Late 16th/Early 17th Century embroidery

A 'slip' is an embroidered motif, usually a plant or flower with foliage, the stem with a small heel or root attached (1). Sometimes different fruit and flowers are shown on the same stem. Embroidered 'slips' acquired their name from gardeners' ‘slips’ or cuttings. To propagate a plant the gardener takes a cutting with a diagonal heel, potting up the cutting to form a new plant. These embroidered motifs were popular on bedhangings from the mid sixteenth to the mid seventeenth centuries.

A middle class had emerged during the sixteenth century, partly based on trade. Many became rich when Henry VIII dispersed monastic lands and gave to his favourites, after the dissolution of the monastries*. Prior to this embroidery had been worked for ecclesiastical purposes, but was now worked for the adornment of the home. The new rich furnished their homes to display their wealth. The Elizabethan home was designed with a greater eye for private comfort than in previous houses. Rooms were smaller and easier to keep warm. The bed had always been the most important piece of furniture in a house with the bed hangings as sumptous as the owner could afford. Bedhangings and valances, coverlets, cupboard cloths and oblong cushions, mirrors and pictures were embroidered by professionals, but also by woman and girls at home for their own use. There were very few window curtains at this time. Bedhangings embroidered with ‘slips’ kept draughts out and enhanced privacy (2).

‘Slips’ were embroidered in wool and silk on linen canvas using tent**, cross and, less often rococo stitch, slips were cut from the linen ground and applied to a wool or velvet background (3). The quality of the embroidery is usually very high, woman being taught needlework from an early age, partly as a practical skill but also as a refined accomplishment. Many hundreds of small ‘slips’ could be applied to a single hanging. Often charmingly naïve in design and out of scale, they depict identifiable plants, insects or animals and are accurate in their rendering (4).

Sources

The style of embroidering individual flowers, insects and animals originated from natural history, botanical or herbal books (5 & 6). Printing had been invented at the end of the fifteenth century when separate sheets and then bound books of wood block patterns were produced. The earliest pattern book was printed in 1524 in Augsburg in Germany. These books were aimed at the amateur embroideress as well as craftsmen. Natural history, botanical or herbal books also inspired the embroideress. With the increase in wealth and greater stability during Elizabeth I’s reign, there came a huge interest in flower gardens, as well as herb or vegetable gardening . Previously only aristocrats would have had the time and money to enjoy flowers. John Gerard, in the introduction to his Herball of 1597, likened a garden to embroidery rather than the other way round: 'For if delight may provoke men's labour, what greater delight is there than to behold the earth apparelled with plants, as with a robe of embroidered worke......' (7)

Slips can be seen on many 16th and 17th century bedhangings in stately homes, with notable examples at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, where inventories of 1601 include ' fyve peeces of hangings....set with trees and slips and Griphons', and 'a footestool of oring tawnie velvet set with needleworke slips and oring tawnie frenge'. The bedhangings in Mary Queen of Scots’ room at Hardwick have applique slips, probably worked by Mary during her imprisonment (2).

‘Slips’ are only occasionally available for sale (9), and look good individually mounted onto wool or velvet and framed. Whereas a 17th century embroidered picture might be highly valued, a single slip will make an inexpensive, decorative and interesting picture.

* The Reformation 1533. Henry VIII dissolved the Roman Catholic Church, due to the Pope’s refusal to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. England became independent from Rome with increased secularisation in social life. Peace and stability followed and a new middle class emerged.

** Tent stitch from the French tenter, to stretch, the canvas being stretched on a frame or tent, ready to be embroidered.

Click here to go to English & European Embroidered Textiles section of the website.

Bibliography:

Brooks, Mary M English Embroideries of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in the collection of the Asmolean Museum. Ashmolean Handbooks. Jonathan Horne Publ, London 2004. ISBN 1854441922

Clabburn, Pamela The Needlework Dictionary. William Morrow & Co Inc, New York. p 244. ISBN 0688030548

Epstein, Kathleen British Embroidery. Curious Works from the Seventeenth Century. Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 1998. ISBN 0879351861

Johnstone, Pauline Three Hundred Years of Embroidery 1600-1900. Wakefield Press 1986 p. 24.
Museum’s Textile Collection.

Synge, Lanto Antique Needlework. Blandford Press, UK 1982. p.49. ISBN0713710071

Embroidery in Britain from 1200-1750. p 55. V & A Publications 2005 reprint. ISBN 1851771263

Slips can be seen at:

The Victoria and Albert Museum
www.vam.ac.uk

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
www.fitzwilliam.cam.ac.uk

The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk

The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool
www.nmgm.org.uk

National Trust properties in the British Isles
www.nationaltrust.org.uk

Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire, Mary Queen of Scots room
Cotehele, Devon
Knowle, Kent
Parham, W. Sussex

USA
The Metropolitan Museum, New York

© 2006 Meg Andrews.