Ages ago I forwarded a question about blackwork to this list on behalf of a colleague. You folks were very helpful, so I'm coming back with an add-on query.
My colleague has continued her work and is approaching it from a different angle now, and for background, she needs to bring herself up to speed on what's known about embroidery in late medieval and early modern Western Europe, especially England. She is especially interested in seeing how blackwork fits into that context. She asks for recommendations of good published sources that will give her a sense of what blackwork is and when it was done, based on specific examples (art, documents, and especially surviving artifacts). She needs sources she can cite in a formal paper, so Web sites will not do. Neither will how-to books that include a little historical background (e.g. that something was done in X century) but do not provide sources or evidence. She particularly needs definitions: What specific characteristics lead historians to class the needlework on a 1550 shirt (for example) in the category of "blackwork" style (as the term is understood), while another example of embroidery that happens to be black would not be considered "blackwork"? A source that explains the stitches, motifs, patterns, etc. that are routinely associated by historians with the term "blackwork" would be great. (I realize that some people could argue that you can call almost anything monochrome "blackwork" if you stretch the definition far enough, but she's interested in what's traditionally assumed by the accepted definitions, not ways to revise it.) I am not asking anyone here to answer those questions for her ... even if you did, she'd still need published authorities she can cite in a formal paper. And she really needs to get up to speed on this on her own, and do her own reading. So all I'm bothering you folks for are recommendations for academic-quality reference books. She'll be getting them ILL, so cost and availability are not issues. Bonus points if you can also point her to a good overview source on known embroidery styles from, say, 1300-1600, based on surviving pieces, so she can get a sense of other known styles of this period and compare them with what she learns about "blackwork." I think she does not have much of a sense of just how much is known about specific embroidery styles, and how many types of embroidery there were in this period. No need for anything beyond Europe or outside the 1300-1600 range. Thanks for all your help! --Robin _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
