imate only, as from wear and other causes the
actual sizes would only be truly given by the use of small fractions of
inches.

CHAPTER II

BOOKS BOUND IN CANVAS

English books bound in embroidered canvas range over a period of about
two hundred and fifty years, the earliest known specimen dating from the
fourteenth century, and instances of the work occurring with some
frequency from this time until the middle of the seventeenth century.
The majority of these bindings are worked in tapestry-stitch, or
tent-stitch, in designs illustrating Scriptural subjects in differently
coloured threads.

Very often the outlines of these designs are marked by gold threads and
cords, of various kinds, and parts of the work are also frequently
enriched with further work upon them in metal threads. Spangles are very
rarely found on canvas-bound books. The backgrounds of several of the
later specimens are worked in silver threads, sometimes in chain-stitch
and sometimes in tapestry-stitch; others again have the groundwork of
silver threads laid along the surface of the canvas and caught down at
regular intervals by small stitches--this kind of work is called 'laid'
or 'couched' work. Books bound with this metal ground have always strong
work superimposed, usually executed in metal strips, cords, and thread.
The silver is now generally oxidised and much darkened, but when new
these bindings must have been very brilliant.

[Illustration: 3--The Felbrigge Psalter. 13th-century MS.]

_The Felbrigge Psalter._ 13th-century MS. Probably bound in the
14th century.

The earliest example of an embroidered book in existence is, I believe,
the manuscript English Psalter written in the thirteenth century, which
afterwards belonged to Anne, daughter of Sir Simon de Felbrigge, K. G.,
standard-bearer to Richard II. Anne de Felbrigge was a nun in
the convent of Minoresses at Bruisyard in Suffolk, during the latter
half of the fourteenth century, and it is quite likely that she herself
worked the cover--such work having probably been largely done in
monasteries and convents during the middle ages.

On the upper side is a very charming design of the Annunciation, and, on
the under, another of the Crucifixion, each measuring 7-3/4 by 5-3/4
inches. In both cases the ground is worked with fine gold threads
'couched' in a zigzag pattern, the rest of the work being very finely
executed in split-stitch by the use of which apparently continuous