Mary M. Brooks (1)

This book is a feast for the eyes. The pages are thick, clay-coated paper that reproduces color photographs beautifully. Each featured item is shown in its entirety, and many are shown in close details as well. Essays introduce each section, and the notes on each object are several paragraphs long.

The table of contents is immediately followed by an index to the objects profiled: pages of photos of each object with the page to find it, more like many websites list objects than a traditional book table of contents.

The book is divided into several sections: The Early English Works, discussed by Mary Brooks; Other Times, Other Places, by Elizabeth Feller; The Early Samplers, by Jacqueline Holdsworth; A Pattern Catalog, also by Holdsworth; Notes for the footnotes to the text, and Acknowledgements.

The first section is further subdivided into nine subsections, each with a leading essay. But the glory of the book is in its large, lovingly presented photos. The first subsections are about various embroidered and beaded pictures in stump work and tent stitch. There are three embroidered coifs, two nightcaps, a stomacher, 7 bags, 2 pairs of gloves, a pair of shoes, and many long band samplers up till ca. 1700.

Highly recommended to those interested in late 16th and, particularly, 17th c. English embroidery. The book is expensive, and the pictures are what made it so.… (más)