery, The Floral Whitework of India, Great Britain 1989

Chikan Embroidery, India, 2nd half 19th c.