Boy howdy, are the domestic decorations in this book hideous, for instance the Hour Glass Candle Stand on p. 21. There are also more makeshifts in technique than I expected - glue and ink to edge and back things, for instance. Probably my expectations are off because it's the fully fashioned doo-dahs that lasted long enough for me to see them.
Some of the patterns given might be useful in the way the Dover Publications art books are, and most of the text specifies material and color for each item, which is mildly historically interesting. Some of the techniques are explained well enough to learn without other example, esp. the point-lace stitches; I don't know about the tatting, netting, and crochet instructions.
There were engravings designed for Potichomanie
- goodness, it really was the sticker industry of its day.
My favorite oddity is the firescreen of wings:
Fire screens composed of the wings of pheasants, or other game, are both pretty and useful; and when hung at the fireside, below the bell pull, form a nice addition to the decorations of a drawing-room. The wings must be cut off when the bird is fresh killed, and as near the body as possible; being careful not to ruffle the feathers.
Unfortunately it goes on to stretch the wings out as straight as possible, and then iron them flat, which sounds much less attractive than a wing with a bit of the wing's original grace left in it.
Patchwork quilt patterns are given, simple regular ones like Nine-patch; the author doesn't like silk patchwork, unless the silk really is scraps.
There is, in this State, an institution for the reformation of girls who have been imprisoned for some crime; they are taught to sew neatly, and each one is allowed to exercise for her taste and ingenuity in the manufacture of a patch work quilt, which she is allowed to take away with her when she leaves. I have seen one hundred and fifty beds in this institution, each covered with a different pattern of patchwork quilt; some very tasteful and pretty, others not.
ISBN: 0-914046-13-6
So wrote clew in History (19th c.). | TrackBack