urtains were of damask, 'with
leafy wreaths and garlands figured upon a gold and silver ground, and
fringed along the edges with broideries of pearls,' and it stood in a
room hung with rows of the Queen's devices in cut black velvet on cloth
of silver. Louis XIV. had gold-embroidered caryatides fifteen feet high
in his apartment. The state bed of Sobieski, King of Poland, was made of
Smyrna gold brocade embroidered in turquoises and pearls, with verses
from the Koran; its supports were of silver-gilt, beautifully chased and
profusely set with enamelled and jewelled medallions. He had taken it
from the Turkish camp before Vienna, and the standard of Mahomet had
stood under it. The Duchess de la Ferte wore a dress of reddish-brown
velvet, the skirt of which, adjusted in graceful folds, was held up by
big butterflies made of Dresden china; the front was a _tablier_ of cloth
of silver, upon which was embroidered an orchestra of musicians arranged
in a pyramidal group, consisting of a series of six ranks of performers,
with beautiful instruments wrought in raised needle-work. 'Into the
night go one and all,' as Mr. Henley sings in his charming _Ballade of
Dead Actors_.

Many of the facts related by M. Lefebure about the embroiderers' guilds
are also extremely interesting. Etienne Boileau, in his book of crafts,
to which I have already alluded, tells us that a member of the guild was
prohibited from using gold of less value than 'eight sous (about 6s.) the
skein; he was bound to use the best silk, and never to mix thread with
silk, because that made the work false and bad.' The test or trial piece
prescribed for a worker who was the son of a master-embroiderer was 'a
single figure, a sixth of the natural size, to be shaded in gold'; whilst
one not the son of a master was required to produce 'a complete incident
with many figures.' The book of crafts also mentions 'cutters-out and
stencillers and illuminators' amongst those employed in the industry of
embroidery. In 1551 the Parisian Corporation of Embroiderers issued a
notice that 'for the future, the colouring in representations of nude
figures and faces should be done in three or four gradations of
carnation-dyed silk, and not, as formerly, in white silks.' During the
fifteenth century every household of any position retained the services
of an embroiderer by the year. The preparation of colours also, whether
for painting or for dyeing threads and textile fabrics,