it is cruel to transfer historical or
typical works, and so puzzle the artist and the historian.

It is so troublesome to embroider on velvet or plush, or gold tissues,
that application is the easiest and most effective mode of dealing
with these fabrics.[352] The outlines laid down in cord have the best
effect, while binding the edges and securing them from fraying, and it
is almost certain that the eye receives most pleasure, in flat art,
from a defined outline, which satisfies it; where there are no cast
shadows, it lifts the work from the background, and separating the
colours, it enhances their beauty. It would appear, however, as a
rule, that either black or gold metal should invariably be employed,
because they do not interfere with any colour they approach. White is
distracting and aggressive. The Greeks sometimes used gold colour
instead of gold, as we see in the mantle from the Crimea already
referred to; but this is not nearly so agreeable to the eye as pure
gold.

A great deal of modern "opus consutum," or application cut work, has
been done in Constantinople of late years. The designs in general, are
not artistic; nor are the colouring and materials very commendable.
The onlaid material is, in general, sewn down with chain stitches, and
cut out afterwards.

_Part 7._

LACE.--OPUS FILATORIUM OR ARANEUM.

Mrs. Palliser says that from the earliest times the art of lace-making
has been so mixed up with that of needlework, that it is impossible to
enter upon the one without naming the other. This is, in fact, what
she has done, showing the intimate connection between the two in her
charming work on lace, where much information about embroideries in
general, may be found in the introduction.[353]

M. Blanc also considers that there is but a slight transition between
embroidery and guipure, which he says was the first lace.[354] As all
the earliest specimens and designs for guipure were Venetian, the art
was, therefore, probably an Italian invention, though an Oriental
origin has sometimes been attributed to it. The objection to this last
theory is that we find no ancient specimens, and no modern
continuation of such work in the East.

The word "guipure" is a stumbling-block. It has been applied to many
forms in the varying art of lace-making; which same variableness has
caused its nomenclature to assume the terms belonging to other textile
arts where they approach or touch each other, (as in netting, f