uching down gold thread is obtainable in
various colours. It is called horsetail or sewings, and is both fine and
strong.

Padding for use in raised gold work is usually yellow, and for silver,
white or grey. Yellow soft cotton, linen thread, or silk, are all used
for the purpose.

Various precautions can and must be taken to keep the gold thread
bright, for under unfavourable circumstances it rapidly assumes a bad
colour; the silver thread is even more liable to tarnish than the gold,
and it turns a worse colour, going black. There is a special paper
manufactured to wrap threads in, and the stock supply should be kept in
a tin or air-tight bottle; this is in order to protect the metal from
damp, which is most injurious; to do this is a difficult matter in the
English climate. Linen used for working upon, or as backing, is best
unbleached, for sometimes the chemicals used in the bleaching process
have a deleterious effect upon the gold; a piece of gold embroidery
wrapped up in cotton wool for preservation has been found completely
spoiled by some chemical in this wool, which proved more disastrous than
exposure to air would have been. Gas, strong scents, handling
(especially with hot hands), all have an evil effect, and so should be
avoided as much as possible. Work even whilst in progress should be kept
covered as much as is practicable, and should not be allowed to hang
about; the quicker it is done the better. A piece of finished work can
be polished up with a leather pad or a brush, similar to a housemaid's
brush for silver-cleaning purposes; this of course, must be used with
care.

ANCIENT METHOD OF COUCHING

Gold thread can be couched on to the material in two distinct ways, one
of them in use at the present day, the other one that was commonly
practised in the XIIIth and XIVth centuries. About the second half of
the last-named century the earlier method was supplanted by the present
one. Almost every example of early gold thread work exhibits this
obsolete and ingenious method of couching. The Syon cope and the Jesse
cope in the Victoria and Albert Museum may be mentioned as famous
examples. M. Louis de Farcy[11] draws especial attention to this
beautiful method of working, to which he gives the name _point couche
rentre ou retire_, and strongly urges its revival; he points out many
distinct advantages it has over the method now in use.

The durability is very great, owing to the couching thread being upo