ng and tail. In the lower corners are a unicorn and an
antlered stag, both recumbent, and in high relief.

[Illustration: 43--Psalms. London, 1633.]

On the lower board within the oval is a vine, with curving stem and two
large grape clusters, tendrils, and leaves, growing from a small green
mound. The edges of the petals are bound with a fine gold twist, as are
also the edges and outlines of the leaves, and most of these parts are
worked in coloured silks, mixed with fine metal threads, in needlepoint
lace-stitch.

A few hazel-nuts are scattered about outside the gold oval, and in each
corner is a further ornamentation: a reddish butterfly with wings of
needlepoint lace in relief and edged with a gold cord, a green parrot
with red wings and tail, are in the two top corners, and in the two
lower are a rabbit and a dog, each on a small green ground. Innumerable
gold spangles are all over the sides and back, each kept in place by a
small pearl stitched through.

The back is divided into five panels, by rows of pearls, and a
conventional flower is in each, except the centre one which has an
insect. These are all worked in needlepoint and edged with gold twist,
the stems of some of them strongly made by a kind of braid of gold
cords.

This little book is certainly one of the most ornamental specimens of
any of the smaller satin-bound books of the seventeenth century, and
although here and there some of the pearls are gone, altogether it is in
very good condition, and it is rarely that such a fine example can now
be met with in private hands.

_Bible._ London, 1638.

[Illustration: 44--Bible. London, 1638.]

Several of the embroidered books on satin are worked chiefly in metal
threads, and the designs on such books are not as a rule good. Whether
the knowledge that the work was to be executed in strong threads has
hampered the designer or not cannot be said, but certainly there is
often a tinselly effect about these bindings that is not altogether
pleasing.

In the case of a Bible printed in London in 1638, bound in white satin,
and measuring 6 by 3 inches, one of the chief ornaments is a cherub's
head, the face in silver and the hair and wings in gold. The working of
this head and wings seems to me wrong. The face is, possibly enough, as
well done as the material would allow, but the hair is made in small
curls of gold thread, and the feathers of the wings are rendered in a
naturalistic way with pieces of flat