e
finest of Asian embroidery.

A large part of the eighteenth and the first quarter of the nineteenth
century was a period of remarkable skill in all kinds of stitchery. It
was not confined to embroidery, but was also applied to all varieties of
domestic needlework. Hemstitched ruffles were a part of masculine as
well as feminine wear, and finely stitched and ruffled shirts for the
head of the household were quite as necessary to the family dignity as
embroidered gowns and caps for its feminine members.

It would be difficult to enumerate all the uses to which the national
perfection of needle dexterity was put. It was, indeed, a national
dexterity, for although its application was widely different in the
eastern and southern states, the two schools of needlework, as we may
term them, met and mingled to a common practice of both methods in the
middle states.

[Illustration: EMBROIDERED SILK WEDDING WAISTCOAT, 1829. From the
Westervelt collection.

_Courtesy of Bergen County Historical Society, Hackensack, N. J._]

[Illustration: EMBROIDERED WAIST OF A BABY DRESS. 1850. From the
collection of Mrs. George Coe.

_Courtesy of Bergen County Historical Society, Hackensack, N. J._]

Perhaps one may account for the prevalence of this kind of work, as it
existed at a period of very limited education or literary pursuits among
women. Domestic life was woman's kingdom, and needlework was one of its
chief conditions. But whatever cause or causes stimulated the vogue of
this variety of embroidery, we find it was universal among rich and
poor, in city and country, for nearly three-quarters of a century. The
narrow roll of muslin, for scalloped flounces and ruffling, and the
skeins of French cotton went everywhere with girls and women, except to
church and to ceremonious functions where men were included. Needlework
was far more than an interest, it was an occupation.

The varieties of tambour work and open stitchery of various ornamental
kinds were possible for all capacities. It was a general form of fine
needlework, happily available to women of the farmhouse, as well as of
the mansion, and its exceeding precision and beauty gave a character to
the purely utilitarian stitchery of the day which has made a high
standard for succeeding generations. The hemstitched ruffles of shirts,
the stitched plaits of simpler ones, the buttonholed triangles at the
intersection of seams--all these practically unknown to modern
constructio