be used in succession.

Plate is frequently taken to and fro over the same kind of forms over a
prepared padding, being caught down by a stitch on each side by a method
the French call _le guipe_. It needs skill and practice to do this well.
Crinkled plate used to be couched on to work, but now is not much used
in this way.

Pearl purl is most often seen outlining a form filled in with the other
threads; an enlarged example of this thread lies vertically down the
centre of fig. 139, the end of it is pulled out, in order to show the
formation of the thread.

[Illustration: Fig. 139.]

Spangles are usually sewn down separately; they may be attached by
stitches from the centre outwards or by the thread being passed through
a piece of purl and then returning to the back through the hole in the
centre of the spangle. Fig. 139 illustrates another way of using these
spangles to form a long tail shape. Here again they are attached with
the help of pieces of purl. In the same figure are given some
illustrations of the use of the fancy threads; to learn more about them
the student should examine XVIth to XVIIIth century gold work during
which period they were in popular use.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] See Dr. Rock's "Textile Fabrics."

[11] In _La Broderie du Onzieme Siecle jusqu'a Nos Jours_.

[12] No. 175, 1889.

CHAPTER XII

LETTERING, HERALDRY, AND EMBLEMS

The Uses of Lettering--Marking--Monograms--Heraldry--Emblems.

Lettering of one kind or another is frequently in request. It is useful
for inscriptions, verses, names attached to figures, the signing and
dating of work, and for the more ordinary purposes of marking linen and
so forth. Signed and dated work has peculiar attractiveness: it can be
placed amidst definite historical associations: an authenticated piece
of embroidery, say of the reign of King Richard Coeur de Lion, Queen
Anne, or George III., would be an historical document and a standard to
gauge the period of any uninscribed examples. Although few of us are
likely to possess treasures of the XIIIth century, signed and dated
pieces of our great-grandmothers' embroideries are interesting personal
landmarks in family history, so for this reason, amongst others,
unostentatious marks of identification are by no means out of place.
Descriptive names or verses are also a means of amplifying the story and
so enlivening our curiosity.

[Illustration: Fig. 140.]

Lettering can answer a further purpos