ed out that it had other meanings, and had become a very
comprehensive word for everything that expressed richness and warmth.

While examining and judging embroideries, we must be careful not to
be deceived by the different dates often occurring in the grounding
and the applied materials. Much embroidery was worked on fabrics that
were already old and even worn out; and others have been transferred
centuries ago, and perhaps more than once, to fresh grounds.[281]

This sometimes causes a good deal of difficulty in dating specimens.
One should begin by ascertaining whether the needlework was originally
intended to be cut out (_opus consutum_), and so laid on a ground of
another material, and worked down and finished there.

Of course it is always evident and easily ascertained, whether the
work has been transferred at all. If so--and from each succeeding
transference--small fragments may be found showing on the cut edges.
You will often see remains of two or more of these layers, reminding
you of the three Trojan cities dug up at different depths under each
other at Hissarlik.

In judging each specimen the acumen of the expert is needed to obtain
a correct opinion, and he should not only be an archaeologist, but a
botanist and a herald besides;[282] and, in fact, no kind of knowledge
is useless in deciphering the secrets of human art. But even when so
armed, he is often checked and puzzled by some accidental caprice of
design or mode of weaving, and after wasting trouble and time, has to
cast it aside as defying classification.

It is, however, as well to note these exceptions, as, when compared,
they sometimes explain each other.

What I have said regards, of course, the historical and archaeological
side of the study of textiles, and I have treated of them as being
either the origin or the imitations of different styles of embroidery,
and so inseparably connected with the art which is the subject and
motive of this book; and not only in this does the connection between
them exist, but in the fact that as embroideries always need a ground,
silken and other textiles are an absolute necessity to their
existence.

For these reasons alone I have given this chapter on materials, short
and imperfect, but suggesting further research into the writings of
the authors I have quoted, and, I hope, exciting the interest of the
reader.

FOOTNOTES:

[130] Periplus of the Erythrean Sea.

[131] It is described by