Studio: international art (38.1906)

Austrian Peasant Embroidery

FIG. 15.—SILK-EMBROIDERF.D

shoulder-strap (Property of Herr Quentusj

impossible to say, but there it is in beauty rarely
to be met with. As in Moravia, as much care is
taken in decorating the men’s attire as the women’s,
perhaps even more, for here the latter are the
workers.

In Croatia there is a preference for cross-stitch
and other forms of embroidery in bright colours ; in
Carniola, too, embroidery was in former times a
fine art. The natives were fond
of conventional designs taken
from nature ; but, owing to the
trade in linen done with Italy,
geometrical forms made their
way, and the women employed
them in everything that could be
ornamented, working their pat-
terns in plait or cross-stitch, and
preferably in black wool or silk
(that done in blue or red is of a
later date). With this form of
embroidery there arose another :
that of working in gold relief (see
Figs. 5-10; these are bands for
caps). This gave opportunity
for the invention of new stitches
and methods, and it is indeed
wonderful to think what these
simple peasants have achieved,
untaught and unlettered, and with
hands coarse from years of labour
in the fields, and only able to
devote the winter evenings to this
refined labour. In Istria and
other of the southern lands of
Austria such gold embroidery is
116

also to be met with; in fact,
we find it wherever the in-
habitants still keep to their
national costume. Here, as
in all the provinces, an enor-
mous amount of labour is
spent in beautifying their
garments, as also in beauti-
fying their homes, for wiih
these peoples it is not mere
outward show.

In Bohemia the favourite
colours are deep blue with a
veining of orange-yellow. In
the old city of Eger, and in
various parts of Eger]and, the
national dress is still worn.
As a rule the border to Bo-
hemian embroidery is formed
of thick buttonholing, though it is rare even in this
to find two of exactly the same pattern. Those
shown in Figs, n, 12, and 13 are good examples
of the work done in this district. The material is
home-spun linen, and it is embroidered in two
shades of fine blue silk, with veins of yellow.
Both sides are alike. Fig. 15 shows another kind
of Egerland embroidery, viz., cross-stitch, the

FROM EGERLAND

i8th century

FIG. 16.-

EMBROIDERED CHALICE COVER

f Salzburg Museum )

SALZBURG
I7TH CENTURY