International studio (24.1904/1905(1905))

Needlework at Liverpool

The question to be solved is that of supply.
Where is right training to be obtained ? For of
all the handicrafts, that of needlework is apt to
degenerate into a mere riot of technique, so great
is the fascination of multiplying stitches and colours
for the bare pleasure of labour. This does not
accord with the modern ideal of good design. We
recognise the value of all materials, and do not
desire that one or another shall be degraded into
an ineffective accessory. Even of the ground-
cloth, we remember that well-woven silk or linen
has its own beauty, and, if not hidden away by
overweight of pattern, enhances rather than de-
tracts from the richness of the adornment applied
to it. In London these principles are recognised
and well applied by institutions such as the Royal
School of Art Needlework. In the provinces, some

of the leading art schools have found reason to
cultivate the craft, and among them none is doing
better work than that of Liverpool.
The class in the Mount Street School was
instituted by the Principal, Mr. F. V. Burridge,
R.E., some three years ago, with a view of giving
some of his students who showed an aptitude
in that direction, a definite application for their
designs. It has been necessary for them to work
out their own salvation in many respects. There
is no instruction in the technique of embroidery,
each student bringing her own personal attainments
to bear on the work, with such slight hints as sug-
gested themselves to Mr. Burridge, or his Master of
Design, Mr. Baxter. The result is, from the technical
standpoint, an unusual and very wholesome free-
dom from formality, the “ stitchery ”—to use Mr.
Burridge’s expressive
term—being just what
the immediate purpose
required, and not
hampered by convention-
ality of any kind whatso-
ever. Some severe crilics
might object to these
liberties, and even dub
them barbaric; but no
one who knows the
superb results obtained
by the Japanese em-
broiderers will feel the
slightest inclination to
join in the rebuke. In
embroidery as in the
other arts, blind ancestor-
worship is a crime.
Of particular in-
stances, some few have
been selected as repre-
sentative of the general
style and merit of the
whole. The embroidered
table-cloth by Miss Gwen-
dolen Parry is very charm-
ing and simple in design
and excellently well suited
to its purpose, the orna-
ment being so placed as
to interfere as little as
may be with the practical
use of the cover. Much
the same may be said
of Miss Frances A.
Jones’s embroidered cot-


PANEL FOR A PORTIERE DESIGNED AND EXECUTED
IN EMBROIDERY AND APPLIQUE BY JESSICA C. WALKER
148