pale blue, or white silk or satin, delightfully embroidered with
tiny sprays of blossoms, and fastened with fine old paste buttons; while
the coat, frequently of brocade, was heavily embroidered down the front
with three or four inches of solid embroidery of foliage and flowers,
oftentimes mixed with gold and silver threads. The tiny cravat of
Mechlin, cuff ruffles, knee breeches, silken hose, and buckled shoes,
along with the powdered hair, complete a costume that has never been
equalled, either before or afterwards, in beauty, grace, and elegance.
During the William IV. and the long Victorian period, with the exception
of a very fine embroidery on muslin, in the earlier part of it, nothing
but fine stitchery for the use of underwear was made, if we except the
hundreds and thousands of yards of cut and buttonholed linen which
seemed to have been the solace and delight of our grandmothers when they
allowed themselves to be torn away from their beloved Berlin-wool work.
To sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam appears to have been the
amusement of the properly constituted women of the early and
mid-nineteenth century.

XIV

SALE PRICES

XIV

SALE PRICES

Ancient embroideries so seldom come into the salerooms that it is rarely
an opportunity occurs for obtaining market prices, therefore Lady
Wolseley's sale on July 12, 1906, must be accepted as a standard.
Immense prices are asked at the antique shops, the dealers apparently
basing their prices on this sale by auction and _doubling_ them. I have
visited every shop in the trade in search of prices for this book before
procuring the auctioneer's catalogue, and was aghast at the terrific
sums asked for oftentimes indifferent specimens in comparison to what
was paid in the auction-room. During the past year anything from L15
15s. to L40 has been paid at Christie's for specimens of varying degrees
of perfection of work and condition. The latter state is even of greater
importance than the first, as no matter how good the work originally, if
discoloured and frayed, prices go down and down. Nearly all the finest
specimens of the Stump-work period are marred by the tarnishing of the
gold and silver threads. Instead of these being a glory and a great
enhancement to the embroidery, they prove a great disfigurement, and
thereby cause a considerable reduction in value.

The earlier petit point pictures, having little or no bullion in their
execution (and when car