ng is as stiff, strong,
conventional, and enduring as if it were a piece of upholstery that
was carpentered yesterday, instead of being needlework of at least 250
years ago.

One of the most remarkable large works of this style that exists was
shown in 1881, at the South Kensington Museum, during the Spanish
Exhibition.[349] It was of the kind called "on the stamp." This was a
landscape seen between columns wreathed with flowers and creepers. In
the foreground couched a stag, the size of life--a wonderful
reproduction of the hide of the creature in stitches. The relief is so
high that the columns appear to be circular by the shadows they throw;
and the stag is stuffed so as to be raised about six inches. The work
is superb, and causes pleasure as well as wonder; and yet, in spite of
the beauty of the design, and the richness of the materials--gold,
silver, silk, and wool profusely used--it is a divergence from the
legitimate art of embroidery, and is simply the attempt of the
needlewoman to combine again the arts of sculpture and painting with
the help of so inadequate an implement as the needle. Therefore,
except as being a marvellous and beautiful curiosity, it is a failure;
it is not art.[350]

Practically, cut work is the best mode of arriving at splendid effects
by uniting rich and varied tissues.[351] The Italian curiosity vendors
know this well, and often cut up the remnants and rags of rich stuffs,
old faded silks, and scraps of gold and silver tissues, and with them
copy fine old designs, and sell them as authentic specimens of such
and such a date.

I was once requested to give an opinion as to the date of a curtain
border bought in Italy, and on consideration I gave the following
verdict: "The design is of the sixteenth century; the applied velvet
and gold cord, of the seventeenth century; the brocaded silk ground,
eighteenth century; the thread with which the whole was
worked--machine-made silk thread (English)--middle of nineteenth
century." The whole effect was excellent, and very antique.

This art of "application" is the distinctive part of the "opus
consutum," and it is the best and most economical method for
restoration of old embroideries, of which the grounding material is
generally worn out long before the stitches laid upon it. Much
beautiful work has thus been rescued from annihilation, and restored
to use from its long imprisonment in the boxes and drawers of the
garret and store-room. But