darker outline of the same colour.[346]

[Illustration: Fig. 22.
Piece of applique in red stuff and red outlines from Egypt.]

[Illustration: Pl. 44.
Funeral Tent of Isi-em-Kheb. From Villiers Stuart's "Funeral Tent
of an Egyptian Queen."]

We have an instance of ancient "application" of about 600 years
later, Greek in its beauty of design and execution. Alas! we can only
ascertain, from tattered fragments taken out of a tomb in the Crimea,
that it was parseme with figures on horseback or in chariots. The
border is very beautiful. Compare the fragments of which we have
obtained a copy with the mantle of Demeter, from a Greek vase, and you
will perceive how the styles correspond (Pl. 16, Fig. 23). The ground
material is of the finest woven wool, of a deep violet or purple
colour, enriched with application of another fine woollen fabric of a
most brilliant green, worked down, outlined and embroidered in white,
black, and gold-coloured wool, apparently in stem stitches.[347] The
accompanying illustration gives the effect and general design of the
outer border only, in which the applied leaf is worked down in red,
gold, and white.

It is much to be regretted that the centre of the mantle is so
tattered and discoloured that it is impossible to do more than
ascertain that the design that is embroidered on it consists of
figures on horseback or in chariots, in spirited attitudes. The second
and broader border is to be found (pl. 17).

[Illustration: Fig. 23.
Narrow border of a Greek mantle.]

"Opus consutum" cannot in any sense perhaps be the name of a stitch or
stitches. But it applies to a peculiar style of embroidery employing
certain stitches. It is the term given to all work cut out of plain or
embroidered materials, and applied by "working down" to another
material as grounding. It includes all raised and stuffed application
in silk, woollen, and metal thread work. It has been given to all work
in which the scissors are active agents, whether in cutting out the
outlines or in incising the pattern, as in much of the linen and
muslin embroideries of our day, now called "Madeira work," of which a
great deal was made in the first part of the century by English ladies
who designed and collected patterns from each other, and gave the
produce of their industry as gifts to their friends for collars,
cuffs, and trimmings.[348]

"Cut work" is named by Chaucer, and is constantly to be found in
i