ith either overcasting or
buttonhole stitch as required. It is easily possible to carry out
flowers and all kinds of other things sufficiently well to make them
pleasantly recognisable.

CHAPTER XI

EMBROIDERY WITH GOLD AND SILVER THREADS

Introduction--Materials--Precautions for the Prevention of
Tarnish--Ancient Method of Couching--Its various Good
Points--Description of Working Diagram--Working a Raised
Bar--Examples of Patterns Employed in Old Work--Illustrations upon
Draped Figures--Usual Method of Couching--Couching Patterns--Outline
Work--Raised Work--The Use of Purls, Bullions, &c.

Gold and silver threads have always played an important part in
embroidered work, and are a most valuable addition to the worker's stock
of materials, for they give a splendour and richness that is not
obtainable in any other way. They have been utilised from the earliest
times in both embroidery and weaving; in scripture and other ancient
historical writings there is abundant proof of this fact.

The earliest form of gold thread in use was the pure metal beaten into
thin plates and then cut into long narrow strips; that it was sometimes
rounded into wire form is very probable. The first wire-drawing machine
is said to have been invented by a workman at Nuremberg, but it was not
until two centuries later that the drawing-mills were introduced into
England.

Gold thread, similar to that we now use, entwined about a silk one, is
mentioned in a XIVth century Latin poem; also, it is known that in the
XIIIth century our English ladies prepared their own gold thread before
working it in, and it was of the same type as ours, the gold being
spirally twisted round a thread of silk or flax.[10]

To be a skilled worker with gold thread needs considerable application
and practice. There is much variety in the work, some branches of it
being more simple to manipulate than others. It is desirable for all
workers to understand something of gold work, for it is frequently
employed in conjunction with other embroidery, as well as alone. Fig.
123 shows a couched line of gold thread outlining some silk embroidery,
which gives a pretty jewel-like effect of something precious in a
setting of gold.

[Illustration: Fig. 123.]

Gold embroidery may be divided roughly into three main classes, outline
work, solid flat work, and raised work. Outline work is, as far as
technique is concerned, one of the simplest forms of gold embr