Let Glasgow Flourish by Ann Macbeth

Illustration: Ann Macbeth. Let Glasgow Flourish embroidered banner, c1910.

Embroidered banners were a particular favourite of different social, political and religious groupings throughout Britain during the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries. Most, if not all were produced by women and a number have survived into our own contemporary era.

Ann Macbeth, one of the leaders of the Glasgow based revival of embroidery skills during the very last years of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was involved in a number of these embroidered banners. The example shown in this article was produced by her in about 1910. It contains the coat of arms of the city of Glasgow with its motto 'Let Glasgow Flourish.' The full motto is in fact 'Lord, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word' in commemoration of St. Mungo who is said to have preached these words from his newly founded monastery built by the fishing hamlet of Glasgow in the sixth century. The fishing hamlet specialised in salmon, hence the representation of the two fish. The coat of arms has a number of different features and symbols each of which is tied to the story, both real and mythical, of early Glasgow. A good comprehensive guide to the coat of arms can be found at the Rampant Scotland website.

Although the Let Glasgow Flourish banner is by no means a particularly dynamic version of early twentieth century Scottish embroidery skills, and does not necessarily reflect the creative work that Macbeth was producing during this period, it does give an indication of her public persona in the city. The banner itself was presented by the city of Glasgow to the city of Lyons and therefore in many respects it gave its tacit approval to both the high standard of skills base that had been achieved largely through the localised Glaswegian Arts & Crafts movement, as well as that of Macbeth herself. 

It is perhaps difficult today to recognise other personalities within the Glasgow decorative arts movement of the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, other than that of Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Although Mackintosh clearly had a creative reputation that was deserving, there were a number of other creative artists, designers and crafts people that were his contemporaries and just as disciplined, professional and committed to new creative horizons as himself. Many were women and they were involved in a cross section of craft disciplines including metal, glass, wood, jewellery, and textiles as well as craft work that bordered and often crossed over into fine art. That many have been either forgotten or marginalised could well have more to do with twentieth century repercussions due to their gender rather than their creative skills base.

Ann Macbeth had a dynamism and lifelong passion for the promotion and expansion of the history as well as that of the contemporary craft skill of embroidery. She was particularly effective in the use of education, being a vital member of the embroidery department of Glasgow Art School during the very early years of the twentieth century, when arguably the art school had reached the apex of it power and influence. Macbeth was also involved in the educational promotion of embroidery as a viable employment skill to young Scottish women. To this effect, she had a working relationship with the Scottish Education Department. In some respects, it was Macbeth's relationship and contacts with the political structure in Scotland that landed her with the Let Glasgow Flourish commission.

The ex-Lord Provost of Glasgow, Sir William Blisland who was a particularly keen supporter of the Glasgow Arts & Crafts movement as well as that of Macbeth and her educational promotion of embroidery, commissioned her to complete an embroidered banner that was to be presented to Lyons in exchange for their initial presentation of an example of their famous silk work given as a gift to Glasgow.

Although much of the effort expended by Macbeth was to fast disappear in the twentieth century, particularly after the trauma of the First World War, it does not negate the fact that despite the loss of the wide-scale attraction of embroidery as a contemporary and potentially financially rewarding craft, Macbeth did much to promote the idea of craft as a viable option and one that could enthusiastically as well as practically be accepted and promoted by politicians as a integral part of the state. It was important for Macbeth to see craft development as one that could be implemented through state education and through the political system of the day. 

Any viable relationship between the creative world and that of politics and the state is perhaps a dimension that we have either lost or are incapable of understanding in the contemporary world we live in. A world which is now dominated by politicians who hope to negate their intrinsic responsibilities to the state by endlessly outsourcing to private companies who have neither the inclination or resources to promote any form of creative educational expansion on the scale that Macbeth attempted and thought was necessary. We are ultimately the poorer for it.

Further reading links:
Educational Needlecraft (1911)
The country woman's rug book (Paragraph Press reprint series of craft & hobby handbooks)
Embroidered and laced leather work
The playwork book,
The Glasgow Style: Artists in the Decorative Arts, Circa 1900 (Schiffer Book with Values)
Doves And Dreams: The Art of Frances Macdonald And J. Herbert Mcnair
Textiles from the Archives of the Glasgow School of Art
The unbroken thread: A century of embroidery & weaving at Glasgow School of Art
The Flower and the Green Leaf: Glasgow School of Art in the Time of Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Movements of Modernity: The Case of Glasgow and Art Nouveau
GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART EMBROIDERY, 1894-1920.
Glasgow 1900: Art and Design
Glasgow Girls
Art Nouveau (Midsize)
Taking Tea with Mackintosh: The Story of Miss Cranston's Tea Rooms

Decorative Embroidery of Thomas Becket

Illustration: Thomas Becket's Embroidered chasuble panel, 1165.

Thomas Becket's chasuble and other vestments are said to be preserved in the Cathedral at Sens in Burgundy. The work s said to have been produced in 1165, although there seems to be no definite means of fully associating the ecclesiastical garments with the fated Archbishop of Canterbury or that particular date. However, it is perhaps not that important that they be associated with any particular individual, as the work itself should be able to stand in its own right, which it does.

The decorative work can definitely be claimed as part of the style and technique that was current in the twelfth century, hence the association with Becket. What is true is that it is a stunningly fine example of the exceedingly high standard of embroidery and general needlework that could be achieved at this point in the history of European decorative arts. That it should be associated with this part of Europe, which to be fair was not necessarily considered to be at the central core of the creative decorative arts during this period, is all the more fascinating.

The illustration above shows what is left of the complex and elegant scrollwork that was originally attached to the back of the chasuble held at the Cathedral of Sens. Although the illustration itself is a drawn representation of the work as it would have appeared in its mint and original condition, rather than the faded and less spectacular remains now seen, it still gives a forceful reminder of the standard that could be achieved in an era which is still seen by many as one that engendered the basic facilities in life as well as art. 

The decoration was created by using repeatable interconnecting scrollwork in the form of a tree with extensive and heavily stylised foliage. In some respects, it looks similar to some of the complex metal work that was also produced during this period, particularly the elaborate door hinges that contain the same stylised scrollwork. It is interesting to surmise whether pattern work during this period was interchangeable, whether standardised decoration could be swapped between disciplines. However, perhaps it was more a case of the prevailing fashions of the period, which would have dictated the style across most disciplines. It is interesting to conjecture.

It is unknown for certain where the work on the chasuble was produced, whether England, France, or even an import from southern Europe. However, as the standard of embroidery work in England had always been considered particularly high, long before the Norman occupation, it could well have had an English origin.

Although seemingly part of the religious ceremony, the chasuble and other ecclesiastical vestments could often be of a most sumptuous and expensive nature, imbuing and reflecting the power and status, not so much of the Church, but of the individual who wore them. Thomas Becket, although later repackaged after death as a saintly and somewhat humble figure, was in life considered to be vain, ostentatious and worldy, living the life of an early medieval prince. He was said to have loved to both display his own wealth and position as well as that of the close connection and familiarity he had with the elite members of English society, particularly with that of the King. That the ups and downs of that particular relationship would seal his eventual fate, is often the price paid for those close to the throne.

However, even though the work produced for Becket's vestments was perhaps initially instigated to satiate the needs of a vain man, the long stretch of history has allowed the status of the vestments themselves to slowly change. Their emphasis has passed between that of the fleeting appeal and futile temptation of  worldliness, to the more permanent and perhaps more humbling state of the celebration of the efforts of the workmanship of unknown crafts people.

Further reading links:
Thomas Becket
Murder in the Cathedral
The Quest for Becket's Bones: The Mystery of the Relics of St. Thomas Becket of Canterbury
ST. THOMAS BECKET IN ART
The Correspondence of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury: 2 Volume Set (Oxford Medieval Texts)
Ecclesiastical Vestments; Their Development and History
Pugin's Ecclesiastical Ornament (Dover Pictorial Archives)
Medieval Needlepoint
Embroiderers (Medieval Craftsmen)
Medieval Clothing and Textiles 2 (Medieval Clothing and Textiles) (v. 2)
English medieval embroidery,: A brief survey of English embroidery dating from the beginning of the tenth century until the end of the fourteenth
Opus Anglicanum;: English medieval embroidery
The Bayeux Tapestry: The Life Story of a Masterpiece
Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages

Embroidered Altar Cloths of the 1860s

Illustration: Anastacia Marice Dolby. Embroidered altar cloth design for Saints and Martyrs, 1867.

In 1867, Anastasia Marice Dolby published Church Embroidery, Ancient and Modern. The book was produced as a practical and technical guide for the use of embroidery for ecclesiastical furnishings. Although certainly pitched at an amateur audience, she did have professional help and reference guides from a number of individuals including Daniel Rock the English antiquarian and ecclesiologist who had a specific interest in church history and a practical approach to church functions such as the Mass. She is known to have used his Hierurgia or the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which he originally published in 1833.

Dolby also considered herself to be a professional, rather than an embroiderer of leisure, a section of society to which the book was largely aimed. She had been a court embroiderer and termed herself 'late embroideress to the Queen.' In this respect, she felt that she had the connections, professionalism and the skills base to produce a confident book concerned with the correct approach to ecclesiastical embroidery.

Illustration: Anastacia Marice Dolby. Embroidered altar cloth design, 1867.

The book itself while not giving detailed plans and pattern work as such, is largely a practical guide to church embroidery. It gives details concerning the different church furnishings that could be embroidered, including frontals, altar cloths, pulpit hangings, book covers and book marks, alms bags and chalice covers as well as a number of other textile based furnishings that could conceivably be embroidered. She also included a guide as to the type of stitching to use as well as the use of appropriate colours.

One of the sections deals with altar cloths and five examples of Dolby's illustrations for various altar cloths from Church Embroidery, Ancient and Modern are shown in this article. As far as the altar cloth was concerned, Dolby was relatively specific regarding the materials used and type of construction. She informed her readers that 'some of these cloths are now made, expressly, of fine linen damask with ecclesiastical patterns woven upon them. Others are of lawn or finest linen, and bordered by appropriate designs wrought in chain-stitch with white or coloured cotton.'

Illustration: Anastacia Marice Dolby. Embroidered altar cloth design, 1867.

As far as colour was concerned, she was even more specific, feeling that crimson and blue were considered the standard and most appropriate of colours for the embroidery of altar cloth linen in particular. She did grudgingly admit that green and lilac could occasionally be used, although she was dismissive of the colours in general. This was not through any particular ecclesiastical or spiritual reasoning. She found from personal experience that the contemporary shades produced in cotton were insufficiently attractive as well as having particular problems when being washed.

The design and pattern work was more or less universally in the medieval style, however vaguely. This is perhaps not entirely surprising for a book written in a period that was still very much considered to be within the Victorian Gothic Revival era. The previous Georgian era had been largely a classically inspired one and the ecclesiastical embroidery and indeed church interiors were organised to express that interest. However, as can be seen from the five examples, standard gothic ruled.

Illustration: Anastacia Marice Dolby. Embroidered altar cloth design for Lent, 1867.

There was a genuine need for such publications as Dolby's in the 1860s, a period which was still part of the large expansion of British and Irish church building that had begun in the 1830s. This had much to do with both the development and rapid growth of cities across Britain, with urban populations having no access to the official state church, as well as the increase in Catholic church building which had had to start from scratch in Britain when Catholics had been emancipated in 1829. Catholic church building was also expanded due to the influx of Irish Catholics into England, Wales and Scotland during much of the nineteenth century.

Nineteenth and indeed twentieth century ecclesiastical embroidery is an often neglected subject, particularly when applied to amateur embroidery. Many churches across Britain and Ireland irrespective of whether they are official state Protestant or Catholic have a wealth of embroidered samples from both centuries and any local church will probably have some embroidery work on display, usually in the form of an altar cloth. Although many nowadays tend to originate from the 1970s, these pieces are still connected to the great tradition of church embroidery that goes back centuries and was produced by countless generations of women, who although in the main amateurs, produced a skills base that was professional in all but name.

Illustration: Anastacia Marice Dolby. Embroidered altar cloth design for Lent, 1867.

Further reading links:
Ecclesiastical Embroidery (Batsford Embroidery Paperback)
Butterick Art & Ecclesiastical Embroidery c.1898 (Metropolitan Handy Series)
Needlecraft Practical Journal #85 c.1910 - Ecclesiastical Embroidery
Sewing Church Linens: Convent Hemming and Simple Embroidery
Ideas for Church Embroidery.
Embroidery in the Church
Embroidery for the Church (A Studio handbook)
Clothed in Majesty: European Ecclesiastical Textiles from the Detroit Institute of Arts
Catalogue of English ecclesiastical embroideries of XIII. to XVI. centuries
Ancient Russian Ecclesiastical Embroideries
Designing Ecclesiastical Stitched Textiles
Church Embroidery: v. 1
Stitches for God: The Story of Washington Cathedral Needlepoint
Book of Byzantine-Ukrainian Ecclesiastical Embroidery
Parament Patterns: Counted Cross-Stitch for Altar, Lectern, and Pulpit Hangings
Church needlework ;: A manual of practical instruction
The Rise & Fall of Art Needlework
Church Needlework