h is flat and
strong of itself, there should invariably be a liberal use of metal
threads, these being not only very decorative in themselves, but also
providing a valuable protection to the more delicate needlework at a
lower level, and to the material of the ground itself.

The earliest examples of embroidered bindings still existing are not by
any means such as would lead to the inference that they were exceptional
productions--made when the idea of the application of needlework to the
decoration of books was in its infancy. On the contrary, they are
instances of very skilled workmanship, so that it is probable that the
art was practised at an earlier date than we now have recorded. There
are, indeed, frequent notes in 'Wardrobe Accounts' and elsewhere of
books bound in velvet and satin at a date anterior to any now existing,
but there is no mention of embroidered work upon them.

_The Forwarding of Embroidered Books._

The processes used in the binding of embroidered books are the same as
in the case of leather-bound books; but there is one invariable
peculiarity--the bands upon which the different sections of the paper
are sewn are never in relief, so that it was always possible to paste
down a piece of material easily along the back without having to allow
for the projecting bands so familiar on leather bindings (Fig. 9). The
backs, moreover, are only rounded very slightly, if at all.

This flatness has been attained on the earlier books either by sewing on
flat bands, thin strips of leather or vellum (Fig. 10), or by flattening
the usual hempen bands as much as they will bear by the hammer, and
afterwards filling up the intermediate spaces with padding of some
suitable material, linen or thin leather.

In several instances the difficulty of flattening the bands has been
solved, in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century embroidered books, in a way
which cannot be too strongly condemned from a constructive point of
view, although it has served its immediate purpose admirably.

A small trench has been cut with a sharp knife for each band, deep
enough to sink it to the general level of the inner edges of the
sections (Fig. 11).

[Illustration: FIG. 9. Back of book sewn on raised bands.]

[Illustration: FIG. 10. Band of flat vellum sometimes found on
old books with flat backs.]

[Illustration: FIG. 11. Typical appearance of a book, before it
is sewn, with small trenches cut in the back in which the bands are to