nventories from his time to the beginning of the last century. At
Coire, in the Grisons, is a very beautiful chasuble, of which the
orphrey is of the school of the elder Holbein or Lucas Cranach,
applied and raised so as to form a high relief. The figures are
covered with satin and embroidered. The chasuble itself is of fine
Saracenic silk, woven with golden inscriptions in broad stripes. The
colours are brown, crimson, and gold.

[Illustration: Wall Pilasters
Applique Cut work, Italian XVI. Cent^ry
Property of Countess Somers]

In the later Middle Ages, a good deal of this work was executed in
Germany for wall hangings; figures were cut out in different
materials, and embroidered down and finished by putting in the details
in various stitches. As art they are generally a failure, being more
gaudy than beautiful. This, however, is not necessarily the case, for
there is at the Hotel Cluny a complete suite of hangings of the time
of Francis the First, partly applied and partly embroidered, which
are beautiful in design and colouring, especially the fruit and
trophies in the borders.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cut work was much employed
in Italy for large flowered arabesque designs, commonly in velvet or
silk, making columnar wall hangings, which are often very effective;
giving the rooms an architectural decoration, without interfering with
the arrangement of works of art, pictures, statues and cabinets,
placed in front of them. Besides, it was supposed that the utmost
effect of richness was thus accomplished with the least labour, and
very large spaces and very high walls covered, without losing anything
of beauty by distance, as must be the case when the work's highest
merit is in the delicacy of the stitches and the details of form. (Pl.
45.)

The Earl of Beauchamp has inherited a most beautiful suite of hangings
of "applique work;" silks of many kinds are laid on a white brocade
ground with every possible variety of stitch, forming richly and
gracefully designed patterns; and showing to what cut work can aspire.

A great deal of "opus consutum" has been done in the School of Art
Needlework, in the way of restoration of old embroideries. Here may be
seen copies of different models of many periods; amongst other British
specimens, part of a bed at Drumlanrig, in which James I. slept. In
this work the application is cut out, raised and stuffed, and
"couched" with cords, and the whole thi