A Summary of Early Embroideries, Part 1: the Anglo-Saxons

This post was originally going to be a quick summary of early embroidery in Northern Europe, but it quickly became clear that I could not possibly write a satisfactory summary in just one post and it lingered as a draft for two weeks as I researched. Finally I decided to split it up into multiple posts so I had a chance of covering even a small portion of the great extant embroideries. This is part 1 of what will be a series of embroidery posts. There's just too much material to cover!

Let's get down to the bare minimum, here: before we had rich golden Opus Anglicanum, before  complex and multi-layered Elizabethan raised embroidery, and before trade with all corners of the world was possible, we had stitches that were simple but effective and the highly skilled people who worked with them. The pieces discussed below are beautiful, complex, and masterful examples of early embroidery worked using only a few basic stitches.

The discussion here is primarily descriptive in nature, but links to sources are included whenever possible. I hate paywalls, so the sources included here were, when this was written, freely accessible online. I highly encourage you to follow the links and explore the websites and books because they all include valuable information not discussed here.

The Maaseik Embroideries

The pieces of the Maaseik Embroideries

The Maaseik Embroideries, despite their name, are of Anglo-Saxon origin and have been dated to the late eighth or ninth century. They use Stem stitch, Split stitch, and Surface Couching with primarily silk thread of red, green, beige, yellow, light blue, and dark blue on a linen ground. In some places they have pearls and other beads along with gold-wrapped thread. The designs closely mirror those used in other contemporary art forms and include roundels, interlace, and animal motifs. They are the earliest known substantial examples of Anglo-Saxon embroidery and thus take the fore when discussing embroidery and art near the beginning of the Anglo-Saxon period. Some scraps of embroidery have been found in seventh century graves, though. These are mostly worked on a wool twill ground, unlike the linen of the Maaseik embroideries, but they are in much worse condition according to this source (cited earlier). They are not named in this source, but I may attempt to find them in the future.

In contrast with some of the scraps as well as the Bayeux Tapestry and the Chemise of St. Bathilde (Frankish), the Maaseik Embroideries leave none of the linen ground uncovered by the fine silk embroidery. I think it is safe to say that this was an exception, not the rule, since so many embroideries that are roughly contemporary with these allow some of the ground to show through.

The Stole of St. Cuthbert

The Stole of St. Cuthbert was discovered in St. Cuthbert's own grave when it was opened in 1827 and has been on display in the library of the Durham Cathedral ever since. It "is decorated with standing figures of Old Testament prophets, twelve of which survive, busts of St. James and St Thomas the apostles at each end, and the symbol of Agnus Dei in the middle" (The Tablet Archive). The embroidery features acanthus leaves as well as pairs of animals, both on the body of the stole and on the woven braid border.

St. Cuthbert's Stole
Showing Image of Daniel
Images from Oberlin's Saints and Relics in Medieval Art class

St. Cuthbert's Maniple
Showing Image of Sixtus II 
Images from Oberlin's Saints and Relics in Medieval Art class

Important to note is that the stole does not appear to be from St. Cuthbert's own era (7th century CE), despite it having been buried in his grave. Two Latin inscriptions reference Athelflaed and Bishop Frithstan, who both lived much later than St. Cuthbert. Athelflaed lived after the time of Alfred the Great and died in 916, while Bishop Frithstan was Bishop of Winchester between 909 and 931, which places the making of the stole between the beginning of Frithstan's time as bishop in 909 and Athelflaed's death in 916, since the inscription states that she was the one who had it made. St. Cuthbert died over two hundred years earlier, in 687. The Tablet Archive proposes that the stole was buried with Cuthbert in 1104. King Athelstan had brought a number of gifts with him to Winchester in 934, among which were recorded a stole and a maniple (a maniple was found along with the stole in St. Cuthbert's grave). St. Cuthbert's body was moved to a new cathedral in 1104, which would have given the Durham monks an opportunity to bury him with new relics.

The Tablet Archive states that the embroidery itself was carried out on a silk ground that has now mostly disintegrated, and the thread was also silk. The silk thread is also worse for wear, but my guess is that the gold used on the ground helped to preserve it, since metal tends to help preserve nearby fibers. The stitches used for it are quite familiar: stem, split, and couching. I would love to know what kind of couching, but there is no further explanation. The outlines are done in stem stitch except where gold was used, and shapes were filled in with split stitch. The background is entirely filled with gold thread, but the stitch used was unspecified. I'm guessing that, like the filled-in shapes, the background was done in stem stitch.

Editorial note: I personally find it difficult to believe that the stole and maniple given to the church by King Athelstan in 934 were the same stole and maniple that were buried with St. Cuthbert. I'm sure that the goods donated by Athelstan were of high quality and the time frame is close, but we're talking about a single stole and a single maniple that may not have even been donated together. In the span of centuries, would the monks of Durham not have received other gifts of vestments? It is my impression that vestments were common donations. All we know is that it was probably made in the early 900s, that St. Cuthbert died in 687, and that the stole and maniple were discovered in the grave in 1827. I agree that moving St. Cuthbert's body would be an opportunity to bury him with more relics, but that's also speculation. I will need to do research on the people involved to see whether there is reason to believe that the stole and maniple found with St. Cuthbert were the same ones donated by King Athelstan. Perhaps he and Athelflaed were related or married? That's a topic for another post.

In the next embroidery post I will be summarizing Norse embroideries, including the embroideries from Mammen and Oseberg. Thanks for reading!